Photo(s) of the Day

 Photo of the Day - North Washington Rodeo

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As mentioned in a prior post, my night at the rodeo was not everything I had hoped for. The magical, beautiful light was all gone by the time the action began and I am not particularly equipped for low-light, high-action sports. However I did get a bit lucky. There is something wonderful to me about the arena lighting spotlighting horse and rider in this sequence of shots, making them the photos of the day and my favorite shots from the event.

North Washington Rodeo - pt.2

Saddlebronc

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Stay tuned...later this week we'll wrap up the rodeo blog with a short "Photo of the Day" series - my favorite series of shots from the rodeo.

North Washington Rodeo - pt. 1

This summer I dragged hubby Rod to the North Washington Rodeo. These kinds of events aren't really his thing but he was a good sport and tried to be interested. He kept me good company.

The primary reason I wanted to go was because I was hoping to get some awesome rodeo shots. I was hoping for crazy action shots with a cloud of backlit dust behind the subject, sweat pouring from beast and man, pensive cowboy portraits shot during the "magic hour" of light before sunset. Let's just say that wasn't going to happen. When I got there and saw that the grounds were set in a bit of a valley (meaning natural light was growing dimmer sooner than expected), I had restricted access and didn't get behind the scenes to get those great pensive shots, and there was about 40 minutes of pre-main event festivities eating up the beautiful light I was hoping to have available for the saddle bronc riding and barrel racing. By the time the cowboys came out, the sun was over the horizon. Oh well... you gotta work with what you're given, right?

As mentioned in the previous post...you can't make a great photo out of something that isn't there. But, you can get good photos simply by being interested in what's going on. So...here are some of my favorite shots from our little outing. We'll make a little series out of it. These photos are some of the pre-event festivities.

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Simplicity

I often find myself over analyzing a potential photograph trying to determine its merits and flaws. I look at the background behind the subject and try to eliminate unsightly distractions like signs and power lines, or a tree sticking out of a person's head. This can be a good thing and save you a lot of editing time if you get it right in the camera. Sometimes though you'll miss the shot by being too picky. Sometimes you might be pleasantly surprised that the object you thought would detract from the picture actually enhances it. I'm learning that while you can't always make a great photo out of something that isn't there, you can usually get a great photo by letting what's there interest you. I think there's a life lesson in there somewhere.

These photos may be some of the most hurried and thoughtless images I've captured. I remember I was visiting my parents and headed out the door to try to photograph deer and groundhogs before the sun set too far over the horizon. I'm not sure why I was drawn to these doves on the power lines, but there was something simplistic about the silhouettes and lines that drew me in. After looking through so many photos that are loaded with multiple points of interest like textures, colors, composition, and emotion it's calming to see something just so simple and clean.

(Click photos to enlarge)