Daily Challenge, Day Seven - FINAL DAY!!!

 

Today is the last day of the Daily Challenge from the Art of Seeing online class!  Yippee and yahoo, I stayed on track, time-wise!!  The time frame thing was suggested but not mandatory, but there was some sense of personal challenge in there for me to actually try to achieve the goal within 7 days.  It's been fun, it's been consuming, it's been so eye opening - there are beautiful things to photograph everywhere once you start seeing with new eyes.  A friend teased me this morning after church; she said she half expected to see my camera sitting on top of the piano while I played this morning.....ha ha, you have no idea how tempted I was to do that!  A little hard to multi task on playing the piano AND taking pictures at the same time.....unless I grow another pair of hands, or become capable of strange things with my feet.  Anyway.....largely off topic.....  

 

I do want to thank you for looking at my pictures/blog every day.  Thanks especially to Cathy Walters for inspiring us to better things and for looking at this blog EVERY DAY and making nice comments.  Thanks and welcome to co-learners from the class.  I want to look at all of your shots too!

 

So, today, after church and Sunday Roast Chicken, my friend, Barb, and I packed up our cameras and headed out to the RRRR Rodeo (Red River Riding and Roping) just north of town.  What a sweet spot for a rodeo, in the middle of a field in the middle of spruce trees and open spaces.  There was no commercialism or hype attached to this rodeo, just rodeo-in' for the sake of competition and skills.  A friendly place to be on a Sunday afternoon.

 

While I grew up on a farm, we weren't cowboys, so this culture is largely unknown to me.  Horses both intrigue and terrify me; perhaps the 'terrify' part comes from a couple horseback rides in my past whereupon the horse decided to take off and get rid of the rider (that's me) without her permission....ahem. 

 

I don't know any of the people here and, no, I don't have their permission to post these photos so they will heretofore be referred to as "anonymous". I hope they don't mind.

 

 

 

These two riders had just completed a steer roping round.  There were 4-5 of us 'photographers' hanging around this side of the corral and they strolled right past us - maybe they were 'open' to being in a spontaneous photo shoot.  Mr. Anonymous (on the left) is still twirling his rope to get it back into form.  They were chatting it up and were in no hurry to get anywhere.

Love, love, love the Canadian flag on the rump!  I HEART CANADA, 'my home and native land'. 

I got several shots of this beauty and the light was just right.  He/she (anonymous horse) didn't seem to mind posing for a portrait.  I got several views of him/her and it was hard choosing which one to use.  So pretty.

What to do with a little cowboy during a rodeo?  Let him play in the mud! 

This little guy had just completed a steer roping competition.  The audience and announcers cheered him on with great enthusiasm, he was so small.  However, he was unsuccessful in his roping attempt and when he came back here to park beside his mom, he cried.  It was a bittersweet moment to watch but I just had to capture him.  Shortly after this, he saw me taking his picture and hid behind his mom while she told him that it was all part of the rodeo process, winning and losing.  My word, he was sweet. 



Trio, waiting their turns.

Barrel racing, these girls can really GO!  Both the woman and her horse are full speed ahead, straining for the best time result.



Rusty wire and weathered fences abounded.

Beautiful chicken in a wire cage.

Steer wrestling.   The dirt under the steer is still flying as the cowboy looks to see what his final time was; shirt's untucked, pants and boots are covered in mud.  Love.

And that is IT!  Thanks again!  I hereby declare myself to be on a blogging holiday - but I'll be back soon!  Bye for now!