Dayton: Bulldog

Again, such a creative title After Helix we headed up to Dayton WA where they were having a Pro-West rodeo It just so happened that the photographer covering the event was Al Berger (prorodeopix.com) who I know from the Association of Professional Rodeo Photographers, but hadn't had the chance to meet in person. He ended up talking my ear off until 12 o clock at night, showed me a couple photography tricks and invited my to come shoot the slack the next morning to try them out. This was actually my first time in the arena dirt (I'm such a newb!!) but Al was great about putting up with me.

Al encouraged me to shoot at 2.8 (I had been shooting at about 5.6 or more since I was worried about softness due to depth of field) and also showed me a custom function that moves the focus off of the shutter release to the Option (*) button. Wow it was a totally different way of shooting but I could really see the difference in focus speed.

This is actually one of the few shots that came out (I just said it was a totally different way of shooting for me! ) but you can really see what the 2.8 does for it.


EDIT 6/29: Oh wow! My first DD!! Thank you so much for all of your comments and s! I appreciate every one of them ;D

To reply to several (snarky) comments, NO ONE, man or animal was hurt. At all. The cowboy ended up getting a decent time (I believe). The steer hopped up and trotted back to the pen where his food and herd mates were waiting...business as usual.

PS: Angelina Jolie wrestles a steer?

My policy on my rodeo images can be found here [link] If you don't like rodeo, you are free not to look! Rude and/or inappropriate comments will not be tolerated.