Cave Creek Rodeo 1 April 2012

These are photos from the 1 April 2012 finals of the Cave Creek Arizona professional rodeo.  Now I’m a veteran of the Fiesta de los Vaqueros (Festival of the Cowboy) pro rodeo in Tucson, but the Cave Creek rodeo is pretty darn good.  One thing I like is the arena is smaller; there just isn’t a bad sight line for fans and photographers!

I got lucky this time around as Traci Casale of the board of directors got my students and me into the arena with media badges and a bit of a discount on tickets.  My perch as next to the announcer, right above the broncos and bulls. 

This was a daytime event.  Although we had more than enough light, the biggest problem a photographer has to deal with is shadows.  I found I had to spend a good amount of time in post processing with Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS5 on some of these shots. 

I also experimented on a few photos with HDR toning in Photoshop and Topaz Labs Simplify program.  You might see some here and think, “it looks like a painting.”  That’s the result you can get from these programs. 

I used a Canon 7D with Tamron 70-200mm lens and a Tamron 1.4x (sometimes) extender.  All hand held.  ISO 100 on all shots.  By the way, see why I like rodeo?  Prettiest girls around ride horses it seems.  

Next year, I want to photograph during the night sessions of the rodeo.  Of course, less light and uneven light will prove to be very tricky I’m sure.  I’ll bring my fastest lens and a monopod for more stability.  I’ll no doubt have to shoot in higher ISO, 400 to even 800.

Happy Shooting,

Jim Patterson

Here’s my entire collection of photos from Flickr!