Central Oregonian

The opportunity of a lifetime

Shooting photos at the National Finals Rodeo was an unforgettable experience

Lon Austin

Since I have been a sports reporter at the Central Oregonian, I have had only a handful of opportunities to attend high-level athletic events.

I have had a chance to photograph college football games as well as high school state championships. All enjoyable events, but nothing like the opportunity I had last week in Las Vegas, Nev.

My wife and I were on vacation there and the timing couldn’t have been better. We were there for much of the National Finals Rodeo and I was fortunate enough to be one of the few people granted a media pass to photograph the event.

The NFR is a major sporting event. It was held the first 10 days of December and was attended by more than 17,000 people nightly.

In addition, 42 hotels and casino’s in the Las Vegas area carried the event live via a satellite feed. Each of the casinos set aside a viewing area for those who couldn’t get tickets to the event.

The largest venue was a 5,000 seat stadium at the South Point Resort and Casino which also hosted the awards presentations each night.

For nearly two weeks during the event, Las Vegas is turned into a cowboy town.

The NFR is hands down the best rodeo I have ever seen. The event is professionally run and the stock and competitors are both excellent.

My press pass gave me full access to a press room, which was in the basement of the Cole Pavilion, an event center adjacent to the Thomas and Mack Center where the rodeo was held. It also gave me access to a photographers section called the moat.

From there I had one of the best views in the house. We were against the railing with a front row view to everything that happened.

However, that view came with a distinct lack of comfort. We were crammed into a hole approximately 20 inches wide, four-and-a-half feet deep and 35 feet long called the moat. Into that space they crammed as many as 25 photographers. I spent most of my time there shooting between the ear and shoulder of a free-lance photographer from Las Vegas. The people on the other side of me, a pair of friendly ladies from Las Vegas and somewhere in Minnesota spent most of the time shooting under our arms.

To describe the moat as crowded would be something of an understatement.

Photographing in that environment was both exhilarating and physically tiring.

From my observation it appeared that the cowboys and cowgirls at the event experienced the same thing, but at a much higher level.

They went from extreme highs after winning events to extreme lows after failing to score in a round. The wear and tear on the Cowboys during the course of the 10 days must be incredible.

I can’t imagine having the courage to get on a crazed bull once, let alone every night for 10 nights in a row, yet that is exactly what they did. Many battled injuries throughout the event, and the list of those undergoing surgery once the rodeo ended is staggering.

What really fascinates me about rodeo is that even those at the top of their profession are not guaranteed a paycheck.

In most professional sports team members that may not even see action in a game still receive a handsome payday when their team reaches the world championship.

Such is not the case with cowboys. Only the top six placers each night and the top eight in the final average earned anything. The rest of the competitors go away empty-handed.

There was a $6 million purse for this year’s NFR, which was split between 120 cowboys and cowgirls.

However, at least six athletes didn’t make a dime during the rodeo, while the top 10 cowboys each made more than $100,000 during the 10-day event.

Bareback rider Kaycee Feild earned more than $170,000 while saddle bronc rider Jesse Wright took home more than $160,000.

In rodeo it is either go big or go home empty handed. That makes Las Vegas the perfect venue for the event.

While much of Las Vegas is bright lights and high rollers, not everyone is getting rich there.

It’s clearly a gambling town.

Just like the rodeo it’s go big or go home. The rodeo was a great experience, and Las Vegas is an interesting and exciting place.

The chance to photograph both the rodeo and the city was priceless, and something I hope to have the opportunity to do again, maybe next year.