Pot Shots

I took my camera with me to the barn the other evening to snap off a few pot shots of my guys. The arab was much more interested in the greener weeds on the other side of the fence than in posing so I got some "bits 'n' pieces" images.

It was pretty windy so his mane was fun.



He often gets called a camel because he drinks like one (or not) on the trail. I am beginning to wonder if he also has an inner elephant. It seems to be starting to show through in his old age!



Arabian radar...... always attentive!



And for the grand finalé, Dopey, the mustang thing, showing off all his curves while rough-housing with Bisti.

St. Johns, AZ

Who would have ever thought there would be a rated horse trials in tiny St. Johns, AZ. With a population of 3,800, it is a rather small blip on the map, but it is the Southern Apache county seat. It has a nice airport and a super fairgrounds, which, of course, is one of the reasons there is an Area X rated horse trials there.

I love the smaller events like this one. Many of the competitors come a day early to ride and socialize. The overall feeling is just so laid back compared to a large event. It's friendly like a schooling show. The cross country course has been recently rebuilt by Gunther Hardt and Tom Angle and they both come out to the grounds several times before the event to spiff things up and add new jumps. Everyone in town is friendly and happy to see all competitors and fringe visitors which just adds to the relaxed state of the competition. Many of the locals even come out to volunteer!

Even though the event is in late June in Arizona, the location's high elevation keeps the temperatures down some. Well, some of us felt like 91 is an oven, but then those from the Phoenix area reminded us it could be a lot worse! Besides, it was cooler in St. Johns then it was back in my part of the desert in New Mexico. It's just that when I'm home in the summer, I'm IN the home with the a/c during the hottest parts of the day. A Cool Medics vest definitely serves one well in St. Johns with it's low humidity.

The summer evenings there are just divine. Balmy with a great color show. The sunset put on a great display of brilliance every night with just about every color the sky can hold. Like "stop you in your tracks and watch for a while" kind of color show. Best watched while gathered with friends and talking about the rides of the day.

Black and White or Color?

On my way back from Competitive Trail Ride in Arizona, I stopped to take some images of this clay hill formation near Tuba City. The light was very dramatic. I processed the image in color and just for the heck of it I tried it in black and white as well. To me, both are equally satisfying.

Glade Fire

My sis-in-law called, "You know where that little orchard is? The one over the hill from here along Pinon Hills? Well, there's a pretty big fire over there. You can see the flames in the trees along the creek jumping into the air!" So, I drove over there to rubberneck. Camera in tow, of course.

I'm attached to that little area of land. I grew up in that valley and used to ride up the wash under the Cottonwood trees almost every day for years to get out to Chokecherry Canyon. I knew the land owner. I knew the land before 30th street was put in right across the middle of his cattle field. I knew it before Pinon Hills, the northern bypass around town was built. I remember when it there was just a little dirt road that crossed the usually dry wash and went between the cattle field and the alfalfa field. The wash was often damp under the surface during the irrigating season as it was the end of the irrigation ditch. I saw that wash once, as it raged after a rainstorm, bury a truck up to the open windowsills in sand.

That wash helped cultivate my interest in wildlife. It often hosted deer, foxes, coyotes and a multitude of birds. The irrigation ditches around the outside of the alfalfa field (three of them right next to each other) honed my skills in controlling my horse and our trust in each other. We could cross the ditches but you had to jump, stop, jump, stop, jump. The inside ditch was smaller than the other two and the distance between each of them was just barely over a horse length. I remember galloping around the alfalfa field, bareback, in the middle of night in the middle of winter after a fight with my brother. Then I just stopped and laid on her back and watched the clouds go by the full moon. It was cold!

That was long ago. Now that section of land is divided and belongs to the children of the original land owner. I no longer live in that valley so no riding access is needed there anymore. The cattle field, while smaller due to the road running through it is still there. The alfalfa field is gone and now there is a house and young orchard in part of it. The other part of it is a corn field in some years. Other years it does nothing. The land owners children take good care of it and haven't sold it off to developers but it's just not the childhood patch anymore.

It was sad to see all the trees on fire after knowing it so well the way it was for so many years. The fire was started by a controlled burn way in the middle of the field, all precautions taken. Sudden winds took the wrong spark into the trees and it was out of control fast. Once it started the trees, it ran up the tinder dry hill towards the houses. They evacuated five blocks and had two ladder trucks on the streets closest to the valley for keeping houses safe. It was in the city limits but the only fire hydrants were in the subdivision on top of the hill so the local fire department called in to some of the county stations with tanker trucks. As the fire crept south down the wash closer Glade Road, they stopped all traffic on 3oth street and accessed a hydrant down there a ways too. They soaked the trees and ground within reach of that hydrant but fortunately the fire never made it that far. The winds died down and soon all was well.

I eventually went up on a hill to watch and ran into the oldest son of the original land owner and we ended up talking for a good long time. I hadn't seen him in well over 15 years so we had a good bit to talk about even though we have nothing in common and we never did much more than wave when I lived in that neighborhood. He told me how the land was divided between the siblings. Why the one sibling had abandoned his house and built another below it. (The ground settled by about 10 feet and rendered the old house to storage only). He told me his dad had planted all those cottonwood trees, there were none north of the farmhouse! He pointed out all the area he cleared just a few years ago on his part of the place, just to avoid such a hazard. It was good to talk and do a little bit of reminiscing as we watched a good section of it burn away. It will be back. It will just take a while.

A New Perspective

I really should be working on my horse show images, however, I got called out at the last minute to do a shoot that I knew would be an experience. So I agreed to get up at early o'clock and go shoot some arial images.
I live smack dab in the middle of one of the largest natural gas reservoirs around. Currently, they are drilling like mad and have been for several years. It's really scarring the landscape. Now, while I'm all for drilling, I think they could be a lot kinder to the land when they do it. It seems like they just plop a well any ol' place with no regard to private property or the impact on the land, particularly to the ranchers. While that's not entirely true, they do have to get permits to drill where they do, I still think it could be done with less impact. Twinning wells (putting more than one well on a cleared well pad and taking better care of all the roads they plow through the land would be a really great start.

Fortunately, I'm not the only one that thinks this. I know someone who is trying to make an impact on the huge number of well locations and he hired me to go fly and shoot some images of how so many wells spread out across the land makes an impact. Keep in mind the goal IS NOT fewer wells, only fewer locations. Growing up, I remember there was a limit of two well locations for each section of land. About the time I was in High School, they upped it to four. Now it's has escalated to about 125 wells allowed per section of land. When all of these well have individual pads, well, it's getting ugly. It's a bit silly when we have the ability to drill directionally and to the multiple layers from one location.

On the way back from our jaunt in the air, I talked the pilot into taking a slight detour over the area where the wild horses roam. I didn't really think I would be able to spot any but I was hoping. We did! We found one large band with one foal. I took a few shots and the pilot circled around so I could have another pass at them. We came in the second time a little lower and just as we went by they turned and galloped off a few hundred yards. I guess we got their attention but only bothered them for a few moments. From the looks of the water source, they will be heading up in elevation soon where there will hopefully be more water. The lack of water will drive all the bands closer together. Perhaps if I get to go visit them again this summer I may see more horse action as the herd stallions have discussions about their proximity to each other. Well, back to the salt mines.... Now I have two jobs to get posted in a short time!

Fixed, then suddenly not so fixed.

I recently sent my camera in for a tune-up and cleaning. It needed the sensor cleaned of dust and it just wasn't speaking to my lenses very accurately 100% of the time. Close just isn't good enough. I also sent in my workhorse lens, a Canon F2.8 L 70-200. It has done the majority of my work for about 7 years and through 3 cameras. The zoom dial was getting stiff. I got the camera and lens back in a timely fashion and took it to my next event, an FEI level 3-day Event and horse trials in Parker, CO. All seemed well until the middle of the second day, out on the cross country course. My camera did the unthinkable.... it just quit. I couldn't do anything to make it go again so I let my hired second shooter, Amy E Cody know I was leaving the course for the spare camera.

Amy is a treat to work with. She works hard, doesn't quit, isn't daunted by long hours (11 hours in one day on the cross country course alone) and does good solid work with very few misfires. She knows how to have fun with it too. We also team up to shoot a pair of hunter/jumper shows back to back, in her neck of the woods. The Grazing Fields Farms Head of the Bay Classics.

In the meantime I missed about six or seven riders while I got out the spare and checked to make sure it was healthy. It's expensive to have two of everything. Back-ups are required to do any kind of photography. Professional professionals will have backups. I went to this event with a back-up for the back-up even. A third camera that I borrow from my parents that accepts all my lenses for when there are no excuses for not getting the job done. Amy also brought a complete back-up camera and lens set. We didn't have a shortage of cameras but it's still a big thing when your lead camera dies suddenly, especially only 1500 clicks and less than a week after it's tune-up!

The unfortunate thing is that I had to send it back to the manufacturer and will likely not get it returned before my next large event, a jumping Grand Prix with some international level riders. For this event I will be working with another peer and friend, Lynne Glazer. Another talented and extremely dependable photographer and one of my best friends. I will take along said parents' back-up and Lynne will bring along her two full sets of equipment as well. We get along even better, technically, because we have the same brand and all parts are interchangeable between us.

Well, back to post processing and editing images from the last event! Amy and I shot over 6400 images in three days that I have to process. You can see them here: Oh, and I'm happy to report that the lens is as awesome and crisp as ever!

Wild! Revisited

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, I went back out to visit the semi-local wild horses again. When I first arrived the only wildlife to be seen was cows. The ranchers are starting to haul cows out to the summer grazing leases so they are all over the roads and I had to be on high alert for the bitty ones that dart to and fro'. Other changes since the last trip three weeks ago is how lush it has become. The area has had a lot of rain in the last two weeks so there is plentiful grazing for everyone and all the scrub oak is leafing out resulting super pretty, colorful and photogenic backgrounds.

After dodging the cows, I drove along the roads where the horses are usually often seen. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch, not a one showed up in a usual or unusual area. It was midday, they were hiding in the trees. Finally, one of the bands from three weeks ago put itself in view, but not in a very photographable time or place so after just watching them from the car for a bit, I continued on. It was probably 20 more miles and just a bit short of an area where there is very high gas field drilling activity before any more horses came into view. A small band of three. They were standing way at the back of the huge meadow and after a short bit of walking, the stallion saw/heard/smelled me and came over to me to investigate while leaving his harem in the back of the field in safety. Safety... haha, they were oblivious and still grazing, truth be told. It wasn't until the stallion came very close to me and stopped and snorted that they became aware. I stayed in the shadows and he trotted back and forth in front of me for a bit and then took off back to his harem, one of which was very lame and thin.

Back in the car, soon I came across another band. It turns out it was the very shy band that was in the Ponderosa forest on my prior visit. This mare, affectionately called Big Momma, was huge before and now she's even bigger, she can't be far from foaling, but I thought that three weeks ago too. I snapped a few nice images of them from the top of a little ridge before they saw/heard me and wandered off. There were several more bands deeper in the trees so I hiked around to see if I could capture them too. It turned out to be a baby bonanza in the trees near a stock pond and two of the stallions got a little close to each other than they like so they took a few minutes to dance and sort it all out. Once they worked all their rankings out without too much fuss, all three bands trotted off through the trees toward the pond. I departed for the car happy that I caught a little bit of action.

Next stop, a pretty chestnut mare that was standing in the road. When followed through the trees, she led me to her mate, an equally pretty chestnut stallion. He kept playing with me, trotting away and then to me. Looking at me straight on, and then with one eye, all the while keeping one ear on me too. I watched them for a long time and eventually the mare had enough and they disappeared into the trees.

On the way back to the main road, I spied what looked like pintos way up a valley. It was exactly that. Most of the horses in this area are bay or chestnut so it was a treat to see some of the few with color. The more colorful horses also seem to be more flighty but it could be for the protection of the new foals. After hiking about a mile into the valley through the trees I was able to see the very young foal in the group, maybe only a few days old. I took a few snaps but the stallion was highly agitated and wasted no time taking the band into the trees. I took the cue and left them alone while they continued through the trees on the other side of the valley.

After hiking the mile back to the car and driving down a different road, I found another colorful band that was within reach of the car. They too, had younger foals and decided to head into the trees but much more casually than the prior band. The sun was getting low in the sky and by this time I had seen over 45 different horses so I decided to head for home. As I was heading back up the road that leaves the main valley to go back towards the land of cows, as a last minute treat, I find another band just walking down the middle of the road. They yielded into the sage as I approached and gave me a very nice pose in the setting sun as a parting gift.