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Last year I went to one of the county fairs for the sake of watching and shooting some bull riding. I had a great time doing it and when I saw it was happening again I had to request a day off of work. One of the organizers had seen my shots last year and I was lucky enough to meet him and be able to gain better access to the ring than I had last year. Instead of being behind two fences I was actually behind the gates and almost in the ring. There was a fence of one inch pipes between me and a raging 2,000lb animal, it was a thrill and a half.  The event was exciting though, some great rides and action...


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I've been trying to get to my landlord's property to shoot some butterflies they have, one of which is rare for the area, for a couple of weeks now. I finally made it last night but the pickings were slim and the lighting wasn't great. The shots aren't exactly sharp but I think the subject matter lends it's self to a slight soft or out of focus effect.   Here's a few more in a small gallery.  


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I woke up Saturday at the ungodly hour of 4:15am to go meet my buddy so we could drive up to the field they were using for a planned 6am launch. We got there a little after 5:30 and there were people and balloons everywhere. It was chaos, no one was coordinating parking or the launch of the balloons, they trickled up slowly instead of en masse like we hoped they would. If you read the prior post you know I shot a lot of images, mostly with the intent of blending them later; for various reasons this didn't happen and I was left with single shots to pull details that weren't there initially. The sky had been...


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I went to the hot air balloon festival that's held annually just up the road from where I live. Last year it was rained out and I was greatly disappointed since I had shot it in 2010 and got some great images considering I was really still just starting out at that point. I went both Friday night for the balloon glow (they tether the balloons and fire the propane burners to light up the balloon) and fireworks as well as Saturday morning for the first launch. I was wonderfully excited for this year as I had a monopod to steady myself with and wouldn't have the bother of finding space for the tripod...


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Late last week a friend of mine contacted me on Facebook to see if I would be interested in taking part in a photoshoot he had planned for the weekend. It was really a dumb question, it involved photography and it involved something I hadn't experienced yet, there's no need to ask me twice. I've always said I'm willing to try anything once, twice if I'm not sure about it; sometimes it pays out others it doesn't but it's always an experience or a story to tell. The day was interesting and I learned quite a bit just watching things go on, I didn't shoot anything as there was one extra person added...


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There was an event held at a local fairgrounds this past weekend and I saw it involved a rodeo, I had a lot of fun shooting the last one so the wife and I headed up there. It was hot and sunny out, we got there about an hour and a half early so I could stake out prime real estate at the fence. We sat and waited, they had some cute things going on with kids in the ring before the actual rodeo. There were some shoeless races and barrel racing on hobby horses then things got serious and they brought in the sheep. That's right, mutton busting!   They ramped things in to high gear following...


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If there's one thing any photographer likes it's new equipment or gear. A new lens, a new camera body, new filters or something as simple as a new lens cleaner we love it all and are proud of what we have. I've just recently gotten a new piece of gear. I normally carry my gear around in a backpack and I love the thing but it's kind of conspicuous when you just want to walk around. I've been looking for something small to carry the camera around in that doesn't look like a camera bag and I found it the other day at a very good price. It's a simple military style messenger bag from a local Army &...


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I'm getting inundated with comment spam right now and some I can't tell if it's a real comment or garbage so if you did comment and haven't seen it approved yet I apologize, just shoot me an email through the contact page so I know you're real.   Thanks!     Updated 5/25/12 The spam comments are taken care of but unfortunately we had to switch to a registered user system to prevent the spamming. If you want to leave a published and visible to everyone comment on anything contact me through the contact page. Tell me what image or post and your comment and I'll add it, at this...


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It's been a while since I've updated - almost three months actually. Visits to the site are almost nill but while it's here I'll utilize it. I tried to go for a picture a day and came close but my creativity has been waning lately. I got out to shoot a decent amount but it's mostly been birds so it's a limited audience that would appreciate them. I do have some flowers and a couple of miscellaneous insect, animal and landscape shots mixed in there though. Here's a few samples of the past three months and there's a full gallery at the link below of what I think are some of  the best from that time...


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Not that anyone from G+ would have probably seen them here but we were told to stay hush-hush about the hunt until after it was done and I didn't want to get disqualified on a technicality on the chance I was awarded something; I wasn't.   There were some amazing images contributed and the talent is unbelievable. There were  a lot of the same names coming up as winners - I would say the fix is in but the quality of most of them was there and I don't want to sound like a sore loser. I think with what I had at my disposal - some of these people had full studios and models available - I didn't...


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