I photographed this horse keeping pace with this cow in a cutting competition this past weekend. You can see that this horse has an eye in this cow and is not going to let it get away.
This past Saturday evening I visited the front pasture to see what the foals were up to. After observing for a short while the filly approached me to see what I was up to with that big camera.
After he got used to me spying he wandered around and decided need a good scratch but the fence was the only handy tool.
Since the pasture is right next to the interstate, litter is a constant problem. The filly is doing her part to pick up after the litterbugs.
I was going through the images I took in the ACHA weekend cutting horse show searching for good eye to eye communication between the horse and cow and found this image. See if you can find the paradox in this image. I have to note that there is no digital manipulation done to this image other than cropping and fixing the contrast. I have posted other eye2eye images in this Gallery.
I took this first image as the rider was riding toward the herd in the Cutting Competition. I was drawn to the composition with the horse, boots and spurs, and the lone black cow out of focus in the herd.
During the past week I have been in the Brenham Texas area, this time photographing the ACHA Weekend at Nueces Canyon Ranch. This little pug was constantly patrolling the arena and trailer areas. After watching him over several days I had the opportunity to quickly get down to floor level and take a photo of him on his rounds. He seems to be looking at me with some suspicion. I was told he belonged to one of the employees and was considered the Mascot of Nueces Canyon Ranch.
I missed last week at sketching in the galleries due to my Bluebonnet Stakes shoot, but returned this week to go back to the Julian Onderdonk exhibit. Our assignment was to pick elements from a variety of the paintings and compose our own drawing. The background tree came from one painting while the front tree and fence came from another. The Windmill came from the same as the foreground image but I moved over to the left. The cactus came from separate painting as did the cliffs in on the right hand side of the landscape.
Today was finals day at the Bluebonnet Stakes in Brenham, Texas. In conjuction with the cutting, a Dog Show was held during cattle changes and settling. Classes included best dog under 12 inches, best dog over 12 inches, Costume class for dogs, and Costume Class with dogs show by kids. The image to the upper left is Dr. Janet Bowers coaching a Barbara Sparkmans dog on how they were going to demonstrate cutting. The bottom photo shows the "Trainer" and Dog :cutting the the "cow." See more photos of the dog show in this Gallery
Yesterday we had limited age (3-6yo) classes but today was a regular NCHA show. We started with the Open. Yesterday started with overcast so backlighting was minimal, but today we had a bright morning sky that made photographing difficult, even with strobe. I decided to shoot some side shots so I would not be dealing with the worst of the backlighting.
I have been at the Bluebonnet Stakes in Brenham, Texas for the last few days. Today they were using two arenas and from time to time had to drive another herd across the arena, and I set myself up to photograph this drive.
Sunday after Church I decided to go over the the Cowboy Collections Arena across the creek to see about the all the gunshots I had heard for the past hour. I came to find that there the Cowboy Mounted Shooting was having a show there this weekend. I arrived during a lunch break, but was able to take some photos before I had to leave for the ranch about 1pm. Using my Digital SLR in High Speed mode I was able to actually catch the cowboy and cowgirls firing their sidearms at the balloons, with subsequent fire and smoke. Although there is no actual bullet, the black powder is ejected from the shell and these tiny fragment (much like from a shotgun) are able to reach out quite a ways to pop balloons that are set in a course. I was also amazed by the efficiency of the youth balloon team as they ran out between riders and replaced the balloons in about the time it took the next rider to enter the arena. Additional Cowboy Shooting images may be seen in this Gallery.
Late this last week a new filly arrived. She is by Doc O Lena Twist out of Colena Colena. The star on her head is in the same spot as her sire, but much larger. When I arrived at the ranch today I saw her with her dam in the far NE corner of the pasture, and returned to get the photo of her with her dam. Later that evening I returned to get the photos of her laying in the pasture next to her dam. The other 3 mares in the pasture are allowed no where close to her. Anytime they get close the mare gets between them and the foal and pins her ears and shakes her head.
Today the sketching in the galleries class, our instructor, Michael Tole, took us first to the Asian Art Galleries where we looked at some Japanese Prints and how they use line and shading to show depth, without reflecting the true direction of lighting. When then moved to the 18th Century European Galleries where we picked an painting to draw in the style of the Japanese Prints. I picked a landscape by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1775) and focused on the castles, trees, and mountains.
Mark Pearson rides Runs With Scissors (by Smart Mate)..
Chad Bushaw rides Cats Ruby (a High Brow Cat mare).
Will Arthur rides Crossing Red River (a Hes A Peptospoonful Gelding).
This weekend I went by the new Cowboy Collection Arena in Terrell, TX to scout out some equine photography opportunities and found the new Texas Ranch Sorting organization started by Gary Ivie. I had photographed this event before at a nearby arena, but this new venue is truly spectacular, with nice bright lighting and minimal backlighting to permit action photography in ambient light conditions. These two images are of Gary Ivie sorting from two different points of view. Additional images are available in this Web Gallery.
Tonight my vote from last week led us to the Onderdonk Exhibit. I was interested in exploring the landcape in drawing. The challenge was to convert a color painting into a monochrome drawing. After searching the exhibit I found this undated landscape by Julian Onderdonk which was probably of the Texas Hill Country south of Fredericksburg, Texas. I started the drawing by blocking in the shapes with a stick of graphite and came back with my eraser to define the highlights. I finished the drawing with pencil defining the trees, rocks and foreground features.
This pasture I wandered through the pasture with my pinhole. I goal on this trip intially was to get eye level pinhole images of some of the pasture wildflowers. On this particular trip I took along the pups for excercise and you will see them in a couple of the images in the project web gallery. Images also include Ivy on Cottonwood, Additional Paintbrush Images, Pool in Pasture, Mare images taken from ground level, and an abandoned barn image.
One evening last week I wandered down to the lower pasture just about dusk to see what was up. The current residents of this pasture are two geldings in their early 20's and a yearling colt and filly. I found them at the very bottom of the pasture. The two youngsters and my horse, squirt, were grazing together. Badger was at the very bottom grazing by himself. I caught him here rolling to get the early spring mosquitos off.
Junior, the colt noticed that I was on the fence and came over to see what I was doing. The filly was close by but did not come over. Squirt rarely comes to the fence. He stayed and grazed on the fresh greens. Squirt and Badger have been in this lower pasture for about a year now. One of these days I am going to have to bring my tack to the ranch and see if I can catch Squirt and ride. After a bit the mosquitoes got too bad so everyone decided to head back up the hill, get a drink, and spend the night in upper part of the pasture where the mosquitoes were not quite so bad.
Almost every Thursday night at the Dallas Museum of Art you will find a crowd gathering for Jazz in the Atrium Cafe. Under the colorful glass flowers of Dale Chihuly a jazz band of local note will assemble to present a 2 hour program of jazz. Throughout the adjacent galleries he music will reviberate entertaining guests viewing the art as well as those enjoying the food and beverage in the Atrium Cafe.
This Filly named Trippen, seems to be shocked that she went for $115,000. She is a Texas Bred Thoroughbred 2YO Race Horse going through the Texas Fasig-Tipton Sale in Grand Prairie, Texas. I have a Gallery with many images taken at the sale, including Sales Prep, Walking Ring, Sale Ring, and Scenic Shots. After I photographed Akiane, A filly consigned by Asmussen Horse Center, sold for $160,000 (image JEA_9113 in the above gallery) I brought out my Pinhole Digital to work on my Ghost Image Series.
The image to the left is one of my favorite of the series. You can see the horse stood for a little while and then moved and stood a while longer leaving 2 ghost images. Additional images of this series can be seen in this Gallery. The bottom image was taken of a handler walking his charge in the Walking Ring. The lack of lens give an ultimate pinhole affect.
