# 21 - Our current two-year RV trip across North America. This week's; Pro-Rodeo in Mercedes (Rio Grande Valley), Southern Texas. - Pentax K-3

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

 Hi Photographer friends,

We spent some time in Southern Texas and last spring we had the chance to attend a Bull Riding Rodeo. It is entertaining for us, the crowd, but this is no sissy sport. It is entertaining for us, the crowd, but this is no “sissy” sport. The riders really get banged up.

Each bull has a unique name and number used to identify the bull. A sufficient number of bulls each judged to be of good strength, health, agility, and age, are selected to perform. The rider and bull are matched randomly before the competition, although starting in 2008, some ranked riders are allowed to choose their own bulls from a bull draft for selected rounds in PBR events.

A rider mounts a bull and grips a flat braided rope. After he secures a good grip on the rope, the rider nods to signal he is ready. The bucking chute (a small enclosure which opens from the side) is opened and the bull storms out into the arena. The rider must attempt to stay on the bull for at least eight seconds, while only touching the bull with his riding hand. His other hand must remain free for the duration of the ride. Originally, the rules required a 10 second ride, but that was changed to the current eight seconds.

The bull bucks, rears, kicks, spins, and twists in an effort to throw the rider off. This continues for a number of seconds until the rider bucks off or dismounts after completing his ride. A loud buzzer or whistle announces the completion of an eight second ride.

Throughout the ride, bullfighters, also popularly known as rodeo clowns, stay near the bull in order to aid the rider if necessary. When the ride ends, either intentionally or not, the bullfighters distract the bull to protect the rider from harm.

Many competitions have a format that involves multiple rounds, sometimes called "go-rounds." Generally, events span two to three nights. The rider is given a chance to ride one bull per night. The total points scored by the end of the event are recorded, and after the first or first two go rounds, the top 20 riders are given a chance to ride one more bull. This final round is called the "short go". After the end of the short go, the rider with the most total points wins the event. 

(Above From Wikipedia - read more here.)

Understandably, most riders are in their twenties.
Pentax K-3 and smc Pentax DA 50-200mm f4-5.6 ED WR

The Rodeo Queen and her horse stood still during the National Anthem.

There is such a camaraderie in this sport, not comparable to other sports.

Riders help each other getting a good and solid grip, before the gate opens

Are you ready?

"This one is taking me for a spin"

The Rodeo Clowns have to be as good a shape as the riders.

It's not uncommon for the Rodeo Clowns to take the hit.

"Get off my back"

On your mark, get set...

The images above were all taken with the Pentax K-3, using one lens only. The images were reduced in size for faster uploading to this blog. I also tweaked the saturation and clarity, not that the images weren't good coming directly from the camera, but because images on a computer screen need a little more punch.

Thanks for reading,

Yvon Bourque

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Rodeo in Southern Texas photographed with the Pentax K-3 and the DA 50-200mm ED WR

Email: brqyvn@gmail.com

Hi Photographer friends,

We are currently in Southern Texas with our RV. As many of you know, we are travelling the US and Canada for the next two years. Driving around in the area this past Sunday, we had breakfast in a small local restaurant  (best food are always found at these locations)  and heard about a bull riding rodeo taking place nearby. We decided to go. What a treat.

I really wasn't set up for that as the only lens I had with me was the DA 50-200mm. It's a good lens, but not as good as the more expensive Pentax zoom and telephoto lenses. You know what they say, the best lens is the one you have with you. As for the camera, that was different. I had the Pentax K-3 and that's the best cropped sensor DSLR ever produced.

I think I managed to get some good images after all. The place was dark and I had to use ISO 800 on most images. Surprisingly, they came out looking pretty good. I did crop most of the images and played with the exposure, sharpening and luminance in Lightroom afterward. I am one that believe in enhancing your images is a good thing as long as you don't change the context or add additional images that weren't there to begin with. 

So here are a few of the pictures:

Silhouettes have a pleasant impact, for me anyway. It is taken while reading the light from the brighter background, fooling the camera's metering system to think that the exposure is optimum. Pentax K-3 with the DA 50-200mm.

This ride looks like it would be worse than my Ford F350 Dually Pickup Truck. I admire these cowboys. Using the same lens, I cropped it and added some vignetting in the corners to draw the viewer's attention to the center.

Credit has to be given to these guys for diverting the bull's attention away from the bull rider while he is off the bull. Notice the rider on the bottom right corner. The bull actually threw the guy up in the air. Fortunately, he wasn't injured. Amazing! This image was cropped to get closer and the exposure was adjusted afterward. 

The above two images show the intense work effort that goes into making sure the rider is secured on the bull before the gate is open. This is an extraordinary team effort. Just think about it, a bull weighing about two thousand pounds against the rider weighing less that two hundred pounds. Which one has a better chance?  The bull does everything it can to throw the rider off. Once off, the bull often tries to trample the rider.  The images were cropped, the exposure adjusted, and the luminance adjusted. 

Does this bull look friendly to you?  Image cropped and exposure adjusted.

The horse looks as proud as the rider. This was taken while the national Anthem was sung A Cappella. It was touching in a cowboy kind of way. This image was cropped to a square format just because I liked it better.

This must be what you feed like when riding a bull. My head was spinning just looking. This image was shot at 1/30th of a second to capture the movement. Cropped and clarity adjusted.

I took a lot more pictures, but I think that eight images do tell the story. We had a great time and will go to another rodeo when we have a chance.

Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque

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