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| Horses are big and fast |
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| The trouble with writing a column is you have to share your errors with the world |
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By Lon Austin
I have done a lot of embarrassing things in my life, but most of them have been done in front of relatively small groups of people and have blown over fairly quickly.
Unfortunately this time I not only have done something embarrassing, but a large group saw it and now I am obligated to share my mistakes with everyone.
For years my wife and I have spent every Labor Day weekend at the coast enjoying her family reunion. The closest I have ever come to danger there is being matched up one on one with a former NFL defensive tackle in a game of flag football.
Well this year my wife went off to the family reunion while I went to cover the Paulina rodeo.
One of the first things you learn in sports photography is to cover the story, not become part of the story, but I guess sometimes photographers are slow learners.
Have you ever seen a photographer on television get run over by a football or basketball player and wonder what the heck the photographer was thinking?
You see others scramble to see if he is OK. Then you can see them asking, "What were you thinking? You could have been hurt."
Well that was me at the rodeo. I was inside the arena making sure that I got up close to the action to get the best photos possible when I made a little error in judgment.
Did you know that horses are large and fast? Of course you did. Everyone knows that - except apparently me.
Anyway, I was standing against the fence photographing the saddle bronc competition. A couple of horses got closer to me that I was really comfortable with, so I decided to make sure that I was safe. Using shockingly bad judgment, I moved toward the center of the arena to make sure that I was out of the way.
I saw the horses coming and I heard the pickup man say, "get out of the..." WHAM!
I heard the rest of his warning from my backside looking up. After I scuttled to my feet and picked up all the pieces I left the arena to clean my camera.
Immediately I heard the familiar phrases, "Are you OK? What were you thinking? You could have been hurt."
The answers are simple. Yes I'm fine. Obviously I wasn't thinking, and duh, of course I could have been hurt, but thanks for asking.
I'm sure that eventually it will all blow over and people will forget, but I really don't know when. I think maybe next year I will take my chances on the family reunion.
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