It is hard to believe this is Legit Outdoors’ first rodeo of the year! I had so much fun capturing all of the rough stock action. It was a long night with roughly 100 head of stock bucked.
Let’s talk about something as a spectator you may not notice, or if you do you may be curious about. This event hired two photographers due to lack of communication between the committee and the contractor hosting the event. The most important thing as a photographer is to make sure there is an understanding between the two and make sure that we both understand the situation.
The other photographer had set up a booth and staked out their spot early. They got the prime spot to capture the “typical” shots, directly in front of the chute. I was a little discouraged at first as I had a plan to set up strobes and get some great shots. Now I had to move onto plan B.
I searched around the arena for a good place to set up that I could still get good photos that wouldn’t be the same as the other photographer. I found a spot on the side and gave myself a task for my shots. I pushed myself to get out of the box. I began only focusing on the rider instead of the whole shot. I of course didn’t love it at first, but as it went on I began to enjoy it.
After the first performance I decided I was going to shoot from above to get some more shots completely different. I relied on the other photographer to get the front shots and I let my creative side loose and got some super fun shots.
I will say the only downside I found was wanting to have the strobes set up. My photos have a graininess I had to embrace. The moral of my long story is as a photographer it is important to be able to stray fro your original plan. Embrace the negatives, embrace the issues that may come up and create something like you never have before. So without further-ado, here is a gallery of some of my favorite shots!
Find all of your photos here: https://www.zenfolio.com/legitoutdoors/e2/f876669348
My next adventure will be heading to Guthrie, Oklahoma for some team roping. Stay tuned!