Got a call from Clint Cooper the other night telling me a buddy of his wanted some cool action shots of himself

roping. Funny thing, I paused Yellowstone episode we were watching when I saw the caller ID. The screen froze on Ryan Bingham from the scene where Beth Dutton had ask Ryan to sing her a song in season 4.

When Clint tells me it’s Ryan who wanted the action shots, it was truly freaky. Fast forward to the next day, we go out to scope out the arena where we would be shooting in Springtown, Texas at the 2D roping horses location. On meeting Ryan,  I told him the story he got a kick out of it and it opened up a dialogue. We went ahead and shot for the evening mainly to get exposure info and find the angles we wanted for the next days team roping event. One of the coolest thing about the arena was that it was not watered, unusual but appreciated, which put off a lot of dust, a photog’s dream for hiding backgrounds.most of what we did was play with angle and dust combo, playing is always fun.

We also met Cheyenne and wife Karie, owners of the ranch. Cheyenne, a accomplished roper hisself, welcomed us with open arms and the action was on.

The next afternoon we met up with Ryan and Clint at the Cooper ranch in Decatur, Texas to saddle and load horses for the days event. The Cooper ranch being the site of our next lighting workshop, it was good to do the recon on the lighting. This place is a magna of western-lifestyle nook and crannies because of the realistic character that the ranch exudes.

 

We headed back to Springtown where the light and time of day was almost identical to the previous day and we had asked Cheyenne not to water the arena again for the dramatics of the dust. Most of the difference this day was the fact that everyone had cowboyed up for the show! After the shoot, our host wined and dined us with one of the best steaks I have ever had. These are the fun ones!

Side Note: Shot the Nikon Z9 and Nikon 120-300 and even with the dust, I only found 3 frames of 900 unsharp, unbeatable combo.

2d roping horses, b1x, cactus ropes, cinch, Clint Cooper, Nikon, Nikon 120-300, Nikon Z9, Profoto, resistor, roping, Roping horses, Ryan Bingham, Team roping, weareprorodeo, western-lifestyle