Dirty Clown
Crow Agency, Montana
2016

It was raining when we first got to the rodeo grounds. It soon cleared up and the sun came out, but not before this rodeo clown got a little muddy walking around the arena.

Banished
Crow Agency, Montana
2016

This kid was playing in the mud puddle with the little girl in yesterday’s photo, but his dad didn’t approve of that for some reason, so he ended up on this viewing platform watching her from above.

Lady MacGyver
Crow Agency, Montana
2016

What do you do when presented with a mud puddle on a breezy but have no toy sailboat to take advantage of it? You improvise of course, and make something out of nothing.

I am going to be posting a series of action shots taken at the Crow Fair Rodeo. The first couple of images are not of the actual rodeo events, just some of the pre-rodeo action at the fairgrounds.

The rodeo is one of the main events at the annual Crow Fair sponsored by the Crow Nation. With over 45,000 attending, it is reportedly the largest Northern Native American gathering. Billed as the teepee capital of the world, well over 1,000 teepees can be seen pitched in the campground.

One interesting aspect of the Crow Fair is that it occurs along the banks of the Little Big Horn River, much in the same area where Custer’s troops came across the Lakota and Cheyenne encampment that spelled their doom. In fact, from the grandstand at the rodeo, Last Stand Hill is visible about a mile in the distance.

Daddy Longlegs
Bozeman, Montana
2016

Another visitor to the sunflowers I was photographing.

Somehow I think the Chinese use the term “famous” more loosely than Americans do. (I’m not saying that to disparage any of the other artists in the exhibit–it’s only meant to be a comment on my own reputation!) Nonetheless, I’m happy to be a part of this exhibition in Tsingtao.

This is actually only one of two exhibitions in China I will be a part of this month. The other is West on the Left, East on the Right, the 2016 version of the event I participated in last year. As was the case last year, after the reception for the show, 188Art (the show sponsors) will be taking the Chinese and American artists on a 10 day tour. This year we will be vising a number of locations in Gansu Province, with a short trip into Inner Mongolia as well. If the tour is anything like last year, it’s going to be a great experience. The folks at 188Art are very generous and thoughtful in their treatment of the artists.

Commanding View
Bozeman, Montana
2016

I was working on a little project involving some sunflowers in our garden when I noticed this guy taking advantage of one of my subjects.

Sedges
Bozeman, Montana
2016

Another convenient pond-side subject, easier to shoot than either birds or dragonflies (although the breeze created a bit of a problem).

Foraging
Bozeman, Montana
2016

Frustrated by the difficulty in capturing the non-stop dragonflies, I turned my camera momentarily on this finch foraging its way through the grass around the pond. Of course the minute I did that, it decided to fly off. Still it was easier to track and I got this interesting action shot.

Never Stop
Bozeman, Montana
2016

We have a lot of dragonflies flitting around our ponds these days, so I thought I’d try to get a few shots of them. It turns out these critters never stop flying, at least anywhere that I can see them. They might hover in one spot very briefly but before you can get the camera pointed at them, much less get it focused, they have usually moved on. So it turns out it was a pretty effective way of burning through a Sunday afternoon. Of maybe 500 shots total, I got only a couple of good, well-focused images. (Thank goodness I wasn’t using film!)

I’m afraid there is more than a little Mr. Toad in me sometimes.