Last weekend I drove up to Augusta, Montana for the American Legion Rodeo.  I attended the rodeo back in 2008 while I was in school at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography and had a good time, so I was looking forward to returning this year.  Back then, I was shooting with a different (and cheaper) lens than I have now and the results were not nearly as good.  I ended up being fairly disappointed with most of my shots that time around.  I don’t think I even posted any on this blog or on my Flickr stream.  It was the rodeo that finally made up my mind to purchase the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L that I use (and love) now.

This year, I stayed on the general admission side of the rodeo ring.  I knew the grandstand area would be populated by the current Summer Intensive students as it was when I was one of them two years ago.  It turns out, I think the general admission side is the better choice for photography.  It doesn’t matter much for the bronco and bull riding events.  They move and spin pretty randomly. But for the calf roping and steer wrestling, the contestants are riding toward you instead of across and away from you on the grandstand side.  You get shots of faces instead of a lot of waving tails and rear ends.

Below are my picks from the day of shooting.  You can see the SI students lining the fence across from me in some of the shots.  I was one of them two years ago.

Click on a thumbnail for a larger view:

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