Last Thursday I was working on a blog about my first season photographing the NFL, when I got an email from my friend Wes Schultz. Wes sent me a URL from Wildlanfire.com that said there was a fire near El Portal and they were requesting recourses. I could see a big column of smoke […]
Tag Archives: Western
Cowboy Photography Workshop July 2011
Two weeks ago, the Erickson Cattle Company held a Cowboy Photography Workshop in Ackerson Meadow near Yosemite National Park. Here is my record of what I saw during the workshop. Photographers were treated to lots of real cattle ranch activity. A late rainy season kept the wildflowers and grass alive and colorful until this mid-July […]
Jess Tharp — Fourth of July, 36 Years Ago
In the middle of June 1975, Laurelei Mullens, Modesto Bee features editor, sent me to south Modesto to photograph Jess Tharp, an 80-year-old cowboy saddle maker. Mullens was doing an advance story for the big Modesto Independence Day Parade. She wanted to do the story about Tharp because he would be the oldest rider in […]
Acorn Fire with the Stanislaus Hotshots 1987
The Acorn Fire was well on its way to burning out 26 homes near Markleeville when I got a phone call from a forest service dispatcher telling me that the Stanislaus Hotshots had left Mi-Wuk Village on their way to the fire. It was about 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 30, 1987. By the time […]
2008 Telegraph Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Recently, I became a volunteer for Cal Fire. With my friend Wes Schultz, I will be photographing wildland fires this season. The last big wildland fire I photographed was the Telegraph Fire in 2008. Lucky for me there wasn’t much hiking involved because both of my knees were bone on bone. In May 2009, I […]
Cattle drive near Yosemite National Park
For over a hundred and twenty years, the Erickson family has been driving their cattle from the Merced Falls area to summer grazing near the border of Yosemite National Park. The drive takes the same route; of course there are three major highways now not to mention a bridge over the South Fork of the […]
Spring Branding
I figured that before I blogged the Erickson Cattle Company’s cattle drive this year, I should show some of the work cowboys do before the drive. First, they round up the cattle from the ranch, and then separate the calves to brand. Catching the calves is just like team roping at the Rodeo. If you […]
La Grange Rodeo
A couple weeks ago I traveled down to La Grange to photograph the 64th Annual Rodeo. Â I was on my way to a banquet in Oakland that night but I had a couple of hours to shoot. Â These are a few of my favorite images from the day, and if you would like to see […]