Cody and Steamboat

One of our photoshoots during the Wind River Photographers’ Retreat was at a private horse ranch, and one of the young ranch hands was good enough to stand for a portrait session with Steamboat, the horse. It was another great opportunity to do some portrait work, and what surprised me was that it took quite a while to get a really good shot. I had to move around a bit, and it wasn’t until the very end that I liked the angle and the light I was getting. It was a good lesson to keep working at it if you’re not thrilled with what you are getting in a portrait. As long as the subject is willing, anyway. Thanks to Cody and Steamboat for hanging in there while we shot and shot and shot.

Dubois Badlands

Before this summer, when I visualized northwestern Wyoming, I saw creeks cutting through mountains blanketed in evergreen trees. But Dubois is special because it’s where that preconceived notion meets multicolored badlands that stretch out in waves. There is a fantastic over look that lets you take it all in, on the western edge of town. We could see for miles in all directions.

Horse Ranch

We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise at a ranch near Dubois where they train horses for pack riding. The cowboys ran the horses through the sagebrush and below the badland cliffs and we tried our best to keep up.

The Pinnacles

Our very first shoot at the Wind River Photographers’ Retreat was an area I had visited before in our wanderings around the Dubois area. These are the Pinnacle Buttes, which reach above Brooks Lake Creek. The area is popular with campers, fishermen, and bears. There had been a bear sighting in the campground earlier in the morning, and we drove around a bit to try and spot it, but it had moved on.

Lawn Mowers

One of the summer’s unexpected delights was the appearance of these two horses next door. The neighbors borrowed Monty and Jack for a few weeks so they would effectively mow the lawn through grazing. My daughter was enthralled with them, of course, and they seemed to feel the same. They would meet at the fence nearly every day. She would talk to them and feed them carrots. We aren’t horse people, so it was a treat to look out the window and see them in this beautiful afternoon light.