Tag Archives: Professional Bull Riding

Photo of the Month – November 2012 Reply

Australia, Photo of the Month, Professional Bull Riding - PBR, Sport • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

BULL RIDING IS BACK

Well it’s Professional Bull Riding season in Australia and the opening round of the Australian Cup Series kicked off in Wollongong (not far from Sydney) in New South Wales this past weekend.

It was the 2012 Wollongong Invitational held at the WIN Entertainment Centre.

I will follow up on the first half of the Australian Cup Series season in a later blog, but for now here are a couple of images from the weekend.

Note: If you want to get to all of them then head to the bottom and check out the animated slide show. 100 Photos / 3 Minutes.

Both main photos are of event Champion Jock Connolly. In the one below he is riding a bull named Sin City for a score of 85.5 points in round 2. As it turned out this ride won him the event.

Champion -  Jock Connolly on a bull named Sin City

Both these photos were actually used for the cover story for the event on PBR’s website (see screenshot below).

The below photo of Jock was taken a short time before he got on the above bull. He was simply hanging out on the bull chutes. If you haven’t been before, there was an actual bull just below his right foot. He was about to help a fellow rider get roped in for their ride.

The contest is based on each rider’s combined score for riding 2 bulls, then the highest ranked combined scores get to ride in a round 3 called the ‘Short Go’. The highest scoring rider entering the Short Go gets to ride last, which was Jock.

As it turned out he had already won before he had to ride in the final round. He rode his final and third bull, giving him 3 for 3 on the night, but unfortunately for him, as he was dismounting (a.k.a. getting tossed off) he landed pretty hard, and when I last saw him up close immediately afterwards it looked like he had busted his collar bone. Either that or he had grown some extra lumps on his right shoulder and he looked like he was in quite a bit of pain, and I mean a lot.

PBR Website

I leave you with a slide show with some images from the 2012 Wollongong Invitational.

100 Photos / 3 Minutes

See You There!

PBR Livingston Classic Reply

Professional Bull Riding - PBR, Published, Sport, Travel, U.S.A. • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Well a couple of my buddies are running their annual PBR Livingston Classic in a couple of weeks in Livingston, Montana.

So if you happen to be in the neighborhood, drop in, it is a great event.

I have written about these jokers before. They are the official Photographers for the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), and half decent fly fishers as well. Bull Stock Media.

Just down the road from Livingston is some spectacular scenery in Yellowstone National Park. So not only do you get to see some world class bucking bulls and cowboys, but also some really cool scenery and the odd Bison or plenty.

I took the photos on the promo poster at this same event in the last couple of years. The bull is ex World Champion ‘Big Tex’, a good looking bull if I do say so.

So get to Montana. Have a beer for me if you do… as unfortunately I can’t make it this year.

Photo of the Month – June 2012 Reply

Photo of the Month, Professional Bull Riding - PBR, U.S.A. • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

Well here is the next photo of the month in the series. As usual at the end of the post I have provided the very next image that was taken after this one.

June 2012 - John Rich of Big & Rich

John Rich – Big & Rich

I have never taken photos of a concert before, unless you count my kids playing in the school band.

At the PBR Last Cowboy Standing event held in Detroit at Ford Field (home of the Detroit Lions), World famous country duo Big & Rich played the pre-show. Normally these are short affairs (couple of songs), but on this particular night they performed for an hour or so.

A buddy of mine in Atlanta takes a lot of band photos and loves it. Check him out at here.

Seems like an easy thing to do… right?  Get near or on the stage and bang off a couple of frames. Sure.

Well it is harder than it looks. For one you have to look out for everyone else. The TV guys and their cables are all over the place, the band and its stuff is all over the place, enthusiastic performers like Big Kenny are all over the place, and you try and keep out of the line of sight of the crowd, as you ain’t the act they came to see. So the logistics of being this close are interesting.

Then you have to deal with the light. One minute it is there, then it is all but gone, then it is like being on the sun. So it was pretty hard (and frustrating) to meter for, as you can see with the blown out highlights in the below photo of Big Kenny.

Added to that the color of the light kept changing. Orange one second, blue the next, and violet the next. See Big Kenny’s photo again below. He has a number of different colors going on. I don’t think it was a color temperature thing, more the color gels and filters on the lights themselves.

All up though it was a lot of fun. Not sure that I would enjoy doing it for a living, but pretty cool none the less. My hat goes off to the guys who do this all the time. Like anything I expect, you would get the technique down and go with the flow, however if you ever wanted to learn how to shoot in constantly changing conditions in a very short period of time, this is one of them.

THE VERY NEXT PHOTO

I leave you with this photo of Big Kenny. I was on the side of the stage (drums were to my right). He was enjoyable to watch. Very animated.

I am a country music fan… so not much not to like about the entire evening. Cool Concert. Being on stage. Bull Riding, and me taking photos of it.

Then afterwards having a beer with my buddy Andy from Bull Stock Media. From memory I paid (again).

Big Kenny – Big & Rich

That’s It… See You There!

Bulls, Cowboys… and Big & Rich Reply

HDR, Professional Bull Riding - PBR, Sport, Travel, U.S.A. • Tags: , , , , , , ,

Well this one has been stuck in my ‘draft’ folder for quite some time… so time to finish it and hit send.

It is mainly photos this time around so fairly easy on your brain muscle. If you want to skip the whole thing you can see the animated slideshow of the event here: LAST COWBOY STANDING

It is Bull Riding again, mixed in with some travel, so if neither float your boat then it is time to check out and go and grab a coffee (or beer). Pictures are reasonable though, so you may want to flick through them if nothing else.

As usual thanks to my buddies at Bull Stock Media for letting me hang out with them – this time for PBR’s Last Cowboy Standing event in Detroit at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions NFL football team.

So what is LAST COWBOY STANDING?

Pretty much as it sounds. You keep riding bulls until only one is left. It is set up in a round (or section) format. Every cowboy rides in round 1 (35), then only those who ride for the full 8 seconds move onto round 2 (14), and so on. Only 3 made it out of round 2. Current World Champion Silvano Alves, 201o World Champion Renato Nunes, and ‘will be world champion at some point’ Robson Palermo. The Brazilian Trifecta.

World Champion Silvano Alves – The Last Cowboy Standing

Last Cowboy Standing…  that is pretty much what happened. Current World Champion, Brazilian Silvano Alves took home the buckle and a stack of cash… by a fraction of a second as it turned out.

The PBR has a ‘stadium’ series early in the season, which includes playing at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. The series ended in Detroit (on 10th March 2012) with an event called ‘Last Cowboy Standing’.

It was held at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. The arena is closed at one end, and a pile of dirt is dumped on the other end, upon which the PBR construction crew does an amazing job of transforming it into a bull riding arena, complete with bull pens (behind the blue curtain on the below photo).

Ford Field in Detroit

Inside the Arena – in HDR

On the morning of the event I thought I would go for a walk around the arena to take some HDR (high dynamic range) photos of Tiger Stadium. I had packed my Gitzo tripod and Really Right Stuff ball-head and kit so I was all set. I got out early so that there wouldn’t be many people walking around… as for some reason… rubber neckers (australian for sight see’ers) seem to think that if they come right up to you and look into the camera lens and ask ‘watcha do’in’… that they won’t be in the photo (that you aren’t taking of them). Not that I don’t like people… just not in my HDR photos. So early it was.

If you haven’t been to the baseball stadium before, they have a really cool main gate area. Shown below.

Tiger Stadium in Detroit

PBR Hauler in HDR

What was also cool about this event was that Big & Rich were playing the pre-show. Normally these things go for around 15 minutes… however they played for an hour. I managed to squirrel  myself onto the stage so that I could get some up close happy snaps. Not sure what it sounded like from up in the bleachers, but from where I was it was really cool. Watching Big Kenny do his thing up close was also worth the price of admission.

My hat goes off to photographers who specialize in concert photography. It is damn hard. The color temperature of the lights, and their intensity is constantly changing, so getting a bead on a good camera set-up was tough. In the end I just gave up and set it on full manual, and lived with either grossly over or under exposed images. The ones that hit the sweet spot were cool. But… and there is always a but… some of the ones that were screwed up due to not being correctly exposed would have been really good (yeah sure) if they had worked out. I need to go to a few more times to get it figured out. I was just happy to be with the band.

Big & Rich

John Rich

Big Kenny Alphin

Big Kenny Alphin of Big & Rich

So… what about the bull riding you may ask.

Silvano Alves won… ‘and that’s all I have to say about that’. At the time of writing this he had also just won the follow up event at Glendale in Arizona. Not a bad weeks work if you can get it.

Ryan McConnel Taking a Rope on I’m Back

Justin Koon… didn’t end well!

So as I said… not many words, and a bunch of happy snaps.

Below is World Champion Silvano on his winning ride in round 3… he was the only one that rode, hence he became the Last Cowboy Standing. The below image made the home page of PBR, PBR Brazil, and PBR Australia on the same day. Pretty cool for an Aussie from the bush…

Silvano Alves winning Last Cowboy Standing

Here is the animated slide show of the event: LAST COWBOY STANDING

Here are a few more photos from Bull Stock Media (including some from yours truly) on PBR’s website. Last Cowboy Standing Photos.

Seeya.

Got Published – PBR Pro Bull Rider Magazine Reply

Professional Bull Riding - PBR, Published, Sport, U.S.A. • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Managed to get a ‘double truck’ in the February/March 2012 edition of PBR Pro Bull Rider Magazine.

The photo was taken at the 2011 PBR World Finals in Las Vegas.

Bull is Back Bender.

Photo was taken from the ‘Shark Cage’ in the middle of the arena at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Got Published… PBR Pro Bull Rider Magazine 1

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Published in the February/March 2012 edition of PBR Pro Bull Rider Magazine.

The photo is of 2011 World Champion Bull – Bushwacker.

Taken at the 2011 World Finals in Las Vegas. I was sitting in the ‘Shark Cage’ in the middle of the arena.

Baltimore. City of Bulls, Boats & Crab Cakes Reply

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Had crab cakes before… sure. Didn’t think they lived up to all the hype though. Bunch of filler with some crab mush (or something) in. Akin to eating fish tasting baby food.

So to try the real deal (Maryland Crab Cake) I went to Baltimore. Baltimore was on my ‘places to go to’ list, I had some real work to do there, and PBR was on the weekend that I managed to line it all up. Logic… do some work, quick look at Baltimore, try some crab cakes, tick another place of my travel map, then go and take some photos of Bull Riding with my buddies at Bull Stock Media.

First the place. I stayed downtown as it was walking distance to 1st Mariner Arena (where PBR was being held), and it was pretty central to all the other things that I needed to get done (ie work).

Baltimore Inner Harbor

Second. Crab Cakes. My self imposed mission was to have 1 serving per day at a different place each time (was there 3 days). As it turns out… quality had little to do with the location or establishment. Day 1 a colleague took me to a local place in Dundalk (explored by John Smith in 1608 as part of the Chesapeake Bay expedition). We ate at the type of place that several generations of the same family have been to, and you sit at the same table each time… likely served by a person who knows your name (and birthday). This was officially my first real Maryland Crab Cake. And there was no comparison to all those imposters that had been passed off to me as ‘crab cake’ previously. This thing actually had big chunks of real crab… and the whole thing literally fell apart (not like the porridge like experience with other crab cakes). It tasted fantastic… although I could feel my cholesterol meter going up with each tasty mouth full. One comment though from a crab cake amateur… it was luke warm, as were all three experiences. I like hot food to be hot, but I guess this is how you eat them.

Orioles Baseball Stadium from my hotel window

My next experience was downtown on Inner Harbor, at a nationally recognized seafood chain. I had eaten at this chain before in other U.S. cities. The food was OK (not fantastic… food for the masses). However I was in Baltimore, on the harbor, so I expected the crab cakes to be really good here. Unfortunately they were not, and would have qualified as the previously mentioned porridge variety. Very disappointing.

The winner though (narrowly tipping out Dundalk) was Faidley Seafood at Lexington Market. Lexington is the largest continuously run market in the world… more than 220 years, and Faidley has been around since 1886. It is currently owned by Bill and Nancy Devine, who are descendants of the original founders. I actually met Bill while I was there.Nothing fancy about this place. You line up. Order. Get it on a paper plate with plastic eating gear… and you stand up to eat it. However this just adds to the experience and the nostalgia of the place… and the actual cakes were really good… as was the company. My thanks to my friend Todd and his lovely wife and daughter for taking me there. Very enjoyable.

Me with the Stanley DeWalt Bull Riders

So with work and my eating out of the way… time for some bull riding. I have written about taking photos of bull riding several times before, so won’t bore you with the technical details of how it is done. I tried a few different things here this time, so will share that with you.

NOTE: if you just want to look at some photos… either click on the link at the end of this sentence or skip to the bottom for an animated slideshow of the PBR Baltimore Invitational. 100 Photos / 4 Minutes.

I normally hang out in the shark cage in the middle of the arena (I did this one night here also). On the second night I stayed up on the chutes with the cowboys. My buddy Matt (Bull Stock Media) has been taking some really cool shots up close, so I thought that I would give it a try. It isn’t for the faint hearted, as one swipe of the bull’s head (big horns) could take a finger or two off, or even worse, wreck your camera and lens. I have extra fingers, and some other cameras… so let’s give it a try.

Douglas Ferreira on South Point

It is a little hard to describe the experience when you are up on the chutes with the cowboys while they are loading up. It is organized chaos, but if you know where to stand (and where not to), it is a cool place to be. Once the cowboys get to know you they are very accommodating. The bulls on the other hand… don’t give a crap, literally. Taking these photos literally means getting down on your knees, and sticking your camera into the bull chute, between the legs of either the officials or the cowboys helping to rope down the rider. It is like a dance. If it gets out of sync, someone gets stepped on.

It is also very noisy so you can’t really communicate by talking (when the rider is about to come out of the chute). So you develop a morse-code type arrangement by tapping on legs etc to let them know that you are there and where you are in relation to them and the ‘escape route’. They don’t have to look, as they know it is you. The other major consideration is the TV camera guys. These guys are busy, and need to get the shot, as many times it is live TV. They are also very accommodating once they know that you know what you are doing, and won’t get in their way. The arrangement (this time by way of head nods)… when they don’t need the shot… I (or Matt) duck into the slot and get some stills, then pull out just before you know that they will need to get back in. The other issue is getting out of their way when they are shooting. If the bulls go ape-shit and lift up in the chute, the camera guy needs to get out of the way in a hurry. So you need to give them some elbow room, and make sure that if they need to step, that they won’t fall over you (remember I am on my knees at their feet at this point).

At the end of the day though, everyone has a job to do to make the event run, and for it to be successful. So as long as you know what the order of priority is, the sequence of events, and your role in it – all works fine.

Marco Eguche on Black & Decker Orange Crust

Ryan McConnel on Bar Code / Score 85.50

So to briefly give you the specs on how these shots were taken.

Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mk IV

Lens: Canon EF16-35 f/2.8L II with Tiffen HT (high transmission) filter

ISO: 3200 – 6400 (these were at 5000)

Shutter: 1/800th

Aperture: f/2.8

2010 World Champion Renato Nunes on King Lopez / Score 86.75

While it may seem cool to be standing (kneeling) on the chutes… and let me tell you… it is, you have to be prepared to wear some big clods of mud (which sting when they hit you in the face), bull snot by the gobs, and the odd bit of green stinky bull crap… all of which invariably hits your camera, the front of your lens… and you.

As described in some of my previous blogs, the ph0tos are sent directly via wireless transmitter on the cameras, via ‘The Photo Commander’ at Bull Stock Media up to PBR Live Photos. Bull Stock Media do an excellent job at this for fans to see live footage from the events.

Guilherme Marchi on Dark Shadow sent from my MkIV

I leave you with this shot of PBR Bull ‘Back Bender’. He (like most world class PBR bulls) has a head the size of a small car. I had my EF16-35 f/2.8L II literally touching the front of his nostril inside the chute, hence it is way out of focus. The highlights you see near his nose… that my friends is the proverbial ‘Bull Snot’ as he is breathing out. I had to clean big gobs of it off once he left the chute… along with the mud and bull crap that he so generously shared as he exited.

Ty Pozzobon on Back Bender

In case you are interested…. here is an animated slideshow from the PBR Baltimore Invitational. Click on this link to watch it on YouTube or use the embedded video below.   100 Photos / 4 Minutes

The Photographers of the PBR 2

Equipment, Professional Bull Riding - PBR, Sport, Techniques, U.S.A. • Tags: , , , , , , ,

I have written about Professional Bull Riding a few times in the past, however over the next couple of posts I would like to talk about the photographers who bring you the great images from the PBR each and every week.

As you would expect I got paid a bundle to put this together. Well, Andy bought me a sandwich and a diet coke. I work for love and kisses. That, or I just really like taking photos up close at the PBR methinks.

Seeing as how it is my blog I also get to shove in a few of my shots… they won’t mind as I am sure that they have seen the odd bull riding photo or two.

I took the following photograph this past weekend in Columbus at the penultimate round of the 2011 PBR season… from here the traveling roadshow heads to Las Vegas for the World Finals, and the subsequent crowning of a new Champion. The photo was taken from the ‘Shark Cage’ in the middle of the arena, which I would have to say is my favorite place to be at these events. It is really cool.

Here’s Looking At You!

So who are the PBR photographers?

With the amount of imagery that gets created you would think that it is a large crew. In fact it is just three (3)… of the nicest people around… and very busy ones at that. Husband and wife team Andy & Jacey Watson who live in Montana, and Matt Breneman who is based in California.

They are BULL STOCK MEDIA.

Matt, Jacey & Andy at the 2010 World Finals in Las Vegas standing with the Champion’s Trophy & a couple of really big Checks!

As you would expect, after years of experience and practice they have it down to a science. Each of the three plays a part, and it goes something like this.

So what do you get when you cross a keen fisherman with a boy who grew up in a Montana National Park playing with Buffalo (I made the buffalo bit up… I think), who likes taking photos of dangerous bulls up close, and is into rebuilding old pick up trucks? That would be Andy.

For those who were surprised to hear in a prior blog that the photographers are on the actual arena with Flint and the Bull Fighters (and the Bulls), this is where Andy is located. You can see him in the below photograph taking a photo of former World Champion Mike Lee. Yep… I know what you are thinking… ‘whack-job alert’. For sure that is not a place to be if you don’t like beef up close or are a vegetarian.

Former World Champion Mike Lee in Columbus

Andy’s job is to to shoot (document) every ride that comes out of the chute, as you never know which one is going to win the actual event, or post a record score.

As the arenas’ are relatively dark for capturing good images of fast moving objects he has eight (8) high powered professional flash (strobe) units up in the rafters. He installs these at nearly every event, then they get shipped along with the rest of the PBR equipment to the next location on the PBR haulers.

Note: for those feeling sorry for Andy for having to lug these around…. he made me carry all 8 of the damn things down by myself last weekend… he had to take care of the ‘technical’ part of the diss-assembly. Yeah right… an Aussie doesn’t know how to disconnect a US extension cord?? Mind you… it seems that we are dumb enough to be a pack mule though. Still, I got to see the arena from a place that not many ever will. In case you are wondering… yes we are very high up here. That is a humpin’ big twin cab Ford pick up truck down there.

Andy ‘grizzly adams’ setting up Strobe units in Columbus

Andy uses a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV camera and an EF70-200 f/2.8L lens, and fires the strobes in the rafters with a Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 transmitter. He is also an accomplished fence jumper… which he is known to do on occasion to avoid the odd bull heading his way.

Time for me to squeeze in another one of my shots… taken from the Bull chutes at the Cooper Tires Invitational in Columbus with a Canon EOS-1 Mk4 camera and a Canon EF70-200 f/2.8L II lens. Focal length at 70mm as he was pretty close at the time.

Brazilian Robson Palermo

Not sure how many Bulls Matt got to hang around with in Orange County in Southern California but he seems to like getting up close and cuddly now.

Matt is the ‘everywhere’ photog. He shoots the portrait sessions (see the cowboy photos on the PBR website for example), as well as any functions and events. When he is finished with these activities he hangs out on the Bull chutes with the cowboys and gets up close and personal as the bull riders get on the bulls and exit the chutes. Having done this myself with him… you can’t be scared or allergic to bull-snot and bull-crap to be this close… and there is gobs of it to go around.

Now while this may not seem as dangerous as being on the arena, there are a lot of moving parts apart from the bull to be careful of. You share this space with the bull riders, the TV camera guys, the officials, and the stock contractors. And as you can see, Matt gets up close to the bull here, even sticking his camera through the rails as you will see in the below video, so it has its moments.

Matt on the Bull Chute in Madison Square Garden New York City

Now I have to tell you a bull crap story. Bulls seem to be factories for both crap and snot, and when they get excited in the chutes just before they try and buck the rider off… they don’t mind sharing it around. Last year in Billings Montana I was up on the Bull chutes with the TV camera guy when this bull unloaded on him and the end of the camera lens, and I mean unloaded. Being the pro that he was he simply got a big stack of napkins out of his pocket (yes he was prepared), simply wiped off the lens, and kept on trucking.

Matt runs two (2) cameras, both hooked up to WFT’s. A Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, typically with an EF70-200 f/2.8L II lens, and a Canon EOS-5D MkII with either an EF16-35 f/2.8L or EF24-70 f/2.8L lens. On the Bull chutes even a 16mm lens may not get it all in as you are so close.

Below is a short video (and a crappy one at that – a lot of crap seems to be flying here) that I took with my GoPro of Matt in action on the chutes last weekend. It is ‘as shot’ out of the GoPro with no editing so it is what it is. Turn the volume up…  and check out where he is putting the camera (and himself).

And last, but by no means least… is the brains of the operation… Jacey (a.k.a. Photo Commander). To this day I have no idea how she does what she does. Maybe it is a girl thing, meaning that she seems to be able to do a hell of a lot of complicated things at the same time… with a smile on her face. I think it is the red wine myself.

To explain what Jacey does it is probably easier to simply explain how a typical event goes once the announcers say… ‘Welcome to the PB-RRRRRRR’.

The Photo Commander

Andy and Matt (and me if I go) have their cameras hooked up to Canon Wireless File Transmitters (WFT), which then in turn are connected to an FTP site (via a wireless connection/network and laptop that they have located just outside the main arena floor next to where Andy stands – he can actually lean over the fence and watch the live feed that Jacey is posting).  What is really cool about how this works is that more often than not, Jacey is in Montana while the event is running… this is where the red wine comes in.

The photos hit Jacey from 3-4 separate cameras while the event is running. She selects, then crops and posts directly into the PBR.com Live Event Center ‘Live Photos’ section. Now while that is clever in itself, what is really clever (and ambidextrous) is the fact that she also carries on a conversation with all her ‘Herd’ as she calls them… which is several thousand people who log-in to the live feed, both to view the photos, and to communicate with other members of the Herd… it is a community of people who may have never met… but all like Bull Riding.

Live Photos Live Feed Chat

PBR turned on their new website this past weekend which has moved the Live Event Center, so here is the new link if you want to check it out. PBR LIVE PHOTOS. It isn’t the easiest thing to find now, so once you get there you will need to click on the drop down as per the below.

PBR Live Photos

So to close out this basic summary of Team BSM. What they do is both somewhat unique and unusual, and certainly not for the faint hearted. They make it look simple, and they try to make the PBR fans feel like they are part of the action and closer than they will likely ever get… and they are good at what they do.

Well that is enough on these yahoos for now. I will check back in after the PBR World Finals in Vegas.

See you next time. Same Place.

Me & Matt on the Chutes

Fly Fishing and Bull Riding 5

Professional Bull Riding - PBR, Sport, U.S.A. • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

So what does fly fishing and bull riding have in common? Not much if taken at face value, but one of them enabled me to try the other.

Been fishing before? Sure… put a dirty great big bait fish on a couple of big hooks, toss it in the ocean, put your rod in a holder… and sit back, drink beer, and wait for a bigger fish to swim by and commit suicide. Simple enough.

Fly fishing has been something that I have always wanted to try, but never seemed to get around to it. As it happens, my buddies Andy & Jacey Watson at Freestone Productions were putting on the PBR Livingston Classic professional bull riding event in Livingston Montana. So… as the way ‘mates rates’ seem to go since the beginning of time… ‘you come and take photos of the event for us… and we will take you drift boat fishing’… Done Deal I say. As it happens, Andy is a part time fishing guide, so I am in good hands.

Now you might say that Andy got the better end of the deal… free photographer for an easy day fishing. Well let me say this… he had to row the damn drift boat all day while I sucked at trying to catch fish. Anyhow… I would have done it for free anyway. That is what mate’s do where I am from.

Blue Sky. Clean Air… can’t beat that with a stick!

Anyone who hasn’t tried fly fishing and enjoys being outside… get your butt over to Big Sky country and give it a try. Yellowstone National Park is just down the road, so make it a family trip. You (and your kids especially) won’t regret it.

So… did I catch anything? Well that is a matter of opinion. I certainly hooked a stack of them, but as it turns out I had absolutely no idea it seems on how to keep the damn hook in their small mouth and get them in the boat. Where is my big winding reel and 30lb fishing line when you need it. Andy, just to be a smart-arse makes a couple of casts and lands one… we have a name for people like that in Australia.

So now I had to fulfill my end of the bargain and take some photos of some bulls trying to offload some cowboys. It was a tough gig. Outside in the clean fresh air. Nice weather. Nice people. Big blue sky. Mountains in the background. I trudged on as best I could.

The Livingston Classic is part of the PBR Touring Pro Division, and as such is held in an outdoor arena, and generally during the week. The Touring Pro Division is akin to the minor league in Baseball, or the Nationwide series in NASCAR, so it is a combination of big time bull riders either taking the opportunity to earn some points and/or cash or regaining some form, and for rising bull riders to try and earn their way onto the Ford Built Tough Series (FBTS).

Now you might expect that the bulls aren’t so good, and it is an easy gig for the FBTS bull riders… not so, says the guy standing on the sidelines with the camera. Sure, some of the bulls aren’t ever going to make the big arena, and some are in training (yes bulls train), but some of them are the real deal. One of my favorite bulls is Big Tex from Chad Berger Bucking Bulls. One of my photos of him from last year’s event was used to help promote the event this year in the The Livingston Enterprise newspaper.

PBR Bull Rider – Cord McCoy

Andy & Jacey also do a great job at getting some PBR ‘celebrities’ to attend the event. PBR announcer Brandon Bates comes and does his thing. World Class entertainer Flint Rasmussen keeps the crowd laughing when there is a lull in the action, and some world class bull riders show up, like Cord McCoy pictured above taking it easy on the chutes.

PBR Entertainer – Flint Rasmussen

Well that’s about it. Need to pack up my gear and go and take some photos of some alligators and Blue Herons in the Florida everglades. Will post some photos at a later date… if I make it back.

Even Rock-Stars need to eat. I leave you with this photo of #511 Another Husker chowing down before the event. As far as bulls go he isn’t ranked all that high… but he still has a career buck-off rate of 68%, and 75% last season.

No such thing as… ‘just a bucking bull in the PBR!’

And YES… I am that close!… and have the bull snot stain to prove it.