I can't remember who from my list knows what anymore, so bear with me if you already know this story. A few years ago, I had a friend who worked for Drafthorse Quarterly, and he asked me if I'd be interested in trying to shoot some images for potential covers. Uh, yeah! :) Only problem - I didn't even know what a draft horse WAS, much less know anyone who had one I could photograph. So I started asking around, and my boss' wife had the same personal trainer as this lady named Andi, who had some horses, who might be willing to let me come shoot them. One thing led to another and I found myself out, early in the morning with, by some miracle, a few clouds in the sky, taking pictures of Royal. Or, "Roy." Big! Very, very big. I had just gotten my new Rebel XT about a month or so prior, and these were the very first shots I ever took with my 18-55 that I was truly proud of. Andi was awesome, as was Roy (although Roy intimidated me a lot more than Andi! haha), and I told her I'd love to come back some time to photograph the rest of her horses and then life stepped in and I never got back there.

Nothing ever happened with DQ, so last year, I entered this pic of Roy into Nevada Magazine's annual "Wide Open Spaces" contest and lo and behold .. won first place! Woo-hoo .. a full page spread in the magazine, plus a little cash to boot. Not only that, but this pic of Roy (remember I mentioned the intimidation factor?) has also made a fair amount of money on my stock sites, too!

But as fate would have it, I kept bumping into Andi here or there, and last year, when Nevada Magazine had a call for images of cattle dogs, I gave Andi a call to see if she knew anyone who had some I could come shoot. Well, of course, her neighbor did, so again I went out one morning to take some more photos.

Some of you who knew me on 360 might remember a few of these shots.












So, why the update on old news?

Because I believe sometimes fate keeps throwing things at you and sometimes you just keep missing them, y'know? And finally it gets tired and WHOMPS you over the head. Translation to that is, I've once more crossed paths with Andi, and this time, finally got in contact via email (which I'm SO much better at than phone calls) and sent her here to see a few pics of a golden eagle (taken a couple months ago, you might remember, with the duck in its talons?) Well .. she got some awesome shots of what I would bet to be the same golden eagle, working on a coyote carcass. And not only did she come check out my pics .. she signed up on Multiply and is now amongst my list of friends. :) Soooo ... now you'll all have a point of reference when you see Andi's name amongst my blogs and such.

Tah-dah! Oh come on .. you know that I couldn't just give a simple introduction! Tsk .. it just wouldn't be me if it were 1,000 words or less!

(try not to scare her away too quickly, ok Steve? Please?)