National Geographic CM Ranch “Cowboy Country” Workshop
View from my cabin, CM Ranch
Months of preparation, weeks of intensity as the workshops grew near, sleepless nights worrying about the minutiae of the event, and before we knew it, we were immersed in the National Geographic CM Ranch Workshop in Dubois, Wyoming. Two, back-to-back workshops, running from Sunday evening until the following Saturday morning. Within this time frame, photo opportunities were created both early morning and late afternoon-it’s all about light and moment.
Horses running through pasture at CM Ranch
When I met Jeff Vanuga in 1988, during the fires at Yellowstone, little did we realize at that time that we’d be working together years down the road, both for my FirstLight Workshops, and now as my co-instructor for the CM Ranch event. Jeff knows the area, he’s a tremendous photographer and he works incredibly well with people—all components of a successful instructor-student relationship.
Johnny Lucas after a bit of a fall
I had proposed this workshop to Deb Harris at National Geographic about two years ago. I’ve worked with Deb on several other National Geographic events, and she was very open to my CM workshop proposal. During our FirstLight Dubois workshops in 2006, ’08, ’10, & ‘12, I’d visited the CM many times; it’s always provided great photographic opps, incredible wranglers & horses, and the people at the ranch were great to work with, making it an obvious choice for this new concept under Geographic. Luckily, Ranch managers, Hunter & Mollie Sullivan, were receptive to my idea and then worked with me over these two years to make it all happen. Their enthusiasm continued through the workshops, receptive to whatever idea Jeff & I came up with – at least until we proposed some really wacked-out ideas, but we won’t go there.
Hunter Sullivan
Hunter and Buck Draney ride near Dubois Badlands
For those of you familiar with FirstLight, you know the mantra of the workshop is “Subject to Change,” with our schedule really a “best intentions” document. We adapt accordingly, due to weather, horse moods, wrangler abilities, and many other considerations. Our students at the two CM workshops really took this in stride, in large part because the photo opps were so incredible. Try telling wranglers they need to hold 60 head of horses at a gate for an additional 15 minutes because the light’s not right. Won’t happen. But, it did happen with CM. Daily projection sessions were held, and we’d always see Hunter and Buck (lead wrangler at the ranch) in the audience; I know that they were taking in the discussion on what went right and what went wrong with a particular shoot. As the workshop progressed, things became more fluid, with the wranglers really becoming perfect subjects for our many cameras.
We also had two incredible assistants: Frank Varney and Anita Nowacka. Frank recently retired as the Photography Chair of the Art Institute of Colorado, and was the tech editor for “Perfect Digital Photography”, the photography guide written my Jay Kinghorn and me. Anita is a family portrait specialist from Seattle. Both Frank and Anita did incredible jobs at the workshop.
Buck Draney overlooking Dubois Badlands
Opening night of second week, we had an amazing storm
Hunter with Ramshorn Mountain in background
Father and daughter, Buck and Mari Draney
Afternoon shoot after storm
Dawn overlooking Dubois Badlands
Morning shoot of Buck and Hunter, Dubois Badlands
East Pasture, CM Ranch
CM Wrangler Denny Ley with 2 friends
Wednesday night was our portrait session
Jeff Vanuga led shoot around teepee on CM
4th of July parade with Luke Sullivan
4th of July parade in Dubois
Mason Slider getting blasted during 4th of July parade
4th of July, fire trucks spraying crowd
Last run through the Boneyard
First morning run through Boneyard
1st morning run through Boneyard
Lower pasture, panning exercise
Lower pasture, panning exercise
CM wrangler Denny Ley
Couple of mornings after “SuperMoon”
Hunter Sullivan and Anna Vanuga, Dubois Overlook
Dubois Badlands
I hope you enjoy the images. I shot the entire workshop with the Olympus OM-D, which is becoming my tool of choice for travel and location photography. I can carry the camera all day, I have a choice of optics that are real-world for a pro, and the image quality is incredible.
