Trip to Wyoming by Bobby Ericson

This is really late, but the date of this weekend was 11/07/2009. This was a weekend I won’t soon forget. I went to Wyoming to photograph the University of Wyoming Cheer squad at 3 sports events in one day. It was a special weekend as I was able to take my 7 year old daughter Olivia with me. She always asks to go on photo shoots and she really doesn’t get the chance to go to often. Over July 4^th weekend she did go with me to Denver to photograph the Denver Outlaws Dance team which was very special as well.

We left late Friday night and got to Cheyenne Wyoming around 12:00am and we were all in bed by about 1:15am. The next morning we got up at 7am and were on the road by 8:30. We got to the football field at 9:30. Olivia jumped right in and starting hanging out with all the Wyoming cheerleaders. The cheerleaders were amazing all day with Olivia. During warming up some of the squad let Olivia do stunts with them. They put Olivia in the air, and Olivia was very excited. When

the game started at noon, Olivia sat with the Coaches daughters and made new friends right away.

The actual football game wasn’t much of a game, but Wyoming played a very good BYU team. During the game I would look over and see Olivia watching me work. I could tell she was very tired from the long drive the night before, but she did do really good sitting still and watching the game

and the cheer squad perform.

After the football game we had about 45minutes of downtime before we had to meet up with the cheer squad again. We spent the time in the car relaxing and watching Tom and Jerry. At 4:20 we met up with the cheer squad and did some pregame photos and then followed the girls into the basketball arena. That game tipped off at 5:30 and had a better outcome. Wyoming beat Regis by double digits.

At 7:30 the basketball game came to an end and then we headed to the volleyball game. There Olivia sat on the laps of the cheerleaders and watched the match. One of the girls gave Olivia her poms and taught her the cheers. It was really cute and fun to watch. While Olivia was completely exhausted, she held in like a trooper and had a blast. The volleyball game was a lot of fun as I got a good seat to take some action photos of the Wyoming volleyball team. Wyoming beat Air Force in volleyball and our day came to an end. We drove back to Cheyenne and got to sleep in on Sunday. Then it was the long ride home from an amazing weekend.

Utah vs Colorado State Football Game

This past weekend, I went to a football game, but it was more of a personal trip then a business trip. I used to live in Denver, CO and my family and I started a tradition of going to one CSU game a year. We like going around the first part of October, so its not to hot and not to cold. We always tailgate and hang out all day at the stadium. Well this year was a little bit different…

If you live in the midwest, you know Friday night into Saturday morning was a cold and snowy morning. Very early in the fall to be that nasty out! We started our morning around 6am and got on the interstate heading for Fort Collins, CO. The interstate was snow packed and very slick. We were about 5 miles out from Grand Island and saw cars in the ditch with headlights on and we even saw a car spin out on the other side of the interstate and slide right into the ditch.

We got off the interstate in Grand Island and I looked at map and saw that if we go south, there was a highway that lead from Hastings, NE to Fort Collins, CO. I told my dad, and he said he would be fine and we could stay on the interstate. But I told him, the southern route didn’t look as snowy on the radar. He decided to try the southern route. After a couple of hours driving, the road improved from snow packed to just wet and eventually dry as we hit Colorado.

It was cool driving the souther route through Nebraska. There was so many towns along the way you drive through that you have never even heard of. After 11hrs driving, we made it to Fort Collins and parked as kick off happened. The temps were in the 20’s and it was cold. It was a good thing we took the southern route. We found out they closed the interstate in Wyoming and Western Nebraska so we would have never made it the game.

The game turned out to be fantastic. CSU had a two touchdown lead, but Utah fought back in the second half and won 24-17.

I really enjoy the tradition with my family every year for the CSU game. Hopefully next year we can get back to tailgating and have a little bit better weather!

Below are some photos from the trip I took with my cell phone!

Me in 5 layers of clothing

The slush frozen on our vehicle

Cool looking ice on the wheel

First blog about Ericson's Photography

I’ve decided to jump on board and start a blog about my business and what is happening with Ericson’s Photography. I have a personal blog on a Czech website, but since its not in English I thought I should have one in English too. I also contribute to a sports blog, so I figured its time to start one about my business because people always ask me and it’s a good way to get my name out too.

Its been a very hectic but good summer. I have been able to shoot a lot of different events and different types of events. One of the main websites I shoot for is www.wecovercheer.com. They sent me to Denver for Denver Broncos Dance tryouts, Denver Outlaws Dance tryouts and a Denver Outlaws game to capture the dance team in action. I also was sent to Chicago (my first time ever in Chicago) for the Chicago Luv-A-Bulls Dance tryouts.

Most recently I was in Wyoming for three days and did headshots, group shots, stunt shots, calendar shots, and game action shots for both University of Wyoming and Laramie High School cheer teams. It was by far one of the most fun weekends I’ve had in photography. It was my second year in a row shooting Wyoming Cheer shots and the team is just a blast to be around. This year I was a little more organized and while three days sounds like a lot, we got cut short on time and I didn’t get a chance to try all the different things I wanted to. But that just means I will have to make another trip back. :)

Ericson’s Photography has also had a very busy wedding season over the summer months. Weddings took us all over the state from Omaha, to Wymore to Scotia and other places. It’s a good experience shooting a wedding in a new town you’ve never visited. Every town in Nebraska is unique and the people are always really friendly towards my staff.

This past Saturday I got the opportunity to shoot an engagement session for Bobbi and Joe. Bobbi is a roller derby girl from Omaha and Joe is the announcer for Omaha Roller Girls. We shot in downtown Omaha and then went back to their home in the country and did some shots in the sunset at their place.

During the engagement session I had a 10th grader shadowing me for a school project. She got to pick any business to shadow for what she wanted to do when she graduates and she chose photography. I was honored to have her pick me. On the way up to Omaha she asked me a few interview questions, you talk about tough questions. They were about my typical day, the hours I put into my business and so forth. You really don’t think about any of that until your asked it. It was a good experience, and I must say I was impressed with her. I gave her an extra camera to use and a decent lens and told her to do what she wanted. She didn’t need hardly any direction at all and she was snapping photos like crazy. I glanced through her photos when I downloaded them and she didn’t some really fun angles and some different types of shots. It was fun to watch someone just learn a little bit in the few hours we had together and now its time to show her the editing side of photography. Its not as fun as the actual taking of the pictures!

So there you have it, I promise most blogs won’t be this long. :) I think this is a good start and I will try and keep this updated with news and information about me and my business and maybe even upload some photos as I get them edited. Thanks for reading!

Bobby Ericson