Ellensburg Rodeo
September 1st, 2025
We attended the first day of the Ellensburg Rodeo on the first day of Labor Day weekend. Ellensburg is a familiar place to us but we had never attended the famous event. Our drive out the day before was uneventful and we got to our Airbnb location with no issues.
I was looking forward to it but also worried about several things. My wife paid for tickets up front without knowing if it was a good vantage point. There was some doubt in my mind that the personnel would allow me to bring in photography equipment. Would the personal allow me to move around for good vantage points? Then there was the temperature which is often in the high 80s this time of year.
I was able to get great rodeo pictures of the different kinds of events shown below. Lots of activity so I kept my shutter at 1/2000 at f7.1. I was using my 100-500 lens which seemed to work best. Maybe use my 600 next year? The shallow depth of field might mitigate the subjects behind the cowboys and cow girls. Lot of shots whenever there was something interesting in front of us.
First challenge was the temperature in the 90s. We did have the mitigation of partly cloudy which helped a bit. Something to remember for next year is to wear neck coolers to keep our temperatures down.
We found nearby parking for $20 and a golf cart taxi to take us to the rodeo area. We appreciated the ride in the middle of high temperatures. They even picked us up at the end of the rodeo when we were so overheated the thought of the walk back was intimidating. My wife had the beginnings of heat exhaustion and I was not far behind her.
Well the vantage point at LL was fair with a few issues. First we were sitting in full sun on the other side from the area with awnings above it. Next we were one row back with railings getting in the way of almost every shot that needs to be cloned out. Then there was the lady with the big hair that appeared in almost every shot. I got used to removing her with the new Lightroom cloning tool that worked great. The area on the other side of the arena is a better choice for next year.
Lastly and most difficult was Canon R5 MkII kept overheating. I kept seeing the temp gauge moving up and up. The first time it overheated I went to shady areas and bought a white t-shirt to put over it. This helped a little bit. My wife gave me the blue ice for our cooler and I held it against the camera. This didn’t seem to help at all unfortunately. I ended up having to take my camera into shade 3 times during the 3 hour period.
Overall a wonderful visit. We will be back next year with a couple of changes. First, get seats up front on the far side of the venue from LL seats. Second bring my 600mm and use a monopod to hold my camera and lens up or maybe rent the new canon zoom for shallower depth of fields. Third wear neck coolers and drink more water.
