A friend of mine asked me if I'd help teach a class on photographing wild horses, commonly referred to as mustangs, that lead me on a path that would lead to the Opportunity of a lifetime. After a couple of trips to Green River Wyoming looking for horses to photograph I began searching closer to home. It didn't take long to find myself in love with the Onaqui herds out on the west desert of Utah. They are so named due to the Onaqui mountain range where they are found. I made the two-hour drive, about half or more on dusty dirt and gravel roads, as often as I could, shooting thousands of pictures. I have yet to go through most of them, just grabbing a few that stood out to me for posting on Facebook after I got home. One day I drove up to one of the watering holes and found a dark stallion chasing other horses away from the water. He had me a bit on edge, worried about getting trampled in the fray. They have never bothered me, but I was afraid I might be hit by accident in the height of excitement. While I was standing there with the camera the two horses in the photograph began to fight. Both stood up on their rear legs, going at each other with all of their fury until the dark horse prevailed, knocking the other over on its back. That is the moment I caught in this image. In early print competition this photograph scored high and garnered a judge's choice award. When it went into the Professional Photographers of America's print competition it was designated an Image of Excellence. That was that until one day I received an email saying my image had been chosen to compete in the World Photographic Cup and that they'd like me to become part of Team USA.  Of course I said yes, but my adrenaline was pumping and it took a while before I could sit down and reply to the email. The worse part is I was sworn to secret until they announced it on December 7th, my wedding Anniversary by the way. Six or seven weeks later the first photographer friend called about 7:30am on Dec. 7th to congratulate me. She had seen the announcement and was surprised to see my name on the list.  I am one of 18 fantastic, many well known photographers, chosen to be part of the American team, Team USA, who will compete world wide for the World Photographic Cup. It is an opportunity of a lifetime for me and I can't be more excited. With me luck! More tomorrow!

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