Scottsdale Rodeo 10 March 2024

The Scottsdale Rodeo Sunday edition came as it did the last several years from Westworld, an indoor arena.   If you have ever been to a rodeo, you know there is a lot of pageantry, especially at the start.

Kiana Martinez

Country music recording artist Kiana Martinez sang some original tunes, then sang the National Anthem to get things started.   

And the American flags.

 

And here comes the horse stock!

Eight seconds seems easy but hard to do.

My two favorite events are barrel racings and bull riding and they are traditionally at the end of the rodeo.   

Barrel racing shows off the skills of the lady cowboys.   It's timed, and it costs 5 seconds if they knock over a barrel.   

Bull riding scores are more a judgment.  50% on the skills of the cowboy.  50% on the athleticism of the bull.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

For images from the Scottsdale Rodeo, click HERE

Legends Rough Stock Series in Cave Creek 24 March 2024

Riders line up to be introduced

The first stop on the Legends Rough Stock Series was Cave Creek Arizona at the memorial arena on 24 February 2024.  "Legends" as in older cowboys, usually 40+ who have won some during their careers.

Even the fans look authentic

This wasn't a complete rodeo.   The focus here was on the big animals... horses and bulls.   

I've photographed many times at the Cave Creek arena.  I usually sit on the top row and capture images with my Canon EOS R6 Mark II and Canon RF 100-400mm lens.

This is a dangerous sport!

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

For images from the Legends Rough Stock Series in Cave Creek, click HERE

Wickenburg and Team Roping at Rancho Rio 29 January 2022

Less than an hour to my northwest is the little town of Wickenburg, Arizona.  And Rancho Rio is the world capital of team roping, which is why I came up... to photograph some team ropers.

But first, it was time for breakfast and the choice this day was the Horseshoe Cafe.

Before that, I parked in front of Anita's Cocina and saw an interesting display window.   Next time, I'll visit wearing my Trump hat! 

Then it was off to Rancho Rio and fun photographing team roping.    

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click on the Image Below to See All My Images from Wickenburg

Friday Night at the Buffalo Chip in Cave Creek

Friday night and Cave Creek, especially the Buffalo Chip, is OPEN!   

It's time to enjoy some bull riding with hundreds of my closest unmasked friends.

Sadly, the "Chip" sold out of VIP tickets, but I hear that is common.   So a bunch of us sat in the bleachers.   Still saw some find action.   

The photo on the right:  a little cowboy pulling up his britches like the big cowboys.  

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below to see all the images from the bull riding at the Buffalo Chip in Cave Creek, Arizona…

Team Roping in Wickenburg Arizona

It was a beautiful Saturday 20 March 2021 in Wickenburg, Arizona, home of team roping.

Team ropers came out in numbers chasing some real money in the event.   

It was wall-to-wall horses, calves, cowboys, and cowgirls.  And they made enough room for me to capture it all.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below of Leo to see all the images from team roping from Wickenburg....

Bonus Photos....  I noticed a sunflower growing in my front yard.   

Bull Riding at the Buffalo Chip 10 March 2021

The Buffalo Chip in Cave Creek Arizona has opened up bull riding again but just on Wednesday nights.   It was a lovely night 10 March to enjoy bull riding and the company of others wanting a good time, too.   And I've found the best perch for me is the VIP section.

Of course, the sport of bull riding and all the participants and fans are patriotic, so it did not begin until the flag and national anthem were played, as it should be.

Although there were quite a number of riders, not one went the mandatory eight seconds.  

To the left is my favorite image of the night.  That will tell you how close we were to the action in the VIP section.  

Bull riding is a dangerous sport.  Although I think the cowboy hat looks nice, the helmet helps protect a rider's head better.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below to see all the images from the Buffalo Chip's Bull riding....

Cave Creek Rodeo 2 April 2017

I photographed the Cave Creek Rodeo finals on Sunday 2 April.  This made it seven years in a row I photographed this wonderful PRCA Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association sanctioned event. 

The Cervi people provided the four legged stock athletes (animals).   The two legged cowboy and cowgirl athletes were the other half of the event.

I really respect this sport and the athletes.  It’s dangerous and these folks have to do well in these events to make a living.  If a cowboy or cowgirl gets a penalty or no score, they are out and must go to the next rodeo for another try.

Country artist super star Garth Brooks put it best in his hit “Rodeo” about how really hard this sport and life are!  Part of the lyrics goes like this,

Well it’s bulls and blood
It’s dust and mud
It's the roar of a Sunday crowd
It's the white in his knuckles
The gold in the buckle
He'll win the next go 'round

Take a good look at how these cowboys and cowgirls “bring it” in the finals.  By the way, rodeo clown Justin “Rumpshaker” Rumford was funny too!

Until My Next Adventure, 

(Country Thunder) 

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

Photos from Flickr ... and, here are all the keeper photos!

Parada Del Sol Rodeo Scottsdale 12 March 2017

This is one of my favorite rodeos, commonly called the Scottsdale Rodeo.  The venue is Westworld, an indoor arena, so at least no worries of a sunburn on this sunny Sunday in March.  Plus, it was air conditioned.

On the negative side, for photographers, was the mixed natural and fluorescent lighting.   And, that type of lighting always looks bright to the naked eye, but for the camera it isn't.  I had to compromise between shutter speed and the needed high ISO.  I was around 2500 ISO and a shutter speed from 1/160th to 1/200th of a second.  And the f/stop was as wide open as I could get.  So... I had to watch for grain in photos and maybe some unwanted motion blur.  I shot with a Canon 5D Mark IV and a Tamron 28-300mm lens.

We got to the arena quite early and was delighted to see a pre-event, ladies and gentlemen horseback target shooting.  The shooting made for a smokey arena, but this was fun to watch and it seemed to me the ladies did an overall better job of it!

What would a rodeo be without clowns?  I've always thought the clowns were some of the hardest working people in rodeo.  They are there to entertain but also distract angry animals away from cowboys.    

The ladies of rodeo put on what I consider to be my second favorite event:  barrel racing.  Now, this is a sad sight.  A barrel that goes down costs 5 seconds on the total time.  This young lady knocked down two this day so she was out of the running

This fellow rounds up buffalo and gets them on top of that trailer.  Magnificent creatures!

Probably not a good idea to play "horsey" with these big animals either!

Until My Next Adventure, 

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

Photos from Flickr ... and, here are all the keeper photos!

Cave Creek Pro Rodeo - 3 April 2016

This was the fifth straight Cave Creek Rodeo I’ve photographed.  There is something about rodeos that I really enjoy attending and photographing.  It’s the cowboys and cowgirls.  It’s the volunteers who work so hard at this… believe me, it takes a ton of folks to pull this off.  It’s the rodeo clowns and the judges and the fans that ask for it all.  

The Cave Creek arena is about perfect for me.  For the best angles and to stay out of the way of fans in back of me, I waaaay back in the last row.  It’s a much smaller arena than the Tucson Rodeo uses.  I like that.   It’s easy to get to, easy to park, everything is right there.  Plenty of beer and hot dogs so I was happy.  

A smaller arena meant I could get away with using a smaller lighter lens.  For the second half of the rodeo, I used a Tamron 28-300mm.  For the first half, I used a beast of a lens, the Tamron 150-600mm hand held.  Yes, hand held.  It’s designed to be used on a tripod or monopod.  I made it though.!  

Given we were in bright sunlight, I shot mostly at ISO 100 and tried to keep the shutter to about 1/800 to 1/1000 of a second.  

The feature of every rodeo seems to be the last event, bull riding.  Now I do love eight seconds of hell on top of such a beast, but the ladies event, the barrel racing, might be my all time favorite.  Wow, they were good.  One young lady looked to be competitive, but knocked down two barrels so the penalty seconds took her out of the money. 

Until My Next Adventure, 

(Country Thunder!)

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson




...and, here are all the keeper photos!

Tucson Rodeo February 2016

A beautiful February day in the upper 70s greeted fans out to see the Tucson Rodeo, or La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, or Festival of the Cowboys.

Since my college days, I’ve gone to this professional rodeo the most. 

I remember very cold rodeo days, and the last one I photographed in 2011 was downright windy, making lens changes especially difficult.

Before the big girls and boys competed, the young ones came out.  I might have enjoyed the young ones most of all.  The little ones gave it their all in riding sheep.  And, the one rodeo event for the ladies is barrel racing.  Note the little girl with her blonde hair straight out as she rode hard around the barrels. 

Maybe one of my favorite shots of the day was the lady holding the sheep on a leash, with the other sheep waiting nearby.

I shot with a Canon 5D Mark III body using a Tamron 28-300mm lens and a Manfrotto tripod for a bit more stability.  I did use at times a 1.4x Tamron extender.  I left at home, sadly, a lens I should have used:  the Tamron 150-600mm.  I ended up having to crop most of my shots.  I processed them using Lightroom and a few plugins from Macphun:  SnapHeal and Focus along with the plugin called Perfectly Clear.  I took nearly 900 shots and pared it all down to about 67. 

Until My Next Adventure, 

(Cave Creek Rodeo)

See You On Down The Road!

Jim Patterson

Here are all the keeper photos!