Images of the Rodeo

Back in the beginning of January I was up on my friends farm in Peria.  My friends were responsible for putting on a great day for the Rodeo.  So I grabbed my camera and went along for the ride!  I loved the excitement, the pink shirts, the cowboys walking around with limps, some in plaster casts, the boots, the hats, the dust and the power of the bulls.  I was quite surprised at how much I did enjoy it.  These are some of the images I took that day...

It's all about the turn of the head apparently.  Once the head has been turned the steer goes down quite easily, but until that, it's hard work for the cowboy as the steers are many times heavier.

I'm so glad jeans are made to last and they didn't split up the middle!  Or maybe it would have been a better image if they had...

These guys are so agile, jumping from a moving horse onto a moving steer.  They make it look so easy, but I know if I tried, I'd probably land face down in the dust.  No - I'm not about to try.  Ever.

Whoops.  There goes another hat.  You'd think they would glue the hats down with those toupee strips!  (Which by the way are excellent to stick your cochlear implant or hearing aids to the side of your head if you're going to do horse riding, or bull riding!)

This guy not only lost his hat, he lost the steer as well.  Toupee strips, toupee strips are the answer.  Sigh.

I was amazed at the sheer size and muscularity of the bull.  This is one animal I would not like to take on and I admire the bravery (stupidity?) of the cowboys that get on them, only to be flung off like a rag-doll, with the chance the angry bull could trample them underfoot.  It didn't happen while I was there, but apparently the day before someone was gored.

Amazingly this guy didn't fall off at this point and went on for another few minutes before being tossed off!

There he goes - and look - he's not using toupee strips to hold his hat on either!

I'm also in awe of how the bulls can leap around in mid air despite their size and weight.  This one looks snortingly angry!

That guy in the background spent a lot of time half way up that fence.  I'm not sure how safe he was up there really, if the bull got it into his head to use him for target practice.

Air-borne and dangerous!

This very distinctive coloured bull was probably the biggest of the day and put up a huge fight...

To me the bulls are so totally unpredictable in the way the lash out with their hind legs, I was surprised not to see more injuries.  I guess the guys in the ring have a bit of experience behind them.

Look at that dust storm beneath his feet.  Look how high he's off the ground!

And he's still on top!

But not for long!!!

And yes - my camera got very dusty that day.  So much so that I had to go out and buy a new camera the following month!

These are the cowboys in pink shirts that herded the steers/bulls out of the ring after each ride.  The shirts say 'Tough Enough to Wear Pink'.  Tough men actually look sexy in pink don't you think?

Another angry bull.  This one was just standing on one leg.  The rest were flying!

This next lot is a sequence of a cowboy in a pink shirt and his bid to stay on one of the larger bulls of the day.  The emotions, and expressions and movements of the men in the ring tell a story in itself...

Mr Orange Shirt getting out of the way.  If you look closely you can see how hot the day was, and how much effort was required to stay on the bull.  It's that damp patch under the arm.  Maybe next year they could get one of the deodorant companies to sponsor the event!

In my opinion, what makes this image so good is not only the fact that the bull is caught in midair, but also the eye contact between the guy in the orange shirt and the bull.   The guy in the orange shirt is almost in midair himself as well.  That makes the image exciting.

This is the next one in the sequel, notice how the guy in the orange shirt has his hand on the bull to try and guide it around.  Madness, madness.

Once again, another power image with the expression and eye contact of the guy in the orange shirt, and the bull in midair.  Even the mucus from the cow has been caught in the air.

The way this cowboy has stayed on has been amazing.  I'm pretty sure he must have won his round, but because of my deafness, I never heard who the winners were.

Now the bull is making mucus rings!  That was the last shot in that series.  I think the guy must have come off after that.

I have just two more images (hope you're aren't bored).  That I feel are worthy...

Yeeehaa!  But it also almost looks like the bull is smelling those daisies at the same time.

The guy fell off after this shot.    The bull wasn't as big either as the last ones either.  But still impressive how they leap so far up in the air.

Finally - just one more...

I thought bulls only did this in stories.  I was surprised to see it kicking up the dust in warning.  I wouldn't like to be in front of it just now!

Mistakes - and the Peria Rodeo.

I have just finished making some Lemon and Poppyseed Muffins. I didn't cook them for long enough and they're soggy in the middle. I'm going to use the excuse it's a new oven and I'm not familiar with it just yet.

Thinking about this mistake, I started thinking about mistakes in photography. But when you're shooting something that's in action, you can't always go back and fix that mistake. Take for instance my photographs of the Japanese Zero plane I took a the Marlborough Aviation museum a few weeks ago, when it did a surprise fly by.

From The Ambling Rambler

While this is a good clear shot of a plane flying, it would not do well in competition simply because my shutter speed was so fast, it stopped the propellor completely.  The plane looks suspended in mid air!  A good image would have left the propellor blurred in action.  So what I should have done is reduced the shutter speed.  All good, but you have to remember I only had 1.5 seconds to make that decision before the plane disappeared for good.  So.. I missed it.  Part of it was also unfamiliarisation of my new camera and what it's capable of.   Next time I hope I can remember to have a slower shutter speed before I even start shooting.

Very occasionally, without even knowing, you can shoot all day with the wrong settings, and can be surprised.  In one such instance, on a bright hot summers day with no cloud in the sky, I forgot to check my ISO settings.  However, the images turned out fine, although the sky was a bit noisy.  I did probably delete more than usual due to overexposure though, but I was shooting in the middle of the day, so sometimes these things cannot be helped.  Noise Ninja solved the worst of the problems.  The day in question was this...

From The Ambling Rambler

I've just been talking to other photographers and ISO is probably one of the most common things that we forget to check between shoots.  It can really stuff things up if you have been shooting on 1600 ISO and forget to change it back to the 200-400 ISO  range, especially on a sunny day.

But occasionally, VERY occasionally, it can work in your favour.  I had been out shooting in low light conditions the last time I used my camera before the Peria Rodeo.   I had my ISO set on 800.   Then on the day of the Peria Rodeo - a hot, sunny, cloudless day in mid summer, I grabbed my camera and started shooting.  Never once checking the ISO.    I took about 200 images, and because they were all action shots, was thinking if I could three or four perfectly focussed images, I would be happy.  Every single image turned out perfectly.   I was amazed, and that's when I truly learnt about ISO settings when it comes to action shots.

Of all the images I took at the rodeo - I thought this one was the best, but I had a whole heap of others which I'll post up in the next blog!

From The Ambling Photographer

Other easy things to forget is the JPEG vs RAW.  There's nothing worse than coming home from a photoshoot to find all your images have been shot in JPEG instead of RAW.  I've only done it once, and was so disappointed with the results, I do keep a check on it now.  The only time I change to jpeg if I want to do some quick small photos for the web only - for instance an auction on trademe.

And have you ever shot a whole lot of fabulous shots, on a perfect day knowing you've got some great images, to find you had no memory card in your camera?  In fact no memory card on you at all, AND you were walking, so couldn't rush home and get it to start again?    I keep memory cards in abundance now, and I know I'm not the only one who has done this!

Live and Learn.  That's what Photography is all about!

My First Photobook

I sat down and finally made my first photobook today.  Just to experiment - I made it up of all my macro flowers..

You can see it here...

The Colours of Nature... by Robyn Carter | BOOK INFO

This is the start of many - it's available in 12 x 12 and 7 x 7 format.

Let me know what you think!  And if you want a copy you can actually buy it off that website! The preview offers a sampling of the book - but there are actually 60 of my photos in the book.

Japanese Zero - Very Rare WWII Plane

I was at the Omaka Aviation Museum in Blenheim last Saturday, which I am yet to blog about with the photos of the exhibits and a bit of a funny story. However with the Wanaka Air Show on, and the high media interest in the very rare Japanese Zero plane, I thought I would just post up some photographs that I managed to get, as one did a fly-by over the Museum while I was there.

I'm pretty pleased with my Canon 7D, AI Servo mode with fast shutter speed. To get these photos I just pointed the camera, panned it, and kept the shutter button down. I hoped to get at least one shot that might come out well. The first ones are slightly out of focus, but they got sharper as the plane got closer.

Number 1 shot - not that good, and number 2 and 3 I deleted as I only got the wing, not any of the plane!!

Number 4 shot - I was now able to pan it.  This plane was flying quite fast and this wasn't easy.

Number 5 shot - Almost can see the pilot, and now flying over the building.

Number 6 shot - flying over the building.  I wonder if the pilot waved?

Number 7 shot, managed to lift the lens up a bit and get the building out of the way.

Number 8 shot - you can see the pilot quite clearly now.  I was amazed that the propeller looks like it's not even turning, the shutter was so fast it simply froze it.

Number 9 shot - disappearing over the building and that was the last that I could take.  Note the Canon 7D does 8 frames per second, so this was probably just 1.5 seconds worth of images.

A little bit of information of the plane.  There are only 3 of these planes left that are able to fly in the world, so these photos are pretty special.  There were 11,000 made altogether.  They are famous for the devastation they caused at Pearl Harbour.  The aircraft were only built to be able to fly for 100 hours, then to be lost, either in combat or a crash.  (Don't the Japanese build cars like that too?)

Up to 1943, the Air Force had no equal, which is why they were so hard to shoot down.  The planes were ahead of their time, at the time.

This particular plane was found in Indonesia riddled with bullet holes, where it was patched up and taken to the USA where it has stayed ever since, before coming down here to take part in the Wanaka Air Show.

I was just lucky enough that it flew over the museum at the time I was there.  Talk about being at the right place at the right time for a change!!

Camera data for those that want it-

No. 1:  1/2000 sec at f14.0 300mm  ISO 800
No 4:   1/2000 sec at f16.0 300mm  ISO 800
No 5:   1/2000 sec at f16.0 300mm  ISO 800
No 6:   1/2000 sec at f13.0 300mm  ISO 800
No 7:   1/2000 sec at f14.0 300mm  ISO 800
No 8:   1/1600 sec at f14.0 300mm  ISO 800
No 9:   1/2000 sec at f16.0 300mm  ISO 800

The Needles - Wards Beach

I can't believe I've now been in Blenheim for 6 weeks and in my new house for five! Time has just whizzed by. I've been busy moving in, and have been getting lots of visitors with no time to work on all my photos, or to update my blog so this is about to be rectified!

The first weekend I was down in Blenheim, the Marlborough Camera Club had a field trip to Wards Beach and the Needles. I decided to go, even though my ankle was still pretty sore. I mean - how hard can it be to walk down a beach right? Ha! If only I had known!

We all met at the train station at 8.30am. I left my car there and went with others. It was a stunning day, going to be hot, with not a cloud in the sky. The trip to the beach took about an hour, down highway 1 to Ward.

The first thing we had to do was cross a small river, and round the point, and after that just walk along the beach until we reached our destination - the Needles. The Needles are limestone rock formations - you can see them in the distance in the following image..

Note how blue the sky was - all these images are straight out of the camera, no enhancements or change of colour - they are as is, untouched.

We were actually lucky this day, as Wards Beach is quite exposed and it can blow a howling gale and be very unpleasant, but it was simply a sea breeze and hot sun. The distance wasn't too great to the Needles - about 5km, but it was really tough. The tide was in and the beach is all shingle, so every time you took a footstep, you would sink down - definitely not good for my ankle! The best way to deal with it was just to put one foot in front of the other and keep going!!

As you can see I had lagged behind quite a way about half way down, as my ankle was so sore. Then I noticed a track along the farm alongside the beach. Several of us climbed up and through the fence and onto that road and walked along there - much easier than the shingle as it was something solid under our feet. You can see the fence line on the image below..

Not only was it better to walk on, it afforded us slightly better views. However, in the shelter of the hills, it was much hotter too.

After a while, the track veered inland, so we had to go back down to the beach again. Each step took us closer to our destination...

And closer...

I kept looking back also to make sure the place we started from was getting smaller!!

Just a bit further - I started to believe at this point I was going to survive and make it to the destination. But Wait! See that road on the cliff. First I had to get up there! I was a bit embarrassed to tell anyone I had no balance and needed help seeing it was my first day. So I just let my pride rule me that day and decided to just go for it. I made it up with great difficulty, but I did have an image of my ENT Surgeon shaking his head in despair at the time!!!

I mentioned before we were walking on a shingle beach. Take a look at the stones in closer detail. The were a myriad of colours, but in particular there were lots of pure white, very smooth rounded stones. I filled up my pocket with some, but was careful not to take too many as I didn't want to be weighted down. I will definitely be going back sometime with a bucket!

Another quick look back - to find I'm not the last one after all!! Not that there's any shame of coming last!

And finally - at our destination and the first of the 'Needles'. Very large pointy limestone rocks. They were quite something. Huge too.

To give you an idea of just how big they are, the following image has a few people in it for a point of reference...

Round the corner to find another beach that went for miles, all the way to the Kaikoura coast. Simply stunning.

More limestone rock formations...

Does anyone else but me see the similarity between this last image and the next?

Makes me wonder if the seals come here to worship themselves! Did they carve them out as likeness of themselves millions of years ago? Were they once intelligent creatures from out of space? (This is my best Chariots of the Gods imitation sorry!!)

Yes - there was a seal colony down here as well. They obviously liked lying in the same place each time, as certain parts of the limestone rocks were a dirty brown colour. There was a 'smell' around those areas as well, so you could tell that's where they lay!

These are the New Zealand Fur Seals. They are the most common seals found in New Zealand waters. They are excellent swimmers and weaned pups will turn up almost anywhere around New Zealand. A fur seal pup tagged on the west coast of South Island has even been recorded in Australia. On land they sometimes become disoriented and have been found in unusual places such as back-yards, drains and streets.

I was using my telephoto lens, but I was also quite close to them. When photographing seals, you have to remember they are a wild animal and will attack. Seal bites are quite common among tourists that get too close. I always make sure I'm never between a seal and the water.

Having said that, they would warn me politely if I got too close by way of a hiss and a bark. I would always take heed and step back. After I got the photo of course!

This one was just a yawn...

But this one was definitely a warning!

I did what I was told and moved back up the beach...

Turned out that I was just standing on his bed of kelp, and he just wanted to be where I had been! But I wasn't going to argue!

It was time to make tracks back down to the cars. But before I went, I took another few photos of the limestone rocks. Is it just me, or this is another seal rock?

Another quick look down the coast to Kaikoura, and of course I couldn't resist taking just one more photo! The landscape was just stunning.

Rather than try to climb down the cliff and break my neck in doing so, I walked round the road, which took me up into the hills for a bit, before coming to a road that would take me back to the beach. It was worth it as the views were stunning...

I have to walk all the way back to that far point. Fortunately the tide was out on the way back, and I was able to walk on firmer sand - made it much easier, but my ankle was still extremely painful.

Too late!

I didn't see the no trespassing sign until we had got back down to the beach from the hill road. There probably should be one at the start of the road after the Needles themselves. I promise I shut gates, didn't do any damage, and didn't litter. (Just in case the farmer is reading this!)

All in all - a wonderful field trip, great people and a perfect day. I'm pleased to say my ankle, 5 weeks later, is just starting to recover!