Tuesday, September 22, 2015

My First Rodeo

I had never been to a rodeo before. Rozanne and I had been wanting to go to one since we moved to New Mexico, but something always seemed to interfere, schedule-wise. This year, we finally got our chance.

The nice thing about living in Albuquerque is that so much happens here, such as the New Mexico State Fair. Being a state fair in cowboy country, of course they have to feature a rodeo! And it was a good one. We enjoyed it so much, and we’ll be going to more.

We figured that we would be able to get up close to the rail to get some pictures, so we took our all-purpose 24-105mm zooms. We were wrong: All the seats near the front were reserved for VIPs, so we were seated about 8 rows back from the arena. I wonder who all the VIPs were that didn’t show up for the rodeo, since most of the up-close seats were empty for the whole evening.

Despite the poor vantage point, relatively slow lenses, and low light, I got a few decent pictures. None are print-worthy, but it was a fun experience nonetheless.

Here’s some pictures. All were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 25-105mm L set at 105mm for most shots, Auto ISO (usually 3200), f4, 1/250 or so. All are very extreme crops.

Barrel racing requires a well-trained horse and a skilled rider to navigate a course in the shortest time. From what I’ve read, barrel racing at the professional level is limited to women.

As usual, you can click on the pictures to see larger versions....Enjoy! And don't forget to subscribe down at the bottom of the page.



Although there were many other events at the rodeo, we were too far away to get any good pictures. The highlight of the evening comes at the end, with bull riding. It’s very exciting, and dangerous for both the riders and handlers, more commonly known as rodeo clowns.




Few riders made it the entire 8 seconds on a bull to qualify for a score, but it was exciting to watch.




I was amazed at how energetic and agile the bulls were. Whenever I have seen bulls in the past, it was usually from a moving car and the bulls had their heads down and eating grass, which isn't particularly exciting. The rodeo changed my perception.



And it's dangerous! I thought this guy was going to have the bull come down on him with both rear hooves after he was bucked off. The bulls keep bucking and kicking even after the rider is laying on the ground.

Watch how the rodeo clown puts himself in harm's way to protect the rider. Everyone was okay in the end.








Friday, September 11, 2015

Happy and also proud

I am happy to announce that one of my photos won Second Place in the Urban category at the 2015 New Mexico State Fair photography competition! It marks a few "firsts" for me.

I've entered other online contests before, but this is the first "real" competition I have ever entered. The photos were judged by a panel of five persons, all professional photographers that also teach photography at various institutions in New Mexico.

The rules for my entry, which was at the Professional level (meaning that if I have ever earned any money from my photography, even a single penny, made me a "Professional") meant that my print had to framed and glassed. The other levels were Adult Amateur and Youth, which only had to be mounted and matted. Funny, I still don't feel like a Pro.

So it was my first experience getting a photo framed for competition. My first juried show. My first award.

By now, Gentle Reader, you are probably sick of waiting and are itching to see the photo that won. Without further delay, here it is. I call it Rise.

Rise by Todd Hakala

Blogger limits how big I can display it here, so here's a link to 500px where you can see it larger.

Comments by the judges, which I found interesting, were that the slight shadow to the left "wasn't necessary", and that it "screams Urban", which is good, because that was the category I put it in.

I also entered Hoodoo Factory in the Scenic category, and though it scored well enough to be in contention for a ribbon, it didn't win anything. I'm including it here for comparison.

Hoodoo Factory by Todd Hakala

Link to a larger version of Hoodoo Factory on 500px. 

Now that you know that Rise is a Second Place photo, you might be wondering what beat it for First Place. That turns out to be none other than my wife, Rozanne, with her photo Helix. That photo not only won First Place, but also Best of Show, which is quite an honor. She also earned an Honorable Mention for Penitente Morada. I'm very proud of her.

Both Rozanne and I are surprised at our success, being newbies at photo competitions. We are also happy that we purchased our first high-end photo printer that we think contributed to our success at the State Fair. We got an Epson SureColor P800 printer, which is an amazing machine. All of our submitted photos were printed on the P800.