POTD: Air Time

POTD: Air TimeAir Time
Bozeman, Montana
2015

In 1878, via stop motion photography using what was for that time a highly technical and innovative arrangement of cameras,  Eadweard Muybridge definitively solved an ongoing debate as to whether or not a horse at a gallop ever had all four feet off the ground at the same time. They of course do, but up until that time artists had always painted running horses with at least one foot on the ground at all times. No such subtly of technique is needed to establish the same finding for bucking broncos, as this shot from the ranch rodeo at the Gallatin County fair easily shows. Let’er buck!

2 thoughts on “POTD: Air Time”

  1. An amazing shot! Great light…great moment. Definitely a 5 star image!

    BTW, have you read The Inventor and the Tycoon? It’s a non-fiction book about Muybridge and Leland Stanford (founder of said university) who financed Muybridge’s experiments and loaned the horses.

    P.S. When early artists did depict all 4 of a horse’s feet off the ground, the front ones were forward and the back ones behind, ala Currier & Ives. In a natural gallop the 4 feet a bunched underneath the horse, though your bronc is doing a good C&I imitation! 😉

    1. Thanks Kathy! I haven’t read the book but will check it out. As far as the way the early depictions of horses goes, perhaps they depicted them that way because, like the image here, that’s way horses feet are when they actually jump high enough to easily see all four feet off the ground.

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