Cowboy Photography - Buckaroos

The Great Basin Buckaroo

Cowboy Photography - American West - Prints

The Great Basin is a special part of the American West, particularly as it applies to cowboy culture and the buckaroos that call it home. Among the few remaining iconic ranches still left in northern Nevada are the C-Punch Ranch in Lovelock and the Winecup Gamble Ranch in Montello. Both are jaw dropping beautiful and incomprehensibly large. The C-Punch, the biggest I’ve been to so far, is 1.8 million acres. Yeah. Try wrapping your head around that. Seeing all these properties in different parts of the country has been amazing. Each region has its own allure. Nobody ever said to pick a favorite, but there’s something about the land in northern Nevada that really does it for me. Still working on putting that into words, but it’s exceptional, to say the least and took a few years to truly understand. At first, places that big, open, and seemingly void of life are difficult to grasp. Then something clicks and you can’t get enough of it. The muted colors, textures, and vibes of the Sage Brush Sea are intoxicating.

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Photograph of a cowboy working cattle on the C-Punch Ranch - Nevada

Cowboys roping cattle on the C-Punch Ranch in Lovelock, Nevada

C-Punch Ranch

Winecup Gamble Ranch - Montello, Nevada

Winecup Gamble Ranch - Montello, Nevada

Photograph of a buckaroo catching horses

Photograph of Great Basin Buckaroos branding cattle

Buckaroos branding cattle in Nevada

Cowboys working on the Winecup Gamble Ranch in Montello, Nevada

Black and white photograph of cowboys on the Winecup Gamble Ranch

Cowboy moving cattle on the Winecup Gamble Ranch

A cowboy working on the C-Punch Ranch in Lovelock, Nevada

C-Punch Ranch

Cowboys working colts in a round pen on the C-Punch Ranch in Lovelock, Nevada

C-Punch Ranch - Cowboys working horses in a round pen

A cowboy on the C-Punch Ranch in Lovelock, Nevada

C-Punch Ranch

American West Cowboys

Trapper Rogers - Winecup Gamble Ranch - Montello, Nevada

Portrait of Trapper Rodgers

A cowboy lets his horse drink water after branding on the C-Punch Ranch in Lovelock, Nevada

C-Punch Ranch - a cowboy waters his horse

A cowboy pets his cattle dog after a day of work on the C-Punch Ranch in Lovelock, Nevada

C-Punch Ranch

Photograph of a cowboy riding his horse through a huge pasture on the C-Punch Ranch - Lovelock, Nevada

A cowboy riding his horse on the C-Punch Ranch in northern Nevada

Cowboy Photographs

Cowboy Photography - Prints - American West Wall Art

Western Photos - Cowboy Culture

Had a conversation with a buddy the other day about hunting/fishing which came after a very unproductive outing that certainly wasn’t from a lack of effort. When you put time into either of those sports it can be frustrating to get skunked. Frustrating isn’t a strong enough word actually. My most recent trip was a few weeks ago on the lower Owens River outside of Bishop, CA. Felt like I was doing everything right but results said the opposite. The fish were rising and eating bugs off the top. Every bug that is, besides mine. Kept changing flies, moving locations, water depth, yada yada yada. Not so much as a nibble. Later in the day I ran across a lady about 75 years old who had just pulled in a nice brown trout and quickly mentioned that it was her first time ever fly fishing. Ok, I thought, this place is going to be a Hand Out. Hour and a half later, not a damn thing. So I sat on the tailgate drinking a beer at sunset staring at the pastel sky saying out loud “I fuckin hate fly fishing” to absolutely no one. Which obviously isn’t true, but my ego was damaged and I was tired. And when you’ve been fishing for any amount of time, you realize that’s just how it goes sometimes. Back to that conversation. We talked about how boring it would be if you went out every day and netted 20 monster trout. Or were guaranteed to hit your limit of ducks, deer, elk, whatever it is you’re after. No, that would suck. That is not a sport. Where is the fun in that? There is none.

It’s probably a stretch to make a comparison, but that’s the way I feel about morning light. Later afternoon light for that matter too. It’s so good that you want to hit the pause button on the sun to make it stay in that position, barely peaking over the horizon. Crisp. Golden. Tasty. Then you realize a lot of the appeal is due to it’s fleeting nature. Morning/evening shots wouldn’t be as desirable if you could make them all day. It’s fun to dream though. Out on a ranch, mornings are special. Really special. You’re lucky to get a couple good frames in before that light is gone. And that is one of the many factors that what will keep me going back again and again and again.

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Bull Sale - Nevada

Bull Auction - Western Photos - Nevada - Bull Sale

Cattle Ranching - Culture - Photography

Been spending a lot of time up in Nevada outside of Lake Tahoe for a commercial client, but it’s grown into a lot more than that. I really enjoy the country up there and have taken to photographing various aspects of it. Not the land so much, but everything that goes along with it. The ranches, horses, people. etc. One morning I was shooting with a girl who owned a couple wild mustangs (will be posting those images soon). We finished shooting by about 9 am, so I had the rest of the day to kill, with the commercial shoot following the next day. Was pretty beat from not sleeping much the night before, so I pulled off into the local firehouse parking lot to make a tailgate sandwich. That’s where the day took a turn. Two guys in a truck rolled up and asked if I knew where the bull auction was. We talked for a minute or two, and next thing you know I was at the bull auction. Figured why the hell not? It’s a world completely foreign to me, so why not check it out. I have no plans on buying a bull, but it sure sounded like a fun event to photograph.

If I haven’t said this before, the camera is a passport. One of the many things I love about photography. It’s opened doors and taken me to places I never would have thought about. And the older I get, the more curious I become about interacting with and documenting other people and other cultures that are the opposite of my own. It’s so much fun to learn how other people live in different parts of the world. Sure, this part of Nevada is only 8 hours away from my home in San Diego, but it’s a different world. I used to be obsessed with the need to travel to far off countries in order to experience other cultures. Exotic travel is great, but there is so much culture right here in America that can easily be taken for granted.

I loved being a silent witness at the bull auction right from the start. The people were so inviting when I introduced myself and told them what I was doing. Everything about the event was stimulating. The sights, sounds, and smells. I’m from a small town in Upstate New York, and prefer to spend as much time as possible in the country/mountains, but have never seen anything like this in person. Hope to be showing you a lot more of this in the future.

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FINE ART HORSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Starting new projects is so exciting. It’s also one of my downfalls. I don’t like being behind a computer, always preferring to be out in the field creating images. Which means that I don’t do enough marketing, emailing, social media, cleaning my disaster of an office, etc. I can’t help making images though. It’s addicting. After publishing America Backcourts I had no intention of stopping that series, but also wanted to wanted to start something else. The problem that I’ve learned over the years though is you can’t force a series. It has to find you or it has to come naturally. That’s the only way it sticks. You can’t shoot something because it will get likes or because you think it will do well commercially. You have to love it. As it stands now, Horses appear to be my next thing. Maybe not just horses, but the lifestyle and culture that surround them as well. I grew up in New York close to Saratoga Race Track. “The August Place To Be” as they say. Love the track. Still do and am fortunate enough to now live near Del Mar Race Track. The atmosphere around tracks is great, but the horses are the thing that tie it all together for me. That’s where my affection for horses started, but now I like the “working” aspect of horses even more. The way they are used on ranches and for transportation is especially interesting. As much as love the action though, there is something really special about the still shots. The quiet moments, like this one. If you can’t feel more relaxed by looking at an image like this, then there’s something wrong with you.

Stay tuned for more horses……

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FINE ART HORSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Was up in the Lake Tahoe area a few weeks ago for a commercial shoot and happened on some incredible weather going over the pass into Nevada on the way to our location. No matter where I go for a client, setting aside time to shoot for myself is always very important. On this particular day there were just a few spare minutes before we started filming, but I made the most of it. This scene was actually adjacent to the set. Not sure when it happened, but I’ve got a thing for horses, and have started turning my camera toward them more and more. Got quite lucky with the birds flying overhead but love the way this frame turned out. If it weren’t for them this frame would be lacking.