One of the unexpected highlights of our trip out to Grand Teton National Park was we got to shoot at The Jackson Hole Rodeo. I have been to many rodeos in Texas and a few here in Alabama, but this small town Wyoming rodeo was as real as it gets!
We actually went to the rodeo two nights, but the first night we were misinformed of the start time and only got to shoot for about 30 minutes before the rodeo ended. The second night we got our information straight and got there before it started. The rodeo started during the daylight and ended under a lit arena at night. Keeping shutter speeds up to stop the action was a challenge once the sun dropped. I shot in Aperture Priority @ 2.8 all night long. Then I adjusted my ISO higher and higher as the light got worse to get as fast a shutter speed as I could. The later it got, the slower the shutter speeds got.
We got to see a ton of great events, riders and competitors. The night started out with the first round of bull riding. By the time the opening ceremonies had completed, the light had started to fade badly. I was already shootig at ISO 1600 for these shots. This gave me a shutter speed around 1/640th. Not ideal, but close enough for me to be happy.
This is a shot of the bull coming out of the chute. We were seated directly across from the chutes, and I was shooting with a 70-200mm lens.
Here’s a shot showing the bullfighters earning their checks!
The next event was the team roping event. Where I was sitting I was so close I could only photograph one member of the team. I chose the header. I didn’t want to lose our seats for the other events, so I was too afraid to move.
A shot of one of the header ropers. Light was getting worse now. Shutter speeds had dropped to 1/500th. That was still suitable to me at this point.
Next up was the bronc riding competition. I think I enjoyed this more than the bulls. The broncs would come straight out of the chutes right at us, which allowed for some great opportunities.
Some of the bronc riders. Shutter speeds had really fallen now. These shots were both at 1/200th.
I’m not real sure what event happened after this because something else awesome happened! Kind of a long story, but I’ll give you the short of it. The guy I was shooting with had left and came back with two girls. One of the girls had a DSLR and was asking us a few questions about it. A few moments after the girls were at our seats one of the bronc riders showed up. I take it he was with one of the girls. Then he offered to take us all behind the chutes to get a closer look at the action. We were stoked!
Action shots from behind the chutes weren’t so great for bull or bronc riding, simply because we were too stinking close to the action and the only lens I had was the 70-200. So, I took a few random shots.
You probably can’t tell clearly, but in this shot the bull rider’s helmet has a sticker on it that says “Bullistic”. That is awesome!
The event that turned out to be the most rewarding from behind the chutes was the barrel racing. After the horses and riders rounded the first barrel they pretty much came running directly at us. This gave us some great chances at getting some nice shots. Shutter speeds were even worse now. These were somewhere around 1/125th, which is why some parts are blurred.
I loved this little lady’s facial expression!
This little girl was too darling! She couldn’t have been more than 4 years old. Tiny in the saddle, but she rode that horse for all it had!
Since the shutter speeds had fallen drastically, I decided to use that to my advantage and do some panning with the barrel racers as they headed back to the finish line. This is the stretch where they really let the horses run!
The shutter speed for this shot was 1/100th. The panning along with the horse and rider allowed me to have sharp focus on the rider while showing the motion of the horses legs moving.
Well, we had a super blast at the rodeo! It was an event I will never forget. I certainly hope I can catch another one again…but it won’t be soon enough!
One Comment
cool shots!!