Contest Entry #1
The World-Famous Miles City Bucking Horse Sale
Note: Images are presented in the same sequence as the contest entry. I’ve not entered a photography contest in years. I’m not interested in the photojournalism contests, as many of them have ethically compromised themselves and none of them are widely seen outside of the photojournalism industry. The pure photography contests hold no interests to me for similar reasons. So that leaves me with the Communication Arts Photography Contest, as it’s seen by those outside of both the photojournalism and photography markets. Entries are limited to five images for a story or sequence, which is a tough edit. The entry fee is high at $90 per entry (for a sequence), which is probably good as it limits the amount of entries. I’ll include the five images entered as well as some also-rans below.
The images are slightly cropped, as I sized them for a HDTV screen. The toning is my version of Kodachrome (or at least as close to it I can get), which is and remains the proper version of all color photography.
The images are made with Sony a7R IV’s, with either a 35mm 1.8 or the 55mm 1.8.
This is an event I had wanted to photograph from the time I first moved to Montana. I finally got around to it last year. Sadly it was the first and last time I’ll photograph the event. The organizers decided to greatly restrict access this year, which is on par for most of the photojournalism world these days (and it’s only getting worse).
The idea behind the entry was to give a tiny bit of insight into the horses and people who attend. I wish I had the 250 words I wrote to go along with my entry, because it was brilliant and you would have enjoyed it, but it’s now securely locked away in the contest vaults of Communication Arts.
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