Rodeo is true American history and the very first extreme sport. Many years ago on the barely settled plains of Texas, cowboys from neighboring ranches would get together to see who was the toughest cowboy ­– the one who could ride that unbroken bucking horse the longest, who could chase down a calf on the run, rope and tie it down the quickest, or who could wrestle a steer to the ground fastest. These cowboy skills were born of necessity on ranches across the American West, and they gave rise to the most American of sports – rodeo. Rodeo was American as apple pie long before a baseball was every thrown.

Nowadays, rodeo is a sanctioned, big-money, big-arena event, with professional rodeo cowboys and cowgirls traveling the event circuit competing to win the most money, and points, to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo held every December in Las Vegas. And for photographers, rodeo is also an extraordinarily target-rich world.

Jeff Berlin, a photographer, filmmaker, and Sony Artisan of Imagery cracked into the world of rodeo years ago by chance. Armed with just a camera, Jeff leverages his fashion and celebrity portrait background to find and capture the all-American beauty and visceral action of rodeo in stunning environmental portraits and the occasional action shot. In this presentation, Jeff will discuss his approaches to photographing rodeo and western lifestyle images, working around horses and bulls safely, talk about the processes behind some of his favorite images and how you can incorporate them into your own work.

Learn more and register HERE.