IFCS World Agility Championship

A couple of weekends ago I traveled to FT Worth, Texas to support the American team as they competed for gold in the bi-annual olympic-style event.  IFCS, International Federation of Cynological Sports, is a "non profit international cooperative of independent dog sports organizations".

Since I was not the "official" photographer I had the freedom to photograph what I wanted, which was such a nice opportunity.  I decided at the last minute to pack my Leica M6 film camera with the lovely 35 mm 1.4 lens.  It is not a "sports" camera nor lens, but I thought "what the heck".  The only film I had was very VERY expired delta 3200 film and there was no time to buy film... Sooooo....

 As was expected very few frames came out, but I love this one of Dudley Fontaine and Maverick rejoicing at the final jump.  It is so crazy,  gritty and grainy.  Most people would probably throw this away, but the feeling of it just grabs me for some reason.

© 2012 lynne brubaker

In fact, it grabbed me so much that all of the digital images I shot with my Canon 5D Mark II were post produced for a more gritty look.  It helped that I had to shoot with the ISO at 6000.

Below is Mary Ellen Barry and Maizy in mid course.  Digital is not quite the same, but I still like the grain when shot at high ISOs.

© 2012 lynne brubaker

Here is a link to the slideshow I made of some of the images that "grabbed me".  Certainly not the normal agility shots...  Get ready to DANCE to "Hella Good" No Doubt!
ifcstexas  

Rounding Up The Horses To Milk the Mares

One of the Mongolian national traditions is Airag, aka fermented mares milk.  What coke is to Americans, Airag is to Mongolians.  Ulaanaa and his sister Sumiya round up and lasso the foals and tie them up for the day.  At the end of the day the mares are milked and the buckets brought to Adiya, their grandmother, to start the fermenting process.  The milk is put into a hide skin bag and hung in the ger.  The milk needs to be stirred often over a few days.  Anyone passing the skin bags picks up the wooden spoon and gives the milk a couple of stirs.
The taste is...well... sour with a fizz, not delicious, but not bad either.  It is custom to offer a bowl of this milk to anyone visiting a ger, and good manners to accept graciously and drink.   Thank goodness for the alcohol as it was an incentive to keep drinking!





Drinking Airag

Mongolia 2011

I love to travel, it seems to be a huge part of who I am.  This summer I had the good fortune to go to Mongolia with Timothy Allen, still  photographer for the BBC series Human Planet.  The trip was designed around photography and expertly produced by Panoramic Journeys.

I flew into Ulaanbaatar, the capitol of Mongolia where I met my team, Madhav, Rosie, Tim, Tudevee our expert guide and Nyama our divine driver.  From the first second we met, we laughed.  We did not stop laughing as we ventured into the great vastness of the Mongolian steppe.



We traveled in a russian built vehicle that looked like an old VW van, but could ford rivers and grind through sand.  Our journey took us through miles and miles of unfenced grasslands that eventually and abruptly bump into range after range of mountains and forests to the north and into the Gobi desert to the south and west.  There were no roads, we bumped along on dirt paths, which we dubbed, the Mongolian highway.



One of the first things we encountered was a Naadam Festival in progress.  It is a competition of horse racing, wrestling and archery. Naadam happens every summer throughout the provinces of Mongolia.
Kids and horses, and nothing but smiles.

Camel Races in Doha, Qatar

So... I am a bit of a travel nut and whenever I get the opportunity to venture into distant lands, I jump at the chance.  This time it was the Middle East...  Doha, Qatar to be exact.  It was a brief visit, but I did get to Shahhaniya to experience and photograph the camel races....  The only jockeys I saw were robot jockeys, here's why...

Interesting info from http://qatarvisitor.blogspot.com/2006/12/camel-racing.html

Child jockeys Until recently, children as young as four were purchased from their parents or kidnapped and sold into use as jockeys. See Mental Mayhem for an account of child jockeys being used only last year, or the Ansar Burney Trust for some disturbing pictures and stories. While this was already illegal, Qatar has now introduced severe punishments for anyone caught using child jockeys, and is going to greater lengths to enforce these laws, in contrast to some other countries in the area. They have also established an orphanage for children whose parents cannot be found. 

Argentina Dos

They've been called the wanderers of the Pampas, Gauchos.  These are hardworking, dedicated, and oh so easy on the eyes, men and boys that work the sheep on Estancia Maria Behety.
I had no problem jumping into the fray and snapping a few photos. It was sheep shearing season, it took less than 60 seconds per animal, astonishing, really.
They raised and trained their own line of dogs.  Some were border collies, most were their own special breed.  I longed to take one home....

Argentina

I diverge...  Travel stories.

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money.  Then take half the clothes and twice the money.  ~Susan Heller

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.  ~Anatole France 

I went on a trip with a good friend to Argentina....  We traveled the country.  One of the stops was to

Estancia Maria Behety, which is located on the Rio Grande in the Tierra del Fuego region, in southern Argentina, roughly 45 minutes from Ciudad Rio Grande.  We went to fly fish, but of course I spent most of the time wandering around the Estancia photographing the vast beauty of the land.  The next few post will be dedicated to Argentina.