Holly Bond, Arizona Cowgirl

As frequent visitors to the blog are well-aware, I stumbled upon a couple of local youth rodeo associations in May of last year.  I was driving around little-bity Prescott, toting my 600mm f4 IS on the 5D MK II and looking for something photogenic that would challenge my weak manual focusing skills.  

As I rolled past the local rodeo grounds, I noticed many tidy horse-haulers and sensed a buzz of youthful activity.  The Arizona High School Rodeo was in town and it didn’t take a genius to realize that I had found my daily-dose of Canon fodder.

Weather was pleasant with sunshine and scattered cumulous clouds as I eased my way into the whirlwind of activity.  Good shooting weather.  Being, as I am, the sneaky sort, I acted like I owned the place and started doing a bit of long lens shooting.  

It quickly became apparent that this was a touring group with teenagers from all over the state competing in a year-long points battle.  I saw a fella wearing a shirt that was emblazoned with the Arizona Junior Rodeo Association logo and the addendum, Clayton Bond, President, and I knew that I had found someone who could explain it all...

Clay is a true ranch gentleman and tireless promoter of both youth rodeo associations.  Clay’s wife Beth is also very active in administration of these groups.  I quickly saw the potential of a longterm project with great visual and emotional appeal and petitioned Clay to point me towards a couple of competitors who might become the focus of a long form documentary - if I decided to take on such a thing.  Clay pointed me towards his daughter, Holly, and her boyfriend, Dustin.  Holly and Dustin are fast approaching their last seasons in youth rodeo so Clay also helpfully pointed out a couple of gregarious and extremely well-focused younger competitors.  

Now, almost ten months later, I have attended multiple rodeos, improved my once marginal action shooting skills, and come to know all the players fairly well.  

My longer rodeo project is definitely still a work in progress but in anticipation of last week’s WPPI presentation on motion-based portraiture, I had my buddy Paul cut together a little character study of Holly and her sweetie, Dustin.  Dustin plays a good-natured supporting actor in this particular piece but will probably have a larger role in the final documentary.  I haven’t shared anything substantive about the younger members of the Arizona Junior Rodeo Association in this particular piece but rest assured that these kids will be prominently featured in my final project.

I have become such a fan of the families involved in the Junior Rodeo that I hope to help them raise some much needed funds to continue this worthwhile organization.  I recently gave the association a rustically-framed canvas of one of my favorite digital paintings, Wild Horses.  This digital painting was created exactly one year before 9/11 and won the Kodak Innovators Award for Creativity in the following months.  I was to have received my award in late September at MacWorld during a ceremony in San Francisco but the World Trade Center tragedy caused that event to be rightfully cancelled. 

This painting means much to me and, to my mind, speaks volumes about the western freedoms we still enjoy, despite outside threats to our way of life.  The Arizona Junior Rodeo Association will be raffling this painting off as a part of their annual fundraising efforts and I will post a link to the eBay auction site if it goes online.  I hope one of my digital painting fans steps up to get this meaningful piece and, in the process, helps out the excellent young Americans of the Arizona Junior Rodeo....

Please take a look at this latest video teaser and enjoy!  Many of the scenes that Paul chose to include were captured while my shooting skills were still embryonic and I frankly sucked as a camera operator. 

Content always trumps technique, however, and I’ll take my critical lumps.  I’ve hopefully improved a bit as time has passed and I thank all my rodeo pals for their endless patience and constant indulgence...

I still hope to win a buckle that says, “Most Likely to be Trampled”...

 - Bruce