Back at the Rodeo, some weeks ago now, we were in the middle of a VERY difficult environment for photography. Between the low light, the distance, and the fast action, it was a tough shoot for sure. Things were compounded by the manual focus on the lens I was using for most of the pictures, sadly, a lot of my shots are a bit on the blurry side.
Luckily, what they lack in photographic finesse, many of them make up in content. I caught some pretty cool shots... I just wish they were prettier! The above two photos are from the formation riding team, and I have to say I was impressed at their daring and skill. Galloping horses around at top speed and doing formations, in the dark at times, is a calling few are prepared for.
Next up was calf roping, and again the sheer speed of the event made things hard, though I think this shot conveys that pretty well.
This photograph from the Bull "Fight" (basically a clown running away from the large, angry bovine) has to be one of my favorites of the whole night. There is one man IN the barrel, the other guy, the actual "fighter" just jumped off the top of the barrel and is in the process of leaping over said angry bovine. Now THAT takes guts, and a good set of legs. Sadly this is one of the out of focus shots that no amount of post production work can really save.
The barrel racers tried hard, but it seemed that perhaps they thought the goal was to
hit the barrels rather than avoid them!
The finale was of course the bull-riders, and those guys just have to be given a round of applause. Avoiding an angry bovine just makes sense, but strapping yourself to the back of an animal that large that really, really, doesn't want your there? I'm not sure if thats courageous or just plain stupid.
As a parting shot I took a few snaps of a power plant, a nice change from the high speed world of bucking broncos and an opportunity to use my poor neglected tripod.
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