Sunset at the Hereford Corral

Sunset at the Hereford CorralSmall Ideas project featuring a T-Bone steak with cows and a rancher figure with a pickup truck.

Many years ago, when I was in college in Oklahoma, I had a roommate from the panhandle of Texas. Hereford, Texas, to be specific. His family had done pretty well as the John Deere dealer in the area and his dad had retired younger than most. His dad became a rancher. As my roommate would tell the story, his dad's favorite pastime was driving through the herd trying to figure out which calf the best steaks would come from. After making his selection, he would call Mark to come and empty the freezer to make room for the new stuff. We would drive to Hereford, fill the trunk of his car with beef, and head for home. This routine became a huge part of my fond memories from college days and, is now lodged in my subconscious mind. Mark's dad helped us live pretty cheaply back then!

This memory became the inspiration for this photograph "Sunset at the Hereford Corral" in my "Small Ideas" series. The series is a huge departure from my landscape and commercial photography. It's a challenge to tell a story on a table-top or in a snow-bank. Working with 1-inch-tall figures has some significant technical challenges as well.

I used to tell people that working on these "Small Ideas" keeps me sane during our long off-seasons and cold winters. I'm not sure the project has really lived up to that expectation but it does keep me out of trouble. It is fun trying to create stories from the collection of HO scale figures and accessories. I hope you like "Sunset at the Hereford Corral" and encourage you to check out the other images in my "Small Ideas" series.