The Cowboy Way

The Cowboy is an American Iconic symbol. Few icons in history carry such powerful images of strength, character, romance, and rugged determination. So getting to photograph a cowboy is a true honor and privilege.

Cowboys of course historically tend to conjure images of the wild west, cattle drives, and horses, but cowboys are found today in virtually every state...including Kentucky.  That makes sense because Kentucky certainly has a long history and connection to horses and so the image of the cowboy is a natural fit.

Photographing the cowboy image presents some difficult yet interesting problems to solve like, how do you capture the icon without creating a cliche? Then again, maybe the cliche is exactly what you want to capture, sort of like when writing about a person from history, when fact contradicts legend, you print the legend. One such opportunity presented itself to me recently when I spent a few hours out at the Diamond H Equine Center just north of Bowling Green, Kentucky. There I met Jennifer and Davy Brothers who run the center.

Davy is a true to life working cowboy and the focus of this shoot was to capture that historical image. I also wanted to capture Davy's iconic appearance as a portrait style photograph and to capture the playful interaction between him and Jennifer.

 As most of the photography was captured inside the horse stables, I had to deal with extremes of lighting where in some places the light was almost nonexistent, and in other places there was a bright glaring light filtering in from the outside.

I used two off camera speed lights, one fitted with a 31 inch dome and the other left bare...both fired remotely from the camera. With these two simple lighting setups I was able to throw enough additional light onto my subjects and to provide some background fill light to allow for a natural looking exposure.

Combined with the outside ambient light that filtered into the stables, the effects were natural and effective. I also made some natural light images to help capture that sense of place and atmosphere.

On a rather warm and muggy day, Davy hauled some hay, mended a couple of fences, and worked with the horses presenting photo opportunities in a plain, honest, work-a-day cowboy manner.







It proved to be an interesting photo shoot and my subjects proved to be wonderful examples of a modern day historical iconic symbol.

Prairie Song - A Video by Keith Bridgman

Thunderstorms, tornado warnings, torrential rains and high winds, along with heavy overcast skies and poor to terrible lighting conditions hindered my ability to capture all of the video footage I desired to create this most difficult yet exciting video about the Tallgrass Prairie. In spite of all, I managed to get enough footage with enough new photographs combined with some archived photographs to create Prairie Song.

Please enjoy.


Keith

I Took A Hike One Day

Coming soon I will once again visit possibly my favorite place; Oklahoma's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. I plan on spending the better part of 5 full days there and weather permitting, I will also re-photograph this wonderful landscape. The following is a reprint from 2011 of a previous encounter in the prairie. Please enjoy again; I Took A Hike One Day

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Another story-like end of the day drifted toward its conclusion as I watched from the top of Coneflower Hill...one more episode counted among the countless end-of-the-day episodes one can discover on the prairie.  Why I was there finds its roots going back a good number of years, but simply stated, I was there because I took a hike one day.

Cone Flower Hill is not an official name...it's simply what I call this rounded knoll with a rocky outcropping on top that sits a quarter mile or more off the gravel road that meanders through the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska, Oklahoma.  I found it a few years ago almost by accident while looking for a location to observe and photograph those amazing prairie sundowns.  It's not much of a hill really, but rises maybe something less than a hundred feet higher than the surrounding landscape.  Long flanks covered with thick prairie grass, cut by drainage and scarred by bison travel, characterize the climb to the top...a climb more difficult than it might seem at first.

Just north of the summit lies a large pond tucked into the recess of the rolling terrain.  Around it's perimeter grow acres of wildflowers including the Pale Purple Cone Flower...where the hill gets its name.  On the summit of the hill a rocky outcrop exposed to who knows how many years of weathering, provides a break on the smooth lines of the rolling hills.  It's a good place to just sit and feel the prairie wind in your face.

 It is one of the quietest places one can find, quiet in the sense there are few if any man-made noises that influence the atmosphere...just the dancing of the tall grasses and choreographed ballet of the cone flowers as they move in time with the whimsical undulations of the prairie wind. It is a natural musical of natures best assortment of players.

To the west the landscape changes as it breaks its rhythm from the slow rolls to rise abruptly toward mesa like outcroppings.  In all directions one is afforded an unobstructed view of this marvelous landscape broken only by distant indications of man's presence.

Why am I here...why do I return time and again?  I took a hike one day, and discovered a place for the heart that was mine alone...a place where ones inner strength is restored by the reflections of what once was...reflections of times past that remain unchanged.  I took a hike one day and rediscovered who I was.

Keith