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

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

Barrel Racing in Wickenburg's Rancho Rio 15 April 2021

I've photographed team roping at Rancho Rio in the past, so I was familiar with the arena.   A great ride of less than an hour from my Phoenix home.   

Barrel racing is one of the main events the ladies participate in at rodeos.   They bring a lot of passion and skill to the sport.

The town of Wickenburg is just a bit up the way from Rancho Rio.  It has a very welcoming western flavor.   And, the area is somewhat cooler than Phoenix.  I checked the weather and the high in Phoenix on the 15th wa 81 and the high in Wickenburg was 77.  

Enjoy the views around barrel racing this day!

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

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

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.   

Team Roping at Rancho Rio in Wickenburg

Did you know Wickenburg, Arizona is the capital of team roping?  I didn’t.  Last Saturday I went to Rancho Rio in Wickenburg to find out what was going on.  

It was qualifying time on Saturday 14 April and there was money at stake.  These folks put up their own money to enter and hopefully can get some of that back and more. 

I’m used to photographing rodeos where team roping is one of the many events.  There’s just team roping here.  And there is an association involved in team roping, too.  It’s the NTR or National Team Roping.  

A surprise and a pleasant one that that is that many of the two person teams included women!  I’m guessing father/daughter, husband/wife teams.  And I suspect I saw some father/son teams, too.

The finals of the 14 April event are here!

If you want to learn more about team roping and the culture around it, the Team Roping Journal called the Phoenix area a team roping paradise.  Some of these people are transplanted from other areas of the country, come out to visit Rancho Rio, and eventually make it their part or full time home.

The good news for me is that from the north side of Phoenix, it’s a short under an hour drive.  

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

… and all the photos!

Late addition:

I took five of my images and did some selective coloring.  I hope you enjoy.

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!