A Long, Hot day
by Ben Woodruff
Photography Editor, Rocky Mountain Collegian

Dateline- July 4, 2002, Greeley, Colorado

Temperature ­ 80-98

Assignments shot- 4

Hours worked ­ 14

4th of July 2002 was on the longest days in my photojournalism career. The aftermath? 1gb of D1h images, several good photos, a case of dehydration, and another step down the road of skin cancer.

The flogging began at around 8:30 am. I grabbed my gear, 2 quarts of water, a laptop, and headed out for the day.

It took 20 minutes to wind my way around roadblocks over to my friends place, up from a normal 5-minute trip. When I get there, he shows me the carnage on the back of his Honda Civic. He backed into a parked truck while covering an early morning running race for the local newspaper. He's feeling a bit bad about it; I try to put things into perspective by saying it could have been a little kid. We each grab a couple cameras, a bottle of water and head off to the parade.

A large portion of the 70,000+ residents of Greeley must have shown up, lining the 14-block parade route. I start working my way in and out of the crowds, primarily near the local college, where several yards are filled with parade watchers

I shoot the entire parade, working in the first half of the parade route. According to the parade lineup sheet, the fly over by four Air National Guard F-16 fighter planes was cancelled. Near the end of the parade, four F-16s fly in formation low over the parade route, quiet enough so that I don't hear them until they are right above me. Another missed photoŠ.

Miss Rodeo Colorado contestants ride on horseback down the parade route for the Greeley Independence Stampede, on July 4, in Greeley, Colo. © Ben Woodruff/Rocky Mountain Collegian

According to the Greeley Stampede, the parade is one of the largest in the country. With the current state of world affairs, it could make a perfect target for terrorists. I feel a little on edge for the whole parade. With all these people, could the FBI agents I saw stop someone intent on killing? Thankfully the parade ends without incident, I head back to the car, give my friend a call, and head down to the papers offices to pick him up and grab some lunch. There is only about an hour until the finals of the PRCA Rodeo. A quick stop at Target (open and pretty full on July 4th. I guess we were all doing our part to keep America rolling by buying everyday of the year) to get a tarp and rope to cover trunk of my friends car and we are off to the rodeo.

Come Bouvier gets hooked and thrown by Corkscrew during the Greeley Stampede Rodeo Finals on July 4. © Ben Woodruff/ Rocky Mountain Collegian

Rodeo has to be one of the most American sports. Where else can you sit in the hot sun, drink cheap beer, and watch people ride next weeks dinner? Seriously though, just listening to the competitors in the steer wrestling event made me feel OK to be an American, and a human being. Despite the fact that thousands of dollars are at stake, each man cheered the others on, each seemed to be friends with the other, and congratulated or consoled others at the end of a run. There didn't seem to be the same animosity towards opponents as in any of the big mainstream sports. What a refreshing change.

Rodeo can be pretty routine, as can any sports event, but the 4th had something special going. When time came for bull riding, cowboys were being tossed like rag dolls by the massive livestock.

I take the next couple hours to relax in the re-circulated air of my place, edit some photos and eat a bit of dinner before heading back out to the night concert.

The concert, featuring Martina McBride, was run of the mill, nothing too exciting. It paled in comparison to the Grand Funk Railroad and Styx concert from a few nights earlier.

James Young of Styx plays to the crowd at the Greeley Stampede on June 30. © Ben Woodruff/Rocky Moutain Collegian

Both GFR and Styx, bands that had their heyday either before or near the time I was born (I'm just 21), rocked the house. They played with energy, and played to the crowd. The Styx crowd actually managed to keep a beach ball bouncing around the crowd for the better part of the show, much better than the country western music concerts, where the ball would only make a couple volleys before disappearing into the crowd.

The day capped off with a fireworks show. Since I wasn't on deadline, or really shooting for anyone beside myself, I decided that I could try something different, something to learn for next time.

I had scoped out a mechanical bull, that I figured I could line up with the fireworks and make a cool image. What I think was a good concept, lacked in execution. I couldn't get the fireworks lined up quite right, big enough in the frame, and the light on the bull rider was too bright to use flash to freeze the rider and maintain exposure for the fireworks. Oh well que sera sera. I found something else that worked, nothing spectacular, but, you can't hit a homerun every time you are at bat.

Here's the near miss. I had frames with bigger fireworks, but they were half blocked by the trees. You win some and you lose some. © Ben Woodruff/ Rocky Mountain Collegian

14 Hours. 810 images. An important lesson discovered. This is me. I have the passion inside me. I could have easily taken a nice easy holiday, but I preferred to get up early, work all day, and stay up late, in my photographic exploration of my world. I hope the fire inside me, my passion, never cools, never dims and never goes out of focus.

Ben Woodruff
benjwoodruff@attbi.com

http://home.attbi.com/~benjwoodruff/