Mustang Mama

I loved watching her.  She was so regal and serene in her demeanor.

A ranch just has to have toads :)

Hope you all had a great day..........

If you stick your tongue out just right you can fish the loop over the other horn.

Roping is sooooooo fun!

Well, between Facebook, Blog, Smugmug website, and my daily ranch life I seem to forget one or the her on a daily basis.  But life is good.  Life is interesting.  Life is fun. 

I took quite a few photos from the 'balcony' at the end of the arena, in Winnemucca during the WSRRA Finals Rodeo, and I'm loving the shots from that angle.  I haven't even seen them all on my computer yet.  It's like a party everyday when I search thru them and discover more awesome cowboy action!

This is Hot Creek Ranch where the WSRRA sport cattle enjoy life outside the arena.

Jonathan Lambert is the lone rider and if you look far into the distance you'll see a small herd of cattle being pushed by a couple of other riders.  This day we brought in four bunches from this range.

One of my cool barn cats -Mama Kitty. Original, I know.

Dedicated to Cowkids

Three foot of struttin' man-child,

Chinks flappin' in the breeze,
Sunlight glintin' off red-gold hair,
Grass nearly to his knees....

Cows mooin', calves a bawlin,'

Cowboys lopin' 'round the pen,

One lonely little white-face

Walks t'wards the boy, and then...

Each lookin' at the other...

Not a word, or sound, is made...

Each thinkin' 'bout the other...

"Just you wait!  I ain't afraid!"

by Victoria Boyd

Don't forget to check yer cinch!

She dreams of being an eagle.....

I love watching cowkids......the youngsters who competed at WSRRA in the Sr. Jr. Doctoring event were truly amazing.

Way too much fun to watch

And there were singing cowgirls........

They dance, they buck, they twist and turn, and sometimes they unload their passenger.....

Don't Give It Up!!!!!

Okay..........three art pieces for you and now I'm off to bed.....been a verrry long 4 days.

I'm talking REAL fun :)

WSRRA Finals Rodeo was awesome!

Playtime

Bryan Kendrick.....heading for WSRRA Finals!!!!!

Buck Brannaman

Lil Cowgirl

Share my blog and photography website links with anyone you know who loves animals and the western way of life. Thanks!

and "Ghoul Night"

The Big Push

Bobbi n Jigs

Just Hangin'

The 'Do It All' Man

Goats are funny critters

Curtis Tollefsrud helping the Murpheys

Curtis is fun to work cattle with! 

He's a great teacher with young folks learning the ropes...patient and good natured. 

 Always smiling and enjoying the situation. 

It's good to know him.

See ya in Winnemucca, Curtis.

Big Daddy

Ranch Work !?!?!?!

Sometimes things get out of hand!!!!!

Ranch Goat

 Billy goats stink, nannys are sweet, and kids are sooooooo darned cute!

Mosey on Home Little Doggies

I do love a cattle drive.

River Ranch Sunset

This is one of my all time favorite places to ride, gather cattle, and train young horses.

Ground Crew

They're a tough bunch!

Ranch Rig

I rode in this big rig with Dave Murphy at Hot Creek.  I thought we'd be rolling slow across the desert but he could drive those roads in his sleep and it was a FUN ride.

The Last of the Dust.........

Ranch Rooster

Ranch Cat

We call him Garfield.  He sleeps everywhere, all the time.  The rain began sprinkling this morning as he slept on the hood of my truck.....just outside the window of my studio.  I was taking photos of him sleeping when he sat up and looked around....likely wondering where he could go to find a drier place to sleep some more.

On a side note.......Natural Horsemanship

I love horses!  I love natural horsemanship!  I love Parelli Natural Horsemanship!  I'm so thankful for Tom Dorrance and his blessed gift with horses and for passing it on to the wonderful Ray Hunt and now many other great horseman.  Horses are amazing animals and partners.  That's where I get a natural high....playing with and training and riding horses.

All my horses learn the 7 games with me.  And my main levels mare in the Parelli Program can be ridden like this.  It's waaaaay fun!   And she went from a dangerous hot headed bucking horse to being a partner with me in natural horsemanship.  It simply works!

This young lady and her horse travel with Pat and Linda Parelli on their Celebration tour to show people what a horse can be like with it's human partner.

Horses are people, too .....jk.....but they do have feelings and emotions and fears and uncertainties and dominance issuses and respect/lack of respect issues, etc.  The 7 games develop a respectful working relationship.....a partnership that can be further developed and enjoyed by both the human and the horse.

And it doesn't matter what kind of activity you do with your horses, they can all have this foundation and be the better and happier for it. 

Be Patient with me.....

I have a new laptop....VERY NICE one too.  I'm going to be loading ALL my photography onto this one laptop.  I have photography on 3 computers right now ... and, of course ,backed up.
I want it all in one place for editing and uploading.  Thus, the new BIG DOG.
I'll finally get more of the Hot Creek Ranch photography uploaded this coming week.
Also, please share my Blog with all your friends and ask them to also share.  I'd like the world :) to enjoy my photography of Ranch Life in the American West.  The only way for my work to get OUT THERE before I'm long gone is if you will help me by sharing my blog and my photography website.
Thanks so much!
Vicki

Ranch Kid

I love it when little kids discover and play with their shadows.  This is my granddaughter Emma.

The old Hot Creek Hotel

Home Sweet Home to friends who visit Hot Creek Ranch.

High Desert Sky

The clouds over Hot Creek Ranch are the BEST!

High Desert Color

One Loop One Throw One Calf Down

The end of a long day.....

Our workday ended at 9:30 pm by the time we hauled the last load of bulls away, trailered all our horses and rigs back to the ranch, and put our horses up and fed them.  A hot shower and bed never felt so good.

From the home corral.......

Well, I said I'd give you photography tips and techniques and ideas once in a while so here's one for you....

If you have a photograph that isn't quite up to par...a little blurry, too dark, color not very good, etc....go into your photo editing program and begin playing with these editing tools:  I adjust levels, brightness and contrast, lighting, saturation, sharpness, etc.  One at a time.....experiment.  If you like what you have with one adjustment then move on to the other.  If one doesn't help, move to the next tool. 

When you have that part about as good as you can get it....go into your filters.  This particular photo was very dark, too busy, and blurry.  But I liked the action so I found a way to save it.  I played with all my editing tools, as I suggested, and then experimented with one filter at a time.  I happen to have a few favorites and the one I settled on is the DRY BRUSH filter.  When a photo just won't turn out nice enough, I add a filter and make it art :)

This is the final outcome.  Not gallery worthy, but a fun photo.

*** Bad or dark lighting is sometimes hard to fix so.....try the Auto brightness and contrast, Auto Levels....if no good then go into the manual (Touchup) tools and manually play with Brightness, Contrast, Levels, and Lighting.  One of those will do the trick for you.  It's fun to make digital art out of a bad photograph!

There REALLY are cattle out there........

The heat worked in our favor.  Corriente cattle can be snakey, high headed, and FAST.  But on a hot day they would rather poke along.  We loved it!   Me and Kathy had to drive our bunch about 10 miles across the big, wide open, and they were kind to us and went where we pushed them.

And then the rains came....

We were sweating, and eating dirt.....literally.  Open your mouth to speak and get a mouthful of dirt blowing in the wind.  But the wind helped keep us a little cooler so we didn't mind.  By afternoon black clouds grumbled across the sky and we got hit hard.  By the time it passed, my hooded sweatshirt was soaked and the wind howled and I was COLD.  Crazy desert weather.  This image was taken right before hard rain hit.

On a different note......

I'd like to mention here that all images I post on my blog are basically thumbnails, not high resolution.  You will find the original high resolution photography and fine art images on my photography website next week.  I wanted to share some of my favorites from the trip right away so I'm sharing them on my blog early.  I'll let you know once they're on my website.  Also, if you order any images from my website they will not have Ranch Life Photography across the front :)