Cowboy Culture Photography

American West - Wall Art - Cowboy Culture

What a humbling gift it is being able to spend time on working cattle ranches. This photography series documenting cowboys in the American West has been going on for well over two years now, and I hope it never ends. There is no amount of gratitude I could express to the cowboys and cowgirls for allowing me to be along for the ride. Most of them would never call it work, but still, what they do isn’t just a vital key to supplying the country with beef, it’s an undeniably important piece of American culture. One that most people will never understand because they aren’t able to see it with their own eyes.

This set of images is from the Diamond A Ranch outside of Seligman, Arizona. At 750,000 acres, it’s the largest in the southwest. A piece of property that will make you feel small in a hurry. The images you see here are from my second visit to the ranch, and I’m proud to call a few of the people in them my friends. Stay tuned for more from this shoot. Some of the images should be published in a magazine soon.

Reach out directly if you’d like prints of anything from this cowboy photography series for your home, office, or commercial space.

Photograph print of two cowboys riding their horses along the rim of the Grand Canyon at sunrise in Arizona

Photograph of two cowboys riding horses at sunrise with a beautiful western scene behind them

Photograph of two cowboys roping a wild steer into a trailer on a cattle ranch in Arizona

Black and white photograph of two cowboys roping a wild steer

Authentic photograph of cowboys eating dinner in a bunkhouse on a cattle ranch in the American West

Photograph of cowboys eating dinner in a bunkhouse

Photograph of a cowboy saddling a horse early in the morning when the moon is still up

Photograph of a cowboy saddling his horse early in the morning on an Arizona cattle ranch

Photograph of two cowboys riding horses through steep rocky country  on a cattle ranch in Arizona

Photograph of two cowboy riding their horses through tough terrain in Arizona

Authentic photography print of two cowboys in a bunkhouse

Black and White photograph of two cowboys in a bunkhouse

Photograph of the sign for Rose Well on a gate at the Diamond A Ranch in Seligman, Arizona

Sign for the Rose Well camp on the Diamond A Ranch - Center of the Universe

Road Trip Book

Photographing the American Road Trip

Another feature for Roadside Meditations! Very grateful and hope they keep coming! This one is over on the photography website All About Photo, which does a great job of featuring and writing about some very inspiring photography projects. Honored to have my latest photography book on the American Road Trip be a part of it.

Click here to read the article

Click here to order a copy of the book

American road trip photography book Roadside Meditations featured on All About Photo .com

Best photo book on the Great American Road Trip

American Road Trip - USA Photography

The Open Road

Photography and the Great American Road Trip

The library of road trip photographs is starting to get out of hand. And as usual, I’ve been slacking on sharing images. So here is a selection made over the past couple years in Iowa, Utah, Nevada, Virginia, and California. Taking these trips is so much fun, and equally as fun is going back through the images after not having seen them for quite a while. It’s sort of like reliving each trip again and putting yourself right back in each of these places.

Click here to see more American photography

Click here to pick up a copy of Roadside Meditations

Sunset on a country road in Iowa

Sunset on a country road in Iowa

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System

Dense forest in Virginia

Virginia

Abstract fine art photography

Virginia

Driving through the Eastern Sierra Mountains near Mammoth, California at sunset

Eastern Sierra - California

Abstract fine art photography

Upstate New York

A truck kicks up dust as it drives down a country road at sunrise in southern Iowa

Iowa

The Utah landscape - photo

Utah

Abstract fine art photography

Iowa

Country road in Virginia

Virginia

The capital building in Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines, Iowa

Sunset on train tracks going through farmland in southern iowa

Iowa

American Photography

Photographing America - The Open Road

Road Trip Photography Prints - Americana

A new batch of American photographs from the last couple road trips around the country. This series has gotten increasingly overwhelming from an archive perspective. It’s probably the largest series to date, but also the one I’ve done the least with. And by “least”, I mean nothing. So to look at it as a whole feels like a monumental tasks to make sense of for a book or any other publication. Guess it’s time to turn things over to a professional??!!

Click here to see more of the America series.

Contact me directly to order fine art prints for your home, office, or commercial space - rob@robhammerphotography.com

El Capitan Casino in Hawthorne, Nevada - Photo

Hawthorne, Nevada

Photo of the Honolulu Club bar in Yucca, Arizona - vintage sign.

Honolulu Club - Yucca, Arizona

McDonald's billboard and other signs in the desert landscape outside Tuba City, Arizona - Photo

Tuba City, Arizona

A small town graveyard with wind turbines in the background in southern Iowa

Southern Iowa

A Little League baseball field in the small farm town of Griswold, Iowa

Griswold, Iowa

Photo of a broken down truck in front of a factory in Big Island, Virginia

Big Island, Virginia

A baseball field in front of farm silos in Mountain Home, Idaho - Photo - Rob Hammer

Mountain Home, Idaho

Hillsboro, Ohio

Hillsboro, Illinois

Photo of a palm tree, power lines, and clouds in the California desert

California Desert

Vintage Whiting Bros sign in the small town of Yucca, Arizona

Whiting Bros - Yucca, Arizona

Photo of an old theater in Hawthorne, Nevada

Old movie theater - Hawthorne, Nevada

The Lovelock Speedway in Lovelock, Nevada - Photo

Lovelock Speedway - Lovelock, Nevada

Interior of an old shoe shop in Texarkana, Texas - photo

Shoe shop - Texarkana

An empty pool in a small town neighborhood near Griswold, Iowa

Griswold, Iowa

California Desert Road Trip

Road Trip Photography - America - Travel - California Desert

It’s interesting how certain places can grow on you that at first didn’t seem so appealing. And light seems to be one of the biggest determining factors of that in my opinion. It doesn’t have be traditionally beautiful light either. It just has to be interesting light. Or, maybe light that you understand how to work with? That knowledge is part of growing as a photographer. Most people focus so much on that “perfect” light that occurs during a sunrise or sunset, but beautiful images can be made at all times of day if you know how to work under different conditions. Even midday sun can transform a scene from completely forgettable to “I can’t wait to come back here”.

Click here to shop the Roadside Meditations book

Contact me directly about prints of my American road trip photography for your home, office, or commercial space - rob@robhammerphotography

Mountains in the California desert along Highway 395. American road trip photography by Rob Hammer.

American road trip photography

American Photography. Back roads near the desert town of Mojave, California. American road trip photography.

California desert - Mojave, CA

Wall art  of Joshua Trees growing in the California desert. Desert vibes photo.

Mojave Desert

A sky filled with clouds behind a windmill farm in Mojave, California. Alternative energy photos.

Windfarm in Mojave, California

A desert landscape along Highway 395 near Lone Pine, California. Desert Vibes.

California desert near Lone Pina

Windmills in the desert near Mojave, California. Alternative energy photos.

Mojave, CA

Photo of a small town in the California desert

Road Trip Photography

A train going through the small desert town of Mojave, California

A train going through the desert town of Mojave, CA

American Photographs

Photographs of Small Towns in America

A few images from the most recent cross country road trip that go along with my America series. This type of thing wasn’t the main focus of the trip, but I can never help myself . One of these days or years all the images in this series will add up to something that makes sense and it will be a book. Still working through it…

Click here to see more from this series

Street Photography San Francisco

San Francisco Photo Gallery

From a few hours of aimless wondering around one of the worlds great cities - San Francisco. Feel so grateful to have a client up there that I shoot for on a fairly regular basis, and am always sure to make some free time to squeeze in some street photography. Would love to rent an AirBnB in the city for a couple months just to continue this series. The city has so much character and texture that I’m not sure there would be a point where I’d grow tired of photographing it. Wish I felt the same way about San Diego.

Click HERE to see images of San Francisco from the last trip.

Road Trip Photography

NEVADA

It’s always encouraging to make breakthroughs as a photographer, no matter what form it comes in. This image is a great example of that. For multiple reasons it makes me really happy to know that I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) have made this image 6 months ago. Which is a sign that my eye is improving and that my style is changing. If you take a look at the work on my website, it’s varied. I’m proud of that. A lot of photographers fall victim to getting pigeon holed into one or maybe two subjects that they photograph because it’s what clients want to see. I don’t give a shit. That’s not to say I don’t give a shit about my clients, because I do very much. But why should someone else dictate what I (or any other photographer) shoot? They shouldn’t. If something turns me on, I’m going to shoot it. This image below falls into a category. Which one, I don’t know? As far as I’m concerned it’s going to be part of my America series though. Either way, the point is to always be moving forward and this image is a symbol of forward progress. I never want to look at the images I’m making only to be left with a stagnant feeling like they are the same or worse than what I made in the previous week, month or year. Failing is fine. I make copious amounts of shitty photographs, but that doesn’t matter because they are all learning tools. And as long as something good comes out of those failures then that’s what counts. Love this image.

Click here to see more from my America series.

Wendover, Nevada

Wendover, Nevada

Swami's - Surfing

Swami’s Surfing - Wall Art - Photography Prints

Garry Winogrand said “everything is photographable” and nobody should argue with him. A lot of photographers get caught up in their “niche” or what ever it is their clients expect from them. That’s fine, but it’s also a very limiting. They think that showing other work with different subject matter will turn off their clients and “followers”. And that’s one of the major problems I have with the photography industry. It wants everyone to fit into a category and play by the rules of that particular category. If you’re a commercial shooter then you can’t shoot editorial. And a photographer that shows in museums/galleries can’t shoot for commercial clients because it will cause the fine art world to lose respect for their fine art work. Bullshit. Shoot whatever the fuck you want and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. Even if you play by all the rules, you still won’t win everyone over. Not even close. So photograph whatever turns you on and it will eventually attract the right people. Take a look through my website and you’ll see quite a variety of subject matter. Everything from the most famous professional athletes to obscure street scenes without any people at all. How are they all connected? They aren’t. It’s just what I enjoy shooting. Everything on my website is in some way directly connected to my life and lifestyle. What I shoot isn’t for everybody, nor do I want it to be. Either way, I show up 110% on every shoot whether that’s for a client or for images that won’t ever come off my hard drive. I love photography and making images of everything.

For the better part of the last 15 years San Diego has been my home. You would think that at some point surfing would be added to the list of regular activities, but it hasn’t, and probably won’t. In fact, I don’t have much draw to the ocean aside from its obvious beauty and calming effects. As a dedicated backcountry snowboarder though, I have a large appreciation for the sport of surfing and the obvious parallels between the culture and lifestyle of the two sports. So when it comes to photography, it doesn’t matter to me that I don’t surf. There are aspects that draw me to photograph the sport. Like the images you see below. Are these images that my clients want to see or expect from me? No. Do I plan on pursuing assignments in the surf world? Definitely not. But Swami’s is an iconic surf break and I enjoyed making these and think of them as the kind of images I like to see coming from the world of snowboarding. So there has to be a crossover.

Contact me directly to purchase Swami’s surfing prints for your home, office, or commercial space - rob@robhammerphotography.com

Barbershops of America - Then and Now

Feeling really grateful for the press Barbershops of America has been getting lately. It feels good when people really connect with your personal work. Barber Evo Magazine ran an article and it was on the front page of today’s San Diego Union Tribune, which caused a number of really kind emails from people who read it. One in particular mentioned that the images reminded him of the shop he grew up in. Exactly the kind of emotional reaction I hope people will have when they look at the book.

CLICK HERE TO GRAB A COPY FOR YOURSELF OR AS A GIFT