My two assignments today were to cover steer roping at Frontier Park and the opening day of Fort D.A. Russell Days at F.E. Warren Air Force Base. It was only two assignments, but it spanned most of the day from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. I shot a lot of general rodeo action at steer roping then headed back behind the chutes to hunt for features. Originally, I was looking for a wide shot of the horses leaving the chute, but I ended up shooting a feature of some kids playing around behind the chute (second photo). I spent the rest of the day out at the base shooting the Fort D.A. Russell Days event. It was tough because it was the opening day so there weren’t many people – and by people I mean spectators – there. I stuck around for a while until some people started filtering in after noon. I caught a British soldier re-enactor getting a face full of musket smoke. Score.
Cheyenne Frontier Days
Cheyenne Frontier Days: a stable moment
Cheyenne Frontier Days tie down roping
Today I spent all of the morning shooting tie-down roping out at Cheyenne Frontier Days. Going to modify the plan I put forth yesterday by posting two photos instead of just one. Here are two of my favorite frames out of the 3381 frames I shot today.
Cheyenne Frontier Days barrel racing
Although Cheyenne Frontier Days doesn’t officially start until Friday, I shot my first rodeo event today. It was the “first go-round” for the women’s barrel racing. I photographed it with my boss Mike, who was stationed down on the ground level. This allowed me to roam a bit in the stands and look for an angle that gave me a clean look at the action with a clean background. The light was pretty harsh most of the day, but it diffused out with some cloud cover later after noon. This was my favorite frame. Given that the craziness will soon ensue, I’m planning on just posting a single image for every day I work from now until the end of CFD. I’ll be posting daily edits on our company blog, ShutterSpeed, and I will do a “best of” post at the end of the rodeo. Yippie ki-yay.