Gone With The Wind!!

 

That’s where I’ll be all weekend long.

Gone With The Wind!

Along with my hubby Ranchman John and my twinling son Jax, we are going to be helping out during this weekend’s ACTHA Competitive Trail Rides over at Walkin N Circles Ranch Horse Rescue on the famous King Ranch.

I typically either work as an obstacle judge or I ride. But this weekend I was asked to be the Official Ride Photographer instead. Surprisingly I’m not disappointed about not being able to ride, because I love to take photos, especially of riders and their horses, as I know how wonderful it is for us horse riders to have photos of ourselves riding and spending time with our special horses. Just like Moms who are always behind the camera taking photos of our kidlets, it’s sometimes nice to be in front of the camera, too.

The other reason why I’m not down about not getting the opportunity to ride this weekend is that the weather is supposed to be a wild tempest this weekend with fierce winds and gusts up to 60 mph, possible rain or snow and maybe even thunderstorms. Whoooeee! 

You’d have to be a die-hard to ride in weather like that. And apparently there are quite a few die-hards because our ride roster each day is close to 30 riders and their horses!

Today was a sunny beautiful day, except for the wind. Ranchman John and I drove over to WNCR today to help set up, pick up the obstacle list and get the lay of the land so I can plan where I want to be to get some great photos during the ride on Saturday. We also drove the Mule tractor around picking up trash, so Ranchman John could get a feel for the Mule’s fickle personality. We had lots of fun racing around, but Boy Howdy! That wind was crazy! And today is much milder in wind speeds, with gusts of only 25-35 mph, than tomorrow is supposed to be!

Should be interesting!

Saturday’s theme is from the movie “Gone With The Wind” and all of the volunteers will be dressing in Civil War era costumes. Ranchman John’s friend, who is a Civil War Re-enactor, was kind enough to loan us an official re-enactor Confederate Soldier uniform and weapon. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to find one that fit Ranchman John, but it did fit our twinling Jax pretty good.

I’m dressing as a Southern Belle with a costume I made using some pieces I bought while volunteering at the Hug a Horse Thrift Store recently. I even have a fancy white hat covered in flowers, too. I told Ranchman John he could wear a suit and I could paint his face brown and he could be my chauffer, like the movie “Driving Miss Daisy”. lol!

He’s not too keen on the idea, but I’m still trying to talk him into wearing a nice suit, like a typical Southern Gentleman.

I can be Scarlett O'Hara and he can be my Rhett Butler! *big grin*

Sunday’s ACTHA ride is called “Gone With The Wind TOO!” and is even more ‘Wind Themed’. All of us volunteers will be wearing anything that has to do with wind, like wind-breakers, kites, wind chimes, wind blown hair, whirl-a-gigs and pin wheels, etc. And you can bet that I have some crazy fun costumes planned for all 3 of us to wear that day. Oh yeah!

(You can read more about each day’s ride by clicking on the direct links for upcoming ACTHA Rides over on my sidebar.)

I’m also doing things a little bit different in regards to the photography. The previous photographer for WNCR’s ACTHA rides would take photos, watermark each of them, and then post them online and have people cherry pick the photos they wanted to buy. Then people would just send in donations to WNCR for the photos they chose.

I’m going to be taking the photos during each day’s ride, and then coming back to WNCR ranch’s headquarters, burning all of the photos onto CDs and then selling the CDs after each day’s ride. I am hoping to take between 75-130 photos per day.

And at least for this weekend’s rides, I’m not planning on water-marking them or laying claim to any of these photos for future use. Once the CD is paid for, the photos belong to the buyer.

What do you all think of the price charged per CD? Fair? Or not?

By the way, don’t you all just love this sweet Mammie Doll I happened to find recently at the Hug a Horse Thrift Store while I was working?

I think this will work better for the riders, too, because I know how I am with patience, and when I competed in previous ACTHA rides I didn’t particularly like having to wait a week or two (or even longer) to be able to see the photos, then wait for the photos I chose to be sent to me via e-mail so I could finally share them with my friends and family.

It will also be more beneficial for me, as well as the Horse Rescue because a portion of the proceeds will be going back to me to help pay for my supplies and time and a portion will go to WNCR to help care for the horses. But we won’t have to wait for the money to come in for many weeks afterwards if I collect it the same weekend of the trail rides.

(The CDs aren’t inside these sleeves yet because I’ll be burning them after tomorrow’s ride)

So, I hope it all works out. Jen has been helping me decorate the multi-colored paper CD sleeves using horse stamps, so the CDs are fun to look at, too. And I practiced burning some CDs last week with the 90+ photos I took from the Halloween ACTHA rides last October when I was a judge.

I managed to take photos from two obstacles (the Noise Obstacle and the Slicker/Hat Obstacle), as well as photos of each group of riders that showed up at my obstacles. This is also what I have in mind to do for each day of this weekend’s rides, as well. Photograph at least two obstacles each day and shoot group photos each day.

The Halloween CDs turned out really well and I’ll be selling those, too, for those folks that were at that weekend’s rides but never managed to get any photos. 

I’ve got everything planned out and prepared for each day and I’ve got my two assistants along to help when I need it.

And hopefully we don’t all get blown away by the wind!

I hope everyone has a terrific weekend!