The New Road Home

At the end and down the hill is where happiness lives. 🙂
Have a great weekend friends!

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Mornin’ Does

These ladies are soaking up the morning sun while filling up on their vegetables. 🙂

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From the Mountain to the Bluffs

We went a few days without rain last week so the muddy roads up to the mountain dried up and we were able to retrieve the cows, bulls and horses this past weekend.

They don’t seem to miss their babies much. They were running and bucking and excited to see us.  Well, excited because we had treats to lure them in.

Little did they know they were going to be tested at the vet for pregnancy and it would make for a long day.

The road on the way to the cows overlooks a couple of ranches and the moon was still up that morning just above the hills. We started pretty early.

After positive test results, we delivered the girls to our meadows to graze below the bluffs for the winter. So glad to have them home.

I did not photograph the gather of the horses. If anyone knows about horses who have had all summer off to do what they want when they want in the mountains without anyone else telling them what to do, then you know what a challenge it can be to gather them. I’m not sure my blood pressure has ever been so high. Bless Patrick for his patience and determined nature.  Gray, Alice and Si gave us a run for our money but after an hour or so, we finally loaded them into the horse trailer. But not without some difficulty.

This is Gray. He’s a good ranch horse otherwise, but he challenged us this weekend. Oh, and Crazy Alice? Well, she does not get to grace the blog again just yet. She’s the Mare among two Geldings and you know who is boss. The next step is to catch her and remind her who is the real boss. That should be interesting.

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Tilda Tuesday: the Comforter

She always makes me feel better when I’m under the weather. Even though she bats my eyelashes and bites my nose when I’m down, I know it’s all about the love.♥

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Weaning in the Rain

It’s been a whole week since I last spoke with you all. My excuse is that I came down with a major head cold that stopped me in my tracks. My ears are still echoing but I’m through the worst of it I hope. It happened when we went from warm sunny days to immediate overcast and rain showers. And this day of weaning our calves on the mountain probably didn’t help much.

I was in the pickup so I didn’t get too wet during the gather. But with assistance from some cowboys and cake (mineral snacks for the cows), we had a successful gather.

It was just a cool mist during the first hour of the gather but as soon as we got to the corrals, it was really raining.

The cowboys separated the cow mommas from the grown calves.     

Mommas peered through the fence while I guarded the gate.

Calves called out for momma….

…and momma called out for baby.
This is my least favorite part of ranch life but it’s part of it. The calves are physically ready to leave momma but not emotionally. They never are. Neither am I.

As we left with the trailer load of calves, the rain was really coming down. Then it rained for the entire week. This was two weeks ago and we weren’t able to bring the cow mommas off the mountain until this past weekend. The roads were muddy and washed out and the trailer wouldn’t have made it.
As of this weekend, we are all home and are gearing up for winter. The cows are successfully bred and they’ll have their new babies in the spring. Looking forward to our first winter on our new ranch.

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Waterlogged

Seems like we never get rain out here.

But after an overcast weekend and ever since Wednesday, the rain has been coming down. Often in a mist, and sometimes in a quick downpour.

We are very pleased for the sake of our grass and I’m sure the farmers are smiling too.

But Colorado is having a heck of a time with flooding. The interstate and other highways from here to there are closed. Our weekend plans are all washed up and I pray that my friends and the folks of CO will stay safe and dry.

What a dramatic introduction to autumn. But whats the wild west without a little weather drama, eh?

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Tilda Tuesday: her Camera

“A good snapshot keeps a moment (or the cat) from running away.” ― Eudora Welty

Now everyone in the household has a camera. Even if this one is just for dress-up.

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Approaching Autumn

Evening storms are pouring over us as autumn slowly approaches. Looking forward to cooler temperatures. 🙂
Have a great weekend friends!

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New Canons, New Muse

After taking a break from unpacking boxes, breaking down boxes and simply kicking boxes to their prospective rooms, Patrick and I decided we needed a break.
The grand prize from the contest was a Canon Rebel SL1 and since Patrick is the star of the winning photographs, I thought it was time he has his own gear…on permanent loan mind you (I really like that light-weight powerful little camera!). So we suited up with our new cameras and headed out to the meadows.

A huge flock of geese flew above us. We are lucky to still have a full view of Squaw Mountain even though we aren’t as close to it as we were before the move.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and observed the amount of grass we have for the cows and horses when we bring them home next week. We’ll supplement with hay bales when winter hits but they’ll have quite a bit to munch on until then.

We are fortunate to have the Laramie River running through our place and I’ve been scouting out many settings for upcoming fall portrait sessions.
Looks like the tables have turned. Now that Patrick has his own camera and since he’s been my muse for several years now, I guess it’s only fair a shot or two will be taken of me.

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Wild West Photo Fest in Casper, Wyoming

I hope you all had a wonderful three day weekend. Mine went by way too fast and it was a real winner! On Thursday afternoon I drove up I-25 to Casper Wyoming for the Wild West Photo Fest. Wyoming Camera Outfitters , 307 Magazine , and Canon USA kicked off the festival with a talk and presentation from none other than famed western photographer David R. Stoeklein. It was such an inspiring seminar and got my creative juices back on track. The rest of the weekend consisted of workshops, photo walks, all with coaching from Canon representatives.

The weekend also consisted of me buying a new camera, the new Canon 70D. I was fortunate enough to put my hands around it before it hit the shelves. And boy what a machine. I’m still getting acquainted with it so a more thorough review will come soon.

We also attended macro workshops and time-lapse workshops. Both very informative . It was cool learning new things and re-learning functions that had fallen back in my repertoire.  I was not opposed to attending a beginner workshop because I know I can always pick up a little something that didn’t register in the early days. This time for me was different focusing functions in the camera.

Once the festival kicked off on Saturday afternoon, models had been hired for the event for us to learn with Canon reps about off-camera flash and other shooting techniques. This was a sweet couple. I hope they really liked each other because they were instructed to hold this scene for quite a while!

This little girl was happy to sit in the car with the burger and milkshake….

…until she found out it wasn’t real! Her momma said she would take her out for a real milkshake afterwards.

One man brought his parrot to join in the festivities.

Live music filled the street….

…while an enthusiastic fire twirler showed off some creative stunts.

Then came the last exciting part of the festival. The Wild West Photo Fest contest. Earlier last month, 307 Magazine opened their site up accepting up to five of your best images of and in Wyoming.

With a few a hundred entries and the top 150 displayed, all five of my entries were hung. I placed First in the Cowboy Life category with “Ponying Alice”. Wahoo!  My heart jumped into my belly and I grew a little weak.

The perma-grin and the weakness persisted once I got to “Rope ‘Em and Choke ‘Em” and discovered I had beat out all of these amazing photographs and won Grand Prize for the entire contest. Can you believe it!

I’m still in shock and am deeply honored to have been recognized at this event.

Now I have to ask, where do I go from here? Well, along with my 70D, I purchased the Pixma Pro-10 Canon printer to make true fine-art prints right from my own camera and computer. All of the top 150 photographs on display were printed from this printer at 13×19 inches. The colors, tones, and density are so true and accurate, just as I see it on my computer and prints I’ve made from pro-labs. I’ve been threatening this for a long time now but maybe it really is time for me to open an online shop to sell some of my work. I have a lot of paper tests to run to see what images work best on what paper type since there is a science to it. I was coached by a Canon printer genius at the event and am so grateful to have learned some tricks to further my printing skills.

What a weekend! Thank you to Wyoming Camera Outfitters , 307 Magazine , and Canon USA for all of the hard work that went into making this festival so much fun and very informative. I made some great friends at this event and it was so fun geeking out on all of the Canon gear.  Stay tuned for what’s next!

BTW, I know it’s Tuesday and this is not a Tilda Tuesday post, but she and I discussed it and since this was such a busy weekend, she decided it was best that I post about the Wild West Photo Fest. Matilda will see you next week. 🙂

Cheers,
Leah

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