Mac the Knife

For those who were wondering who "father-in-law" Mac is, he is Mac Wilson, rancher, cowboy, raconteur extraordinaire, and staunch supporter of all things to do with the Canadian Legion and the armed forces.

Age 16 saw him driving a tank in WWII, followed by campaigns in Italy and Holland. He joined up by saying he was his older brother's twin brother. Like many veterans, he doesn't talk about his experiences much, but will open up on occasion. When I asked him how he got through the application process to get into the army at such a young age, he mentioned that the interviewer happened to be his old school teacher. When he saw Mac and his brothers, he exclaimed,"well if you guys get into as much trouble with the Germans as you did in school, the war will be over in a few weeks!" With that, he stamped Mac's application and he was in!

He's a great huy with lots of stories about life. We'll be having an 85th birthday party for him this fall, so watch this space!

Oh, by the way, he doesn't always look like the photograph....he was in character for a Western Night, put on by his daughter (and my wife) Gloria, here in Briercrest, SK.

Mac wants to go to another rodeo, this time at Herbert, approximately one hour west of Moose Jaw, on August 2nd. Perhaps I can get some photos of bull riding this time.

Hallonquist - A Ranch Rodeo

On Sunday, we went down to Hallonquist, often photographed as a ghost town, for the Ranch Rodeo. A ranch rodeo is different from a rodeo such as Wood Mountain since its roots are in pioneer days where neighbours got together, had a few competitions such as bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, steer roping etc to show off their skills. In the evening, they had a social with lots of refreshments.

There are still some ranch rodeos such as this one and they are very popular with the locals. It is still designed for local cowboys and ranchers, and you will not likely see cowboys from the US or Australia as you see them at Wood Mountain.

It was a hot day with just enough of a breeze to break the heat. The beer gardens were well attended! Perhaps the most interesting part of the day was the "Mutton Races". For those not from the west, young (and I mean young!) future cowboys and cowgirls start their rodeo life off by riding sheep. Lots of fun and some really persistent young riders. I saw one little girl ride all the way to the end hanging on to the sheep even though she was upside down!

Father in law Mac and cousin Davey wanted to visit with some friends in the area. Cody was home from Europe with his girlfriend Maria, and a new baby (Chester) hadn't been presented to all the family yet. We had to return, so Mac and Davey were brought home by somebody, sometime. We know they are home because Mac phoned last night wanting to go Saskatoonberry picking!

For the photographers, I increased the shutter speed to 1/800 sec which seemed to help capture the motion better while still allowing sufficient light in and not messing up the depth of field too much.

Next blog, who knows?

Wood Mountain Rodeo

Went down to Wood Mountain, just a few km's north of the Montana border, last week to take some action photos of the rodeo. Nothing on their web site showed times, so I went down early. Left at 8:00 am, arrived at 10:15 am after shooting several photos on the way (two moose crossing the hwy #2, just north of Mossbank). The rodeo didn't start until 6:00 pm so I left and wandered around the south country taking a few photos as I drove along.

I am always impressed by the variety of colours of the various crops and how they intersect with each other. Canola is in flower right now, although at times you can't tell the difference between canola and mustard from the road. One of our local farmers merely smiled and said, just get out of your vehicle and smell the air. Sweaty socks...that's mustard!


I started driving, looking for a place to have lunch and ended up at Coronach. This is the gateway to the Badlands where Canadian bandits and rustlers (yes, Canadian!) used to venture into Montana to pursue their nefarious ways. (tours are stll available to take you into their hideout caves.) Why caves, you ask, well apparently, in those relatively lawless times, the US lawmen were allowed to cross the border if they were in hot pursuit. That is, if they could see the bad guys, they could follow them across the border and arrest them. So, the Canadians, being more intrepid than our US friends, built caves that they disappeared into, horses and all! Once in there , they couldn't be seen therefore the "hot pursuit" was foiled!

Anyway, back to lunch. I looked for the cafe that Mac, my father in law and I ate in on a trip last year. No luck - closed and for sale. Hamburger and potato salad at the golf club was the best I could do. Actually, it was pretty good.

I made my way back and watched the rodeo from the grandstand. Maybe, at this point, I should mention that Wood Mountain is the longest continuously running rodeo in Canada! I took about 500 photos overall less about 80 that were lost on a new class 6 Verbatim 16GB SDHC card I'd just purchased on sale at Staples. (Memory Card Error). Thank goodness, I had my Panasonic professional 4 GB card as a back up. (Staples refunded my money without a fuss and sent the card off as defective) I also wanted to take advantage of the continuous focus feature of my Pentax 10D DSLR. It didn't work too badly, but I now realize that 1/500 sec or 1/640 sec is not fast enough to catch the action on burst shooting with my 300mm telephoto lens. Next time I'll try 1/1000 sec and play with the aperture.

This weekend I'm going down to Hallonquist for a ranch rodeo. I'll try out the new settings there.