San Dimas Rodeo 2010

San Dimas Rodeo 2010 is just what it says – a gallery from the 2010 San Dimas, CA Rodeo.

I’m not going to rehash everything I said about the 2015 event in a past post – just click here if you want to read about the rodeo and here if you want to go straight to the San Dimas Rodeo2015 gallery.

All I’m going to do is invite you to check out the San Dimas Rodeo 2010 Gallery if you’d like to check it out.  It’s a fun little diversion from whatever you might be doing…

Like the 2015 gallery, it’s all view only so I don’t run into any issues with releases, licensing, etc.  As such, all of the images are straight from the camera.

It’s here for your enjoyment – and hopefully, you’ll check out some other galleries on Laughing Frog Images and perhaps buy a print or two to make you smile when you look at it (or cover up a hole in the wall!).

Think this might leave a mark?

San Dimas Rodeo 2010. San Dimas, CA.
San Dimas Rodeo 2010. San Dimas, CA.

I’d love to say that I got this image because I’m such a fantastic and skilled photographer (well, I might be something close to that, or so some might say).

The reality is that to get an image like this, several things have to come together.  The right lens helps.  So does the right angle – as you can never predict which way a bull is going to go, the right angle is really a bit of luck.  The right lighting helps – I sat where I sat for optimal lighting, at least as long as the bull tossed the rider in the right direction, so perhaps the right lighting is a little bit of luck.  Timing – well, one can argue that’s either skill or luck.  Then, beyond the lens, and the lighting, and the timing, you need the event itself.  That moment in time where it all comes together.

That day in October 2010, it all came together for this perhaps once in a lifetime image.

Enjoy!

San Dimas Rodeo 2015

The San Dimas Rodeo takes place every year 30-odd miles east of downtown Los Angeles, California.

It’s not exactly where you’d think there would be a rodeo.  Not that I understand why the National Finals Rodeo takes place in Las Vegas, but anyway…

San Dimas is perhaps most known for its’ role in the movie “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure“.  I would perhaps argue that it was a town on the Santa Fe Railroad mainline that is most relevant – it’s also the home of the Pacific Railroad Museum.  And, there are those who would postulate that it’s the Rodeo that makes San Dimas famous.

Regardless of your perspective, the Rodeo is a step back in time, perhaps to a simpler day, or is it a romanticized event that rekindles the Old West?  It’s a lot of things to a lot of people.  Regardless of the meanings and metaphors one can find in the event, it’s still men and women versus the animals and in conjunction with their animals.  Debates can take place of the virtues of talent and bravery – and which is really the most important factor, sanity versus insanity, and on and on.

For the spectators, it’s an event that evokes laughter, cheering, ooohs and ahhhs, gasps, and apprehension – and all of those can take place in the same minute.

For the photographers, the images evoke skill, concentration, trials and tribulation, pain and joy, strength and brawn, persistence and determination, and more.

 

A cowboy in the process of being tossed from a bull at the 2015 San Dimas Rodeo.
A cowboy in the process of being tossed from a bull at the 2015 San Dimas Rodeo. Click the photo to be taken to the gallery.

 

I’m fairly certain that perusing this gallery will be provocative.  Think about what you see here in the faces and the expressions and the images.

To learn more about the San Dimas Rodeo, just click here.

The San Dimas Rodeo is a PRCA sanctioned event.  Due to that, plus the fact that people’s faces are seen, and there are things like licensing and model releases and “stuff” to be dealt with, this is a view-only gallery.  None of these images will make it to anyone’s wall by my own, but they’re here for your viewing pleasure.