Just got home from the World famous Pendleton Round-up.  There are certain events in the world that stand-alone among all other of events, this one is the boss of all rodeo!  This was my second year  to shoot it, the difference this year was I knew what to expect, sometimes that can work against you, but as fast-moving and intense as these guys are about their rodeo, I think it only helped.

 This year there was a bonus, it was 100th annual production and there was so many more unique events brought back as part of the big show.

 The actual rodeo performance starts on Wednesday, but the slack begins on Monday morning and the majority of the eleven Wise County riders performed before the actual rodeo began, so you could say this was a marathon rodeo.

It’s awfully easy to get sensory overload at an event like this and even as hard as I try to pace pace myself, by the third day the abstracts were drawing me from every direction,  like a kid in a candy store. Had a week  to gather as much candy as possible, pacing was not an option.

The people you meet………..

The friends you make……..

.From the faces of new friends……….. 

To be faces of old friends………

 and not forgetting the action, it doesn’t get any better than this!

One of the greatest things for an action shooter is to be in the arena face to face with the action, 

 

one of the worst things is being in the arena with the action.

This was even more true of the bullriding, with nothing more than a PVC fence separating you from 2500 pounds of pissed-offness.

Ask one shooter that shoots nothing but bulls and bullriding allover the world what the secret was to shooting this event, ” don’t move if the bull comes at you, they don’t like movement. ” Yea, right I’m thinking as one of these bad boys gave me a stare down at about six feet.

Use to think these guys wasn’t quite all there to get on these monsters but how smart does that make me, at least they are on top of them.

Without a doubt my favorite part of the whole thing is hanging out at the Indian village, it’s like going back years to the realism of yesterday, at a pace thats in it’s own time zone, for eight days these people from tribes all over the country set up their tepees and camp out all week just as a 100 years ago.

My next favorite is the uniqueness of the Indian action, watching these guys ride all out with nothing but a bridal is a visual you will never forget.

There is not to much about this event I don’t like other than recovery time of course.

The week was pretty much a blur, with not much time for anything but rodeo.

Many thanks to the East Oregonian who did a great job of covering the 100th, and is currently sorting through about 40,000 images between five photographers for a special commemorative book, Be sure to check out their website for more coverage.

Many thanks to the Wise County Messenger for sending me, and the Wise County Cowboys for their participation. Let’er Buck!

My Pendleton 2010 favorites