Cody Wyoming has a lot to offer if you are planning a trip out west. Numerous attractions to visit, amazing scenery, and every type of outdoor activity you can wish for. But I had planned to be in Cody on a specific day, June 15th, for the Rodeo! The town of Cody has a rodeo every night during the summer for the tourists, but this night was a special event. It was an all bull and clown competition. Nothing but bull riding, and then rodeo clowns having bulls chase them around while they try to earn style points from the judges. It had been cloudy and rainy all afternoon, and when we got to the rodeo arena is was also now windy and very cold. Like any good photographer I had brought my camera to take some photos. Sitting in the stands gave you a good view, but I was able to talk my way down right to the fence for a BULLS eye view. as the event started, I started getting some breaks in the clouds and some shafts of sunlight.
Sit back and enjoy the photos. But I will tell you that the bulls won on this night. There was not one complete 8 second ride. Not sure I would ever want to jump on the back of several thousand pounds of upset bull and try and hang on for 8 seconds.But I know I also wouldn't want to be the clown either. The rodeo clowns do an amazing job running in to divert the bull's attention to them to allow the rider to get out of harms way. I saw a couple clowns get clobbered hard to save the cowboys that night. I salute them!
Dark stormy clouds and dramatic shafts of sunlight just in the right place. Got lucky here. I shot all of these with my Canon 50D and a 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens and added my 1,4 extender.
This photo does not depict proper bull riding technique. He got launched almost right out of the chute.
Send in the clowns! Another save here.
Now this cowboy had good form and a good ride for about 4 seconds. Then he was ejected.
Would you purposly jump into the arena and not only let this really upset bull chase you, but stay so close that one slip and you are in serious trouble?
Now you know this is gonna hurt real bad. It is amazing to watch them get up and limp off, and then get back on for another ride.
This was may favorite shot from my stay in Cody Wyoming. There is an attraction there called Trail Town. They have brought in cabins and building from all over the west and reassembled them. They even have Butch Cassity and the Sundance Kid's Hole in the Wall cabin. I was wandering aroound and found this old wagon and piles of wheels and other junk. A wide angle lens shot very low to the ground was used to create this composition.
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