Rodeo week!

     Last night was the last night of the annual Woodward Elks Rodeo - "The toughest of them all".  This year, I did the single father thing - I went with my youngest daughter.  To be fair, I knew that within 20 minutes she was probably going to be bored of sitting with me and would want to hang out with her friends, and sure enough, she did.  I didn't want her to be bored, so I released her from my weight and I didn't hear from her or see her again until it was over.  I can honestly say she probably had a better time than just sitting with me, which was the whole idea of the thing, so it's OK.  So there I was, sitting in the stands surrounded by hundreds of people I didn't know, sweating, and trying like heck to figure out what the attraction to rodeo is.

     To tell the truth, this year what I was really looking forward to, besides spending time with my daughter, was the chance to use my new camera.  I decided this past month to take up an old hobby of mine.  Turns out, my daughter is also interested in photography, so I hope we get to do it together from time to time.  I've had those little point and shoots that are tiny and fit in your pocket and they're good enough, but I wanted more so I bought what's called a bridge camera, or super zoom camera.  Not quite a DSLR, but more than those little things.  The ability to adjust settings on the camera as well as have the ease of a point and  shoot all in one camera.  Pretty cool!  I got a great deal on one (took some searching, but I got it for several hundred less than it was listed) and it came in on Thursday, and I was chomping at the bit to take pictures.  What I found out was that I have a LOT to learn about taking pictures at night!

     (All these shots, and more, are available on my Flickr page found here  Click here for more pictures taken by me of the rodeo..)

     As I sat around trying to figure out what pictures to take, I saw the giant flag they had hanging from the crane. I was going for a dramatic picture, but I don't think I captured dramatic.  I like it anyways.

 

     Who could miss the truck hanging underneath the flag?  The grey behind it is smoke from the big fire going on over by Cedardale.

 

     The kid thing was going on, so I took several of these types of shots.  Kids are always good for action.

 

     After that, it became an exercise in trying out different exposures and such, some worked, some didn't.

 

 

 

 

          Finally, my two favorite shots. I don't know why they are, I just like them out of the bunch.

     Feel free to check out all my photos of the rodeo.  Like I said, some are good, some not so much.  More pictures of the rodeo!