Self Assignment:Cowboys

Rifleman, originally uploaded by photogeek21.

A couple weeks ago I did something for the first time. It didn't have anything to do with lighting, technique or post processing. In fact, it had more to do with personal phobia than photography - I asked a total stranger if I could take their portrait. To my releif, they said yes. Actually, everyone I asked was more than happy to pose for me. It was good practice too, since I was on their time, I had to set up quick grab the shot, thank them and let them get back to what they were doing - no time to fart around with different lighting angles and such, just know what I wanted, set up and do it - nerve racking and fun at the same time.

I'd been thinking about a self assignment for a while now so when I saw that there was a cowboy shooting match at my local range, I grabed my camera and lighting bag and headed out the door.

It wasn't all about picture taking either, I truly treated this as an assignment and introduced myself to the match director and made sure he was okay with me strolling through his course of fire. I interviewed several of the competitors to get a bit of insight into their sport. And while I'm far from being a writer, I shared a little of what I learned in my flickr post.

I also sent 5x7 prints to those that posed for me as a token of appreciation for helping me out. Got some great feedback too, One wrote to tell me that when he pull out the picture his wife saw it, grabed it, and said "this one's mine" and has got it on display in her office.

So I guess my first self assignment was a sucess, I got the shot (and didn't get shot), learned quite abit about cowboy shooting, and met some really cool people.

Okay, I gotta remember to charge my batteries.

I aways drive by these farms every morning on my way to work. During the Winter when the temp drops below freezing, their irrigation equipment gets all these Icicles that form and they catch the rising Sun so beautifully. For years I've been telling myself to stop and take some shot but never did. But with my new focus this year I decided to freeze my butt off and get out there and get some shots.
I arrived before dawn and set up the 'big gun' 300mm on the tripod and waited for the light.
As the sun came up I started the shoot, changing positions, lenses, etc. I set up the camera for 1 stop bracketing with the intent of doing some HDR work. But just as the Sun rose high enough to really make the icicles glisten, my camera shut down! I've been spoiled with my mkII battery life that I rarely charge it - unfortunately it burned me this time! On a long shot I turned on my trucks heater and tried to heat up the battery thinking that it was the freezing temp causing it to go flat a little early. It worked! I was able to take about another 20 or so shots and my favorite was the last one!
Here's some of my favorites from the shoot:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.