North Carolina Weekend – in Pictures

Two straight days without rain and all the folks hereabouts are celebrating heartily!

My version of celebration included another road trip off into the Mountains to Blowing Rock to kill a little time before heading to visit a Rodeo in Blacksburg, SC.  The Hunters and Jumpers show was a fine event, all about primped and pristine horses showing themselves at their restrained and schooled best.

Next, a detour down the Interstates to catch a Rodeo with a different sort of flavour.  Unlike the last one I sought out, this was very commercial with a hefty gate fee and way more restrictions in terms of what you could see and where you could sit/explore/ photograph.

It also took a country age to get started, so for two hours or so I amused myself taking snaps of faces ….

I’m slowly getting used to the “Suthern” thing, where everyone wears a Ten Gallon hat or sports a pair of Cowboy boots (and yes, I do have my own!! – boots that is, not the hat!!)

They also seem enamored with the Confederate Flag and apparently fly it right along side the Stars and Stripes when they can!!

Eventually the Rodeo got started.  By this time it’s way past 8:30pm, the sun has set, the light has gone and I am a TAD “ticked off” as there is next to no light left and picture taking will be a whole big noisy mess…….. since I had to content myself with a spot in the stands, way far from the action and point my lens through a sea of Cowboy hats …..

Nonetheless, it WAS FUN!  They had some Bull riding and Bucking Broncho events that the smaller Rodeo did not so I just  I cranked up the ISO on the camera to 6400, set it to manual and just pushed the shutter speed as hard as I could.

The pix aren’t the greatest as they are pretty noisy and probably have Photo-journalistic merit at best. …. but it was pretty cool to watch the action, enjoy the atmosphere and soak up another slice of life!