COWBOY PHOTOGRAPHING PHOTOGRAPHER PHOTOGRAPHING COWBOY - Paul Scherf took a shot for me of me photographing Baxter Badure on the Badure Ranch - Belvidere, South Dakota. I pulled out my old GO WEST backdrop which I love even more now that I have GONE WEST. Making for a nice mix of real and fake reality. Of course on the Badure ranch one could photograph for days on end with endless wardrobe changes of handmade Baxter Badure chaps - vintage beaded leather gloves and coats - saddles etc etc ... limitless possibilities to photograph real life characters who look as if they stepped right out of the movies which portray the characters of the West of the past. Life on this 'movie set' is grand.
Now I have gone full circle. My GO WEST drop from the mid 1990's that I took around the West with me to photograph at rodeos
http://www.jeanlaughton.com/html/gowest/index.html# The landscape of which I felt as if I was inhabiting and riding my Pony around in when I first started working on the ranch almost ten years ago. Now, stepping outside of it a bit to look back at all the experiences and adventure I have had so far - all the great cowboys I have had a chance to work and ride with. Standing in front of it, in my cowboy 'costume', straight off horseback to do a little photo shoot in between action scenes on the wide open 'backlot' Range. Being photographed by a cowboy to top it off. Like riding the outside full circle of life. I feel so fortunate to have been welcomed onto Lyle O'Bryan's ranch and into the world of the ranchers and crew and history south of Belvidere, South Dakota. Changing the course of my life drastically when I jumped on the back of a horse and rode along with an old time "Gus" cowboy onto the set of a grand epic Cinemascope adventure. Life imitates art imitates life. I like it best when I can't tell the difference between the two and each day on the ranch feels as if I am riding within a movie scene. The cinematic ranch life continues. Giddy up Pony.
