Arizona Best Fest - Prescott, AZ

Gregg Bond

This weekend was the first of three festivals for Arizona's centennial. Jason Keele and I made a quick day trip up to Prescott to cover the JC Comancheros' involvement in the celebrations. Due to their Pony Express ride and thus their association with the U.S. Postal service, they rode in as part of the centennial stamp unveiling. It was great working with them again and I enjoyed seeing Larry, Rich, Mike and Gregg again.

Wagon Details

There was tons going on and being that we were there for just Friday, we only got a glimpse of what was to be. Old wagons, Model-T's and other memorabilia was brought in. I was super excited to get shots of the old west that was around every corner. I was really wanting to get some detail shots of the things that were brought in. I shot mostly with my 7D with 18-135mm. It allowed me to move around and not have to change lenses at all.

Color Guard Drilling

Color Guard Awaiting Ceremony

Once it got closer for the unveiling, I hung around the steps of the Yavapai County Court House. The color guard was drilling in preparations for the ceremony and I couldn't resist taking shots of them. The backdrop of the court house made for some really cool shots. The color guard was from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and I have to say, they did a great job.

Model-T Shots

Once the ceremony got started I added my Canon Rebel with 70-300mm to the mix. I wanted to make sure that I could cover wide and long shots and not have to constantly be switching lenses. It was exciting for me, because Jason and I made the connections ahead of time so that we got a press seat up front. Not that I used mine as I was running around through the crowd to make sure I was getting different angles of the event. It was really cool to be at the first centennial event and see the new stamp, which is very nice I must add. Now, I look forward to the next one which will be in Tucson the weekend of Veterans Day.

Stamp Unveiling

Garden Photography

The past couple of weeks we've had our sunflowers blooming and I decided to get out and snap a few shots of them. One of the flowers was just perfect and I wanted to try and get a shot of it with a bit of back lighting from my flash. Thankfully, our shed that the flowers sit against is white and worked perfectly to bounce my flash off of. With the early morning sun up but not over our wall, I was able to get nice soft lighting on the front of the sunflower so as to prevent any harsh shadows. I am really happy with the results from my first time photographing any plants at our new house.

My fun did not end at the flowers however. To my surprise, we had a guest literally hanging around the flowers. Underneath one of the leaves was a massive praying mantis. He was quite a model, looking at the lens frequently and thankfully, unafraid of me and my camera. I tried some shots with my flash, but was happier with the soft natural lighting available to me. I really loved this shot because of the matching lines of the leaves and the mantis' body.

Pony Express - The Home Stretch

Dwight Nix

After leaving the edge of Mayor we found ourselves back out in the open desert. The landscape began to gradually change as we found ourselves climbing and descending small mountains. It was here that we rounded a corner and met up with Dwight Nix, traveling from Oklahoma to make the ride. Riding a borrowed and thus unfamiliar horse, Dwight struggled to keep up a fast pace. Eventually we descended down into greener landscape, signs that we were getting ever closer to Prescott.

Adolfo Fernandez

Jack Fisher

It was through the next few legs that we would see Adolfo and Jack riding. Adolfo is a family friend of the Fishers and Jack has been riding the Pony Express since the beginning. His left sleeve is covered almost shoulder to cuff with all of the years that he has ridden. It was through these legs that we were finally able to enjoy the slower pace since we had a forest canopy to shade us from the Arizona sun.

Jack would eventually hand off to Trampas Coan who would be the last of the more relaxing legs. It was an enjoyable relaxing stretch that we found out would turn into a roller coaster ride through the next several legs.

Trampas Coan

Once Trampas was done the pace changed quite rapidly. Instantly after his hand off we found ourselves accelerating to around 30-35 mph. That may not sound like much, but when sitting in the bed of a truck, trying to photograph riders, all while navigating a narrow, winding mountain dirt road; it can be exhilarating to say the least.

The opportunities were great for photos however. With the dust being kicked up from our speeding truck and riders going at a full gallop, it was a prime recipe for photos. The trick was taking a well composed photo. I was forced to use one arm to hold on to something, so as not to fly around the truck, which still happened several times. This left me with one hand to hold steady my camera while taking the photos. The result of which were several pictures of either the coolers next to me or shots of the tops of trees. The results we spectacular though. A big thanks must go out to Levi for pulling off some of the best driving I've ever seen. Jason would later inform Levi, that if Jason ever robbed a bank and needed a get away driver, he'd know who to call.

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Doug Wooldridge

After several more legs we left the dirt roads for the last time. We were now in the outskirts of Prescott pulling up to our previous days driver, Cody Grant. His was an interesting leg in that the hand off would entail him jumping on the horse his father just rode in the preceding leg. This is a leg that Cody hopes one day he could trade for a dirt road. It was a struggle to get his horse to move at any speed since the stretch was all on asphalt. To make matters worse, Debbie had informed us of the impatience of drivers on this road. Even the police escort couldn't prevent drivers from speeding by to pass Cody, sometimes narrowly missing him and his horse. We were all able to breathe a sigh of relief when he finished.

Cody Grant

After Cody, George Steffan brought us into town. It was at the intersection of Gurly and Cortez, in front of the Yavapai County Courthouse, that Dan Cole and about 20 of the riders would start the last leg to the rodeo grounds. The town was jubilant, coming out to cheer on the riders and tourists were given a rare treat to see the JC's ride through town and along Whiskey Row. For a brief moment, we were given a glimpse into history to see cowboys ride the streets of Prescott once again.

Dan Cole