Almost a week before the Cave Creek Rodeo the Cave Creek Rodeo parade kicks off rodeo season in the area.  

I like to set up early in front of Big Earl's.   If you come early, you get the best seats.   Plus, I always have a breakfast burrito at Earl's.   It's my tradition.

As usual, a big crowd filled the south side of Cave Creek road as the entries went from west to east.   

The parade concluded around Harold's and the Buffalo Chip.

Next for me is photographing the Friday night Cave Creek Rodeo!   

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

For images from the Cave Creek Rodeo Parade, click HERE

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

Cave Creek Rodeo: 27 March 2022 and 26 March 2023

Certainly my favorite rodeo is the one closest to where I live:  The Cave Creek Rodeo.   Another "must see" around the Phoenix area is the Cave Creek Rodeo parade.  I'll post more on that with photos in another blog entry.

One of the crowd favorite events is bull riding.   Riders have to ride for at least 8 seconds or it's a no ride.   Scores come 50% from the cowboy and 50% from the bull.  

Cave Creek is an hour or so east of Wickenburg, the self proclaimed "team roping capital of the world."   Certainly some team ropers come from Wickenburg, but really from all over the USA and Canada.

My second favorite event is barrel racing.  Here, ladies of rodeo take center stage.   Knock over a barrel, and add a five second penalty to the final score.  The idea is to get around three barrels and then race to the finish line.   It's electronic timing.  Passing through the beam starts the clock; passing through the exit stops the clock.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

All images from 27 March 2022 HERE

All images from 26 March 2023 HERE

Wickenburg Arizona Gold Rush Days Parade and Senior Pro Rodeo - 12 February 2022

 

Wickenburg is a city about an hour northwest of Phoenix.   They bill themselves as the world capital of team roping and from October to April, there are lots of arenas showcasing just that.

The Gold Rush Days parade is in the morning.   It features horses, carriages, clowns, cars, and more.   

For information on future Gold Rush days parade and Senior Pro Rodeo just click on the photo on the left! 

This might be the biggest parade in Arizona.  It's got a real small town feel.   It reminds me of the parades I remember, especially on the 4th of July, in Concord, a small town in south central Michigan.  

Wickenburg is a small town with small town values and I like it. We got to Wickenburg early, stopped at the Horseshoe Cafe for a big breakfast, then walked over to a good viewing site.   We left our chairs there and I asked a local if it was ok to leave our chairs...  He was a bit surprised at my question and said.. most of these chairs were set up last night.  In other words, nobody will steal them.  

Right after the parade, it was time to make our way to the rodeo arena for the afternoon competition.   By the way, rodeo folks are very patriotic, and that's a good thing obviously.   

Bull riding seems to be the most popular event.   If there are lots of contestants, you might find the rodeo that day will open with bull riding and conclude with bull riding.  Most rodeos I've seen put the bull riding at the end of the day.   And before the bull riding, you'll see the ladies of rodeo in barrel racing. 

 

It's a pretty simple event to watch.  The lady rider will enter from one side of the arena, tripping the electronic timer.  She has three barrels to get around.  Knock over a barrel and it's a five second penalty. Typical scores are 17 seconds and up.  I've seen faster, though.  

That's a quick view on the Wickenburg Arizona Gold Rush Days parade and senior pro rodeo.  By the way, there are always a few participants in this rodeo in their 60s and 70s!  

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click HERE to see parade images.   And, click HERE for rodeo images!

 

Cave Creek Rodeo Finals 30 May 2021

Finally!  After over a year without fans, the Cave Creek Rodeo in Arizona opened to fans.  The stands were FULL and not a mask or muzzle in sight. 

I was in the Stockman's Club and took my perch high up in the last row.   I captured images with a Canon EOS R6 and a Tamron 100-400.   I rarely needed anything beyond 200mm so I could have used the Tamron 70-200mm.

The Servi Brothers of Colorado again supplied the stock.   They were very lively rodeo stock, too.   

The Cave Creek Rodeo featured seven events.  Steer wrestling, bareback riding, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie down roping, the ladies of barrel racing, and the popular bull riding.   

One of the interesting contestants came in the saddle bronc riding event.  Nathan Urie of Ferron, Utah was born with only a right arm!   He didn't make the eight second mark, but stayed on for a good six seconds.

Final standings for the Cave Creek Rodeo are HERE.

Post processing in Lightroom.  Sometimes in Luminar ai.   My new pre-processing takes my raw files into Adobe Camera Raw and then use the new "enhance" feature.   This cleans up any noise and also dramatically increases the size of the image so I can crop with confidence.   Then I take those new enhanced raw dng files into DxO's new PureRaw for final clean up.  

My settings for a night rodeo were shutter speed of 1/800, wide open aperture, auto white balance, and auto ISO.  I was impressed with the auto white balance.  I did not need to change white balance in Lightroom.   

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Click the photo below for all of my Cave Creek Rodeo images!

AND, my narrated video on YouTube!  

*** Have you tried Luminar ai yet?   It's what I use.  Click HERE to find out more!

*** I have consistently saved money through Greentoe.  For me, I always check prices for camera lenses and equipment.  Shipping is free and often they pay the tax!  Click HERE to get started.

Scottsdale Parada del Sol Rodeo 8 March 2020

The Scottsdale Parada del Sol rodeo finals was held at Westworld on Sunday 8 March.  The all-around top cowboy was JC Mortensen for bareback riding and bull riding. Here are the full results from the rodeo finals. 


Events included bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, the ladies of barrel racing, and bull riding.  In addition to the rodeo clown, lady trick riders and ropers entertained and they were GOOD!   
   
In my opinion, the very easiest event for the fan to understand is barrel racing.   Three barrels to get around.   Knock any over and suffer a 5 second penalty.   And everything is electronically timed.  The lady and horse with  the fastest score wins.  

Westworld is an indoor arena with mixed artificial and natural light.   Although to the naked eye the arena looks well lit, it's a different challenge for a photographer.   Photos right out of the camera have a very decidedly orange tint.   The best white balance I found was fluorescent.  Because of the camera-weak lighting, I had to often use a very high ISO of 6400 or more.   Post processing in Lightroom, sometimes also in Luminar 4, and a few in Simplify 4. 


Next rodeo up for me is the Cave Creek Rodeo at the end of March.

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Here's a slideshow of all of my photos.... ENJOY!

Lost Dutchman Rodeo 1 March 2020

February and March means rodeo season in Southern and Central Arizona.    

Sunday 1 March was the finals of the Lost Dutchman Rodeo in Apache Junction, Arizona, just a short drive east from the Phoenix metropolitan area.   The rodeo grounds are in the shadow of the Superstition Mountains and the legend that there is a fortune in lost gold nearby.

It was our first visit to this rodeo.  It's a long ride from north north Phoenix, so I was hoping it would be good.   Here's a nice surprise.  All lathered up for the sun, I find the stands are in the shade!   No complaints here.   

And what I've come to expect from rodeos, the friendliest people around!   And, of course, very patriotic.

Most of the rodeos I've photographed have one ladies event, barrel racing.  At the Lost Dutchman Rodeo, add to that ladies breakaway (the rope breaks off as soon as its roped) calf roping.   I haven't seen that event in many years.  Now I hear our Cave Creek Rodeo at the end of March will have two events for the women, too.

Next rodeo up in the area is the Parada del Sol Scottsdale Rodeo, then the Cave Creek Rodeo.

All images captured with a Canon EOS R and Tamron 100-400mm lens.  Post production in Lightroom and a few paintings produced with Simplify 4.   

Until My Next Adventure,

See you on down the road,

Jim Patterson

Here's a slideshow of all of my photos.... ENJOY!

Cave Creek Rodeo 24 March 2019

The Cave Creek Rodeo in Arizona has to be the best small PRCA sanctioned rodeo in North America.  I've photographed this rodeo for about ten or more straight years and it is an absolute joy.  The best group of folks around.  

Images were made with a Canon EOS R and Canon 70-200mm lens.  Post processing in Lightroom and Photolemur.

Usually bull riding comes last.  This time around for this finals event they started with bull riding, part one, and ended with bull riding part two.  Kind of an interesting way to do it.  There's a lot of tradition involved in rodeo and I have to think people like things the way it's always been done, but this worked out well.  

The bulls were especially nasty today as I don't remember more than one cowboy sticking around past eight seconds. Somebody did.  The all-around cowboy was JC Mortensen, winning $1,858 for bareback riding and bull riding. 

The featured event is always bull riding.  But before that the ladies of rodeo perform at barrel racing.  And what a show they put on!  








Here's a complete list of Cave Creek Rodeo winners.  And great professional stock was again supplied by the Cervi Brothers.  

And the Cave Creek Rodeo ends with the horse stock running around the arena.  

I've also posted the Sunday finals photos on Flickr and on my portfolio site on SmugMug.

See ya soon!!!

Until My Next Adventure,

See You On Down the Road!

Jim Patterson

... And here's a slideshow from the Cave Creek Rodeo!

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.