Blossom has early experience with cutting

Blossom, a Doc O Lena Twist x Colena Colena Filly, rehearses her future career by cutting Remy, a Vizsla Pup. She was able to keep him in the working area even after several attempts to cross over into the pasture.

Foal Whisperer?

What is this filly, Blossom, whispering into this colts ear?

A Rousing Game of Water Bottle

My favorite game to play with the vizsla pups at the ranch is "Waterbottle." I give an empty waterbottle to Kiwi, the female and then the chase is on as Remy, the male, does every thing he can to take the water bottle. Kiwi is able to beat him at every turn as long as she does not get into a corner or tight spot.

Eye 2 Eye - Keeping an eye on that cow

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.

Sketching in the Galleries: Cloud Studies

Tonight our Instructor introduced herself as a Botanical and Nature Illustrator. She led us on an indoor field expedition throughthe work of Julian Onderdonk. Our assignment was to find the artists use of clouds and sketch our interpetation of these clouds using tone. I did this on my first sketch and then brought in some use of line to define the similarities and differences in the trees of the landscape and the clouds.

Foal Fun

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.





After a while the filly goes over to a colt new to the pasture and invites him to race. The goal is his dam.

Jazz on Ross

The last weekend of May each year, Chase Bank sponsors Jazz under the Stars on the Ross Avenue yard at the Dallas Museum of Art. Thousands of people gather under the stars setting up, often with quite elaborate table settings, enjoying a variety of jazz bands along with their food and wine, starting the last Thursday of May and lasting through June.

Sketching in the Galleries - Onderdonk Landcape with 3 color palette

Tonight our assignment was to draw a landscape in the Julian Onderdonk exhibit using 3 colors in the color wheel triad. I chose an undated painting entitled Landscape with Coreopsis.

Eye 2 Eye - A Paradox

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.

ACHA Weekend: Select Images

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.


In my review of my behind the scenes images from this show I was drawn to this shot of the lone rider loping in the large roundpen. I thought of Hoppers paintings of that showed isolated figures in urban settings.

ACHA Weekend Cutting - Arena Supervisor

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.

Sketching in the Galleries: Julian Onderdonk

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.

Bluebonnet Stakes Dog show - Costume Class

The winner of the first costume class was Delila the Biker. She is a year old Wire Jack Russell Terrier owned by Jon and LeeAnne White. This was truly one of the best and well planned costumes I saw.

Bluebonnet Stakes Finals Day Dog Show

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

Bluebonnet Stakes 2008

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.
This shot is of Wilds My Thing ridden by Casey Morris and owned by Francie and Bobby Butler. This was one of my best shots of the day.
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.

Cowboy Shooting

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.

New Filly

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.

Sketching in the Galleries: European Landscape in the style of Japanese Print

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.

Super Stakes Non-Pro Semi-Finals

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).

Testing For the Super Stakes Sale

This afternoon I was setting up to photograph the Super Stakes Sales starting tomorrow morning. Someone turned out their horse into the arena permitting me a really good subject to test the breadth of my strobe coverage to the arena. This is a sequence of 3 images as the horse ran around the arena.