night rodeo

Last week, I visited Cody, WY for business, and took in the night rodeo there. Cody touts itself as the "rodeo capital of the world", since they have rodeo 7 nights a week all summer long.

Some of my captures (all were taken with 70-200L f2.8 IS, most at max ISO as it got dark - lighting was less than ideal - to use a fast enough shutter speed to stop action, so I had to use Neat Image to clean up noise):

Steer-wrestling, where cowboy, horse and steer all take a dive - fortunately, no one was hurt:ts itself as the "rodeo capital of the world", s

Full gallery is here:

http://allenh.zenfolio​.com/p472514235/

Cool shots!

I’ve been there the light is bad! You did better that me, I did not get any keepers.

Thanks, Jason & Jeff, for looking & commenting.

I shot in RAW, so I could "fix" most of the underexposure I had, even when shooting at f2.8, ISO 1600, and between 1/250 and 1/320 of a sec. shutter speed. While there was still ambient light, it wasn't too bad, but once I lost that, all my captures were pretty dark.

If I had it to do over again, I should have been on the OTHER side of the arena; I would have gotten more faces and have been able to show the riders and animals coming out of the chute/gates. I sat in the "Buzzards' Roost", which was closer, but higher up and on the "backside", so I didn't get as many cowboy faces, or any initial bucking out of the gates (for most of the bull rides, it meant I got nothing, b/c they were usually tossed by the 2nd buck).

NIce I really like #1. That one will hurt in the morning.

Ouch on number one! Nice shots given the working conditions.

Thanks, Hammer & manutd.

I'd love to do another one of these, based on what I learned last week.

Only one thing wrong with #1, an its that I did not take it.

Thanks, Dale - I have to take that as high praise (having looked at your gallery of rodeo images - nice work, BTW!).

W-O-W What a Capture!! Hey Allen, I'd slap a watermark across that to try and slow down the thieves. That image is marketable. That's an amazing shot!

That's a seriously good catch on #1!! Did all three of them get up and walk out on their own 2 or 4 feet? Poor little calf, looks like he almost got himself mushed. Great shots!

Playm wrote in post #5829815
W-O-W What a Capture!! Hey Allen, I'd slap a watermark across that to try and slow down the thieves. That image is marketable. That's an amazing shot!

Thanks, playm. I was thinking of contacting the producers of the Cody rodeo, to see if they'd be interested in buying/licensing that image, since it surely promotes the excitement of the rodeo.

CanadianKitKat wrote in post #5830826
That's a seriously good catch on #1!! Did all three of them get up and walk out on their own 2 or 4 feet? Poor little calf, looks like he almost got himself mushed. Great shots!

Thanks, CKK. All 3 got up and walked off on their own. Not often you see cowboy, horse and calf all doing a faceplant at the same time.

#1 is a AWESOME shot...I sure would of love to have taken it...GREAT work!!!

thanks for looking & commenting, feistyfilly. The funny part is, that's the ONLY capture I got from that ride, b/c someone had blocked my view in the aisle as this rider came out of the gate. As they "cleared" the spectator, I got this one and only frame.