i ain't rich but Lord i'm free....

it was a toss up between "much too young" & "amarillo by morning". garth brooks apparently has pulled a Beatles move and made his songs off limits to the downloading community.  anyway, there are few better lines in country music.  it's become my business motto.

a couple weeks ago i got to cover the rodeo. not the big one at the BJCC where all the big dogs ride, but the local one... regional at best. no endorsements, no big checks like in Happy Gilmore, and no real fame. just guys (and girls) traveling around from small town to small town doing what they feel like that have to do. the purse on this rodeo was $5,000. $5,000! to almost die! and that you have to split among the other winners.

there are few times in my life that i felt like i have been truly submersed in another culture (another was when i worked for the JCCEO). really what i mean by that is there are few times i've been submersed in culture. most of us are so homogenous and vanilla that we really don't belong to any real culture, myself included. i think that made me have even more respect for them. they did this because it was a part of who they were and how they were taught to live.

if you've never seen a rodeo you must go. i wouldn't suggest the big ones that tour around the big cities. find a small town or county rodeo. you will see what i'm talking about. i guarantee no matter how different you think the experience is, you'll come away respecting them.

here are a few shots. also, i felt like a slideshow with some appropriate music would help define what i'm talking about. Here it is.

this is supposed to be the off-season.

i look forward to this stretch of time. i should have learned by now.  in my head it's peaceful, restful, slow moving etc.  in reality it's planning, deadlines, conflict, rainy etc.  i'm almost ready to say i'm ready for the busy season.  

one of my assignments last week was a civic event at the university of montevallo.  i arrived right on time for the shoot which was advertised to start at 7.  2 hours later i was standing in the back of the room trying not to fall asleep from lack of calories in my body (oh and they ate a 4 course meal right in front of me). all i could think about was my sweet homewrecker from moe's.  as the event was winding down, i was inching towards the door.  i literally got my shots that ran in the paper as i was walking out of the venue.  now for some reason the workers at moe's in alabaster don't like to make money or at least not from me because they close at 9 o'clock which has been too early for me on several occasions.  you know that feeling when you're hungry and ticked.  it's a very entitled feeling.  so i went to chick fil a and of course nothing was good enough for me.  so i did all that was left to do.  griped all the way home to my wife who was in nashville with a sick baby.  i'm sure there was a lot of true sympathy there.  in my 2 hours on assignment i did manage to take some pictures of a watertower that i really like.  the reason i like them is because i didn't have to do a thing to them before i posted.  i rarely get that luxury.   so this is about the best thing that came of that night for me... did i mention it was a friday night!