Notice the vertical leap of a 2500 lb bull.

This a an unhappy one-ton animal with large horns trying to get a crazy, 165-lb cowboy with large cojones off his back.  This is especially impressive up close.

I picked dirt from my teeth after this shot.

Blake is the sponsored steer wrestler for the Let 'er Buck cologne campaign I've been working on for Brewhouse Studio. This photograph was made a few minutes before he competed in this year's Pendleton Round-Up.

The Pendleton Round-Up is manliness, history, dust, athleticism, buckle-bunnies, whiskey, friendship, and pure excitement for four days every year.  Brewhouse Studio rented a 300 foot RV, bought 15 pairs of old cowboy boots, and packed up the creative paraphernalia from 6 months of work and headed east to launch our biggest campaign to date.  I had perhaps one of the more enviable jobs of our stay, photographing the craziness of the bucking, roping, throwing, and racing from quite close.  During the bull riding I got a mouthful of sod.

This might be my favorite image I made while there.  I shot it thinking about Sam Abell’s image of the Canadian fishermen.

Lukas did the art on the helmet and Brandon was game to throw it on.

It was such a sunny day that I was worried about heading out without any lighting gear but that is part of the fun of newspaper photography, being creative with what you have.  I hopped on my bike on Thursday afternoon, my tripod awkwardly strapped on my camera bag and sticking out into traffic, and headed down to the industrial area of Southeast Portland.  Brandon and Lukas were about to get some seriously awesome PR with an article in the Times about their publisher Skybound (launched by comic book guru Robert Kirkman).  They created Witch Doctor, a kick-ass comic.

Portland being a small town, I had previously met Brandon on one of my more memorable shoots.  He was writing a story about Portland’s annual naked bike ride for the Willamette Week and I was photographing it.  We laughed about re-creating our last encounter for this shoot.  Mostly an awkward laugh.

And so as usual, I tend to like not just the image that the Times editors choose to publish…and so here are a couple.

I like the splat at their feet. Seemed fitting for a medical horror comic.

The Brewhouse Studio concepted and shot three video spots last week for Z-Chains tire chains company.  A company with a history of a fairly conservative approach to advertising, Z-Chains surprised us when they went for our idea, which was laced with a good dose of sexual innuendo.  How do you sell tire chains with sexual innuendo you ask, oh there are limitless options, three of which we’ll be posting on You Tube very soon.  In the meantime here are some behind the scenes images from one of the shoots.  The Brewhouse Studio’s in-house producer/director Michael Ward lead the shoot and knocked it out of the park.

Michael Ward being bossy.

Sean Rawls was our director of photography. Lauren Raburn was our stalker (and our fashion designer).

2 A.M.

Mike and Sean.

Mike made them do this a lot.