A visit to the Denver Stock Show

Yesterday I took the day to go to the Denver Stock show.  I was especially excited to watch and gather reference photos at the AQHA Ranch Horse championships... a competition that emulates more real working type events than most other horse shows events.  I missed the reining portion unfortunately but got to watch trail class, ranch riding and cutting.  Lighting in those buildings is pretty poor so I had to shoot high ISO and while not superb from a photography standpoint I gathered many usable reference photos for my artwork.  You can expect more horses soon!

Here are a few pictures, but as I said the light makes them not too great.  I'd love to photogrpah an event like this outdoors.

I also visited the Coors Western Art Show.  I am trying to get into this event again next year, so keep your fingers crossed for me.  This show always has outstanding western art and a good number of sales (about 70% were sold).  Gold frames seem to be "in".  For some reason I just have never really liked gold frames... but may give them a try just because they seem so darn popular. 

Here is the update on my cougar... hope to have an update on the graphite horse soon too, but what can I say I love scratching more than pencil these days!