Photo Essay
T
he fun part of putting on the
Shooting West Texas Photo -
graphy Symposium is choosing
which photographers to invite from
year to year, so that task is shared
among a great committee. Our goals
are always to include variety, top pho-
tographers and people who will be of
interest to photographers photograph-
ing West Texas.
Some of our audience members are
interested in photographing wildlife,
some in photographing grandchildren
and some in West Texas culture. The
three photographers represented here
are a small sample of the breadth and
depth of our 2011 program.
Adam Jahiel is one of the nation’s
top fine-art photographers. His haunt-
ing black and white photographs of
what he calls “The Last Cowboy”
appear in numerous galleries world-
wide. Adam uses a wide-angle lens to
emphasize wide open skies and
Western space. The lens also allows
him to work in tight spaces, such as a
corral, and still conjure space.
Laren Bridges is a jill of all trades who
will talk about making a business of pho-
tography. Her work ranges from beauti-
ful wedding shots to senior portraits to
hard-hitting sports. As a former field edi-
tor for the American Quarter Horse Journal,
she also brings to the symposium an edi-
tor’s perspective of how to shoot horses
for ads, action and articles.
Russell Graves is the author and
photographer of the Kodak Most Basic
Guide of Digital Nature Photo graphy (2008)
and an award-winning teacher. So he
will be an excellent “how-to” speaker
on photographing wildlife, hunting,
hunting dogs, fishing and the list goes
on. He is the outdoor photo graphy edi-
tor for Texas Fish & Game magazine.
The rest of the program includes
equally talented, equally famous and
equally exciting photographers. We
think this event has the potential to grow
into something like the Texas Cowboy
Poetry Gathering. Tickets are on sale at
our Web site: shootingwesttexas.org.
Members of the Shooting West
Texas Photography Symposium com-
mittee are Barbara Richerson, Cesario
Valenzuela, David Cockrum, Don
Coers, Jim Bob Salazar, Judith Parsons,
Lauren Mendias, Letitia Wetterauer,
Tim Parsons and Barney Nelson.
– Barney Nelson
Russell Graves
I took this photo in the canyonlands along the Caprock Escarpment in Hall County, Texas. I was with my friend Bryan Burson on
a ranch that lies along the Little Red River. Bryan’s son, Dusty, is the consummate Texas cowboy – friendly, respectful and generous.
On this day, he was gathering up a few horses on the ranch, and since he was a senior in high school, I told his dad that I’d shoot a
few pictures of him before he went off to college. So with my camera in tow, I snapped shots of Dusty moving horses and roping
horses and just documented him going about his chores. Around sunset, he was doing rope tricks while he talked to his dad and me.
Seeing the potential for a great shot I crouched at a low angle and photographed him against a dark blue sky.
20
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2011