photography

Thrills and Spills!

23 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Saturday I went to the Timber Lake High School Rodeo in Timber Lake, South Dakota. We’ve had a LOT of rain this week, and it made for a really fun (or not-so-fun) time! It is all in your perspective. Since the barrel racing was the next to last event, I figured why not take some photos and further hone my skills? And besides that, I love taking rodeo photos and trying to capture the movement of the moment.

Here’s a link to the gallery, but just in case you don’t want to go through 500+ photos, I’m going to show you my favorites!

One of my favorite shots- ever!

I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

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Filed Under: #Agchat, art, barrel racing, cowgirls, photography, rodeo

It’s a Baby!!!

16 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Friday I was blessed with the opportunity to photograph a 6 week old baby! I have never gotten to do that before so I honestly had no idea what to expect. It was great fun! Babies have the cutest fingers and toes, and this baby was especially agreeable. I’m going to share with you a few of my favorites from the day!

Happy Monday and Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: family, photography

It’s a Lazy Friday!

13 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Actually, it’s not so much lazy today, as it was the other day. Thursday I think, we found our big billy goat, Goatie Goat, kickin’ it on top of a round bale. He’s just hilarious, this goat. He sees himself as a big horn sheep, we’re certain about that.

He looked pretty comfortable.

And then yesterday it was cold and raining, so I went to catch my boys, and get them in the barn so I could ride them in there. I managed to catch them looking pretty wet, and cute and otherwise endearing. Don’t they just look like brothers? Gump is on the left, and Dino on the right.

We have a high school rodeo and high school graduation planned for this weekend. What do you have planned for the weekend?

Happy Weekend, and Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: #Agchat, photography, ranching

It’s a bird! It’s a plane!

11 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

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No, not really. It’s just a little write up, about yours truly, in the Tri-State Livestock News! But needless to say, I was thrilled to be interviewed and given the opportunity! And there’s more good news to come this week, but I’m not going to share it just yet, so you’ll just have to wait!

You can read all the juicy details, here.

Happy Wednesday and Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: #Agchat, cowgirls, photography

Run, Rival, Run!

11 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Many of you will recall that I was able to witness the birth of my cute colt, Rival, a couple weeks ago. Now that he’s growing up, he’s really starting to find his legs and his favorite past-time, save for taking naps in the sun and eating, of course, is running, and bucking and kicking and otherwise stirring up trouble. He’s just a boy. What can I say?

I can never seem to catch him in the act of beings super cute, though I have managed to catch a few photos of him goofing off. So I’m going to share those with you, because who doesn’t love to see a baby horse play? No one I can think of, and if you don’t, then there’s clearly something wrong with you!

So without further ado, here is being his handsome self!

Just like his mama- tail in the air and all. His mother is sure she was born to be a wild mustang and roam the hills of South Dakota free as a bird. After all, her name is Shuttle!

Run, kid, run!

Handsome, handsome!

He is really precious and I just love him! Thanks for letting me share him with you!

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: #Agchat, horses, photography, ranching, spring

Meadowlarks

10 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I awoke to the sound of Meadowlarks this morning.

We slept with the windows open last night. It’s a peaceful, soothing thing to go to sleep to sound of bullfrogs croaking, only to awake with Meadowlarks singing their beautiful song.

About a month ago, when the Meadowlarks first made it back into the country, I photographed some of them. I plan to try to get sneakier about photographing them in the coming weeks, but for now, these photos must suffice.

I’m not sure if hearing Meadowlarks singing is my favorite sound, but it’s certainly among those that make my heart happy! What’s your favorite sound of nature?

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: photography, pictures

A Day in the Life

6 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Yesterday was filled with lots of ranching action.

I love days like that. Did I mention I like them? I should probably say that I love them!

First, we ran out through the cow herd to look for new babies and make sure no cows were in need of our assistance while calving.

We’ll once again thank my iPhone and Instagr.am for the photos. It’s much handier than packing around the big camera.

Second, we moved one of the horse herds. This herd is primarily our broodmares, with last year’s colts thrown in for good measure. And there’s a couple new babies in this group as well. They were in two different groups so we got one group moved knowing we were short at least a dozen horses. I underestimated by almost double- because I wasn’t counting colts!

And I have a bit of video for you too:

I’m chatting with our extern, Kara. She’s also doubling as my much needed personal assistant and the whipping boy. I’m just kidding! If we didn’t give Kara heck, she would think she were at the wrong outfit!

By the time we finished getting both sets of horses moved, it was time for dinner.

Then we saddled horses to sort more dry cows.

This was my mount of choice today, the handsome beast, WDX Nukem- or Nuke.

Altogether we brought four cows home. You will only see three in the photos- and you’ll have to look really closely to see two way out in front. Those cows were just a tad “owly”. It’s a term we use to describe a high headed, wild-eyed cow. One that we’ve maybe rushed through her handling, or one that has just got a screw loose. Sadly, Words With Friends, says “owly” isn’t a word. Probably because it’s only found in the Urban Dictionary. If you’re wondering where the other cow was, it’s because she was on the other side of the road, and Kara was in charge over there!

Then we corralled them and had to do a bit of sorting, but there’s a trailer load of dry cows to go to the sale today!

It was a fun afternoon, and as always it’s full of learning experiences for myself. Ranching is good for helping you grow!

And that, is a day in my life.

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: #Agchat, horses, photography, ranching

Family Portraits

5 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Easter Weekend I got to photograph a lovely family! We had a great time, and since he’s a cousin of Zach and the family it was nice to get to visit with them. So without further ado, I’m going to show you what an absolutely gorgeous day it was and how photogenic this family was!

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: family, photography

Yesterday, in Photos

3 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

It was a nearly perfect spring day yesterday! And as such we got horseback and did some work. It’s time to start sorting off the dry cows. For those of you unfamiliar with the terminology, a dry cow, is a cow that has sloughed her calf, or lost it in some other form or fashion, be it was still-born or she had it during a blizzard when we had our hands full trying to save other calves, and missed hers- or if she for some reason didn’t take her calf. That happens. It is sad, but it does happen. There’s only so many of us to go around, and we can only be in so many places at once. I’ve said before that death is part of this life I lead, and we don’t like it, but we do plan for it.

But before we sorted off dry cows (which is a bit like looking for a needle in a hay stack- more on this later), I got to ride my 4yo, Dino. Most of you know he’d Gump’s little brother, and so I have an extra special place in my heart for him.

Here he is looking extra happy. We’ll thank Instagram for the coolness of the photos. That and my new iPhone, which, I adore.

I saw our shadows and thought that might make for a cool shot. I’m always thinking like an artist and photographer! I can’t help it.

And this is him being his cute, sleepy-eyed self.

I had a super ride on him. He’s just so cool. Part of it is his personality, and part of it is how he’s been handled his whole life.

Then it was time for supper- and I feel the need to share how much the Granny spoils us. She made boiled potatoes, hamburger gravy and cheesy green beans. And I wonder why I can’t shed 10lbs!

I saddled the Gump, and headed to the pasture to see if we could find our 22 dry cows, in a herd of over 400. So you can see how it’s a kind of like finding a needle in a hay stack, right?

Here he is looking calm, cool and collected, in the corral:

Here we are heading out:

We found three of our 22 yesterday. Which means today, we’ll be back at it!

And finally, I managed to get a photo of my awesome stirrups and cool boots.

I hope you got to take advantage of nice weather if you had it yesterday! It appears to be another lovely day here in South Dakota and I’m frankly excited about going out to play cowgirl, once again!

Happy Trails and Happy Tuesday!

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Filed Under: horses, photography

Prom Pictures

2 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

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I promised these a while back and I’m just now getting around to them. It was prom night a couple weekends ago so I thought I’d show off some the Cowboy’s pretty daughter and some very colorful dresses!

Prom in a small town is done quite differently than it is say, when you grow up where I do, in a high school with 3500 students. Up here, everyone goes to prom, not just juniors and seniors (or underclassmen that get asked by a junior or senior). They have a grand march- where every couple gets announced. If they’d have done that for our junior senior prom we’d have never got to dance! Plus they let the parents come in to take photographs before, during and after the grand march- then they kick us out and let the kids be. There were no parents anywhere near our prom. At least not that I recall. It was a long time ago, after all.

That said, it’s quite an affair and is fun, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite shots!

There’s always pretty hair:

Girls being crazy!

From L-R: Zach’s daughter Kelsey, nieces, Katie and Cindy

Creative Corsages:

I don’t know that anyone here uses real flowers in their corsages. That was unheard of when I was growing up. Or maybe it’s a product of where I grew up? It’s not like there’s a florist on every corner around here! Did y’all use real or fake flowers at your proms?

Proud Parents: