~Life Caught~: June 2009

It was Cliff's day...Father's Day, and he decided he'd like to go for a short drive just to get away from the house a bit. So, we headed toward Snelling. Some of you know that on the way, there is a dairy that also is the home to some exotic livestock, like these Watusi Cattle (native to Africa) and the Dutch Belted cow resting next to them.

It was interesting to me that they gathered so closely on a warm day...so close that any slight movement with their heads would send off clunking sounds off their horns when they would meet. Those horns were amazingly humongous!!

In the back of the Watusi was a lone Scottish Highlander sharing the shade. I always feel for him with the heat here in the Central Valley.

The Watusi, Dutch Belted and Scottish Highlander seem to do community well.

Some of you know that I have a photography partner, Cherie, and even though we are officially no longer booking photo shoots, we had a promised engagement shoot we needed to fulfill. We were not sure what to expect as we had never been to the location where the young couple wanted their photos taken. It was near a small community, called Snelling. Perhaps you remember me talking about getting our river rock in Snelling a couple posts back, for our fish pond. Anyway, Snelling is a very small community but rich in gold mining history with miles of dredged river rock in the area. It's close to reservoirs, and cattle ranches are scattered throughout the miles of foothills. Cherie and I were waiting at a convenience store/gas station in her pick-up truck for the happy young couple to show up, as we were to follow them to a secluded, private ranch. They were early and we were on our way...back tracked down a road a ways and took a left a Robinson Rd. It was actually a very nice drive through hilly country. We drove about two miles before our happy couple ahead of us stopped and turned left to a locked gate and gravel drive following the Merced Canal (which could pass for a river). chad unlocked the gate and let us through. It was an entrance to a vast ranch stretching for miles. Below is what it looked like traveling the road. Since this photo, and the one following, were taken on our way out, pretend you are traveling the opposite direction.

The stretch of gravel road seems to go for miles and we would pass bridges like this one every so often. We were enjoying the drive other than eating the dust of our young couple ahead of us.

We finally came to a stop and there was a bridge much like the one above, near the building below which was across the Merced Canal. Stephanie got out of their pick-up truck and we did the same while Chad drove on to get his friend. You see neither Chad nor Stephanie lived on the ranch, but their friend did and he had the key to the lock on the barbed wire fence across the bridge. Cherie and I tried to scout out potential photo shoot spots while we waited. We were beginning to fall in love with the river rock building (where we were told once housed the Asian workers for the gold mines).

Wow! What a neat opportunity to shoot at this place where no one else has, or at least not recently.

Chad returned with his friend, Steven, driving up in his own pick-up truck. they both got out and Steven was getting something out of his truck. What? What is this? Steven had 2 shovels and a machete. Yeah, that is what I said, 2 shovels and a machete!!! Here we were...locked into a vast cattle ranch; didn't know the kids well or know Steven at all, and no living soul for miles around. Our husbands weren't completely informed of our where abouts other than we were going to a ranch in Snelling. That's all we knew. I just knew it was over!! I thought, "even if I took a photo of them with the machete and shovels, they would bury my camera with me and no one would know.!" After I saw it once, I didn't want to make eye contact with the machete again, and it was hard to glance at the shovels. The kids just acted as though nothing was out of the ordinary. They marched us across the bridge, unlocked the barbed wire fence (gate) and we stepped over it as it lay on the ground. We just walked in a line like cattle to slotter...not a whimper...why bother...I knew my short, stubby little legs couldn't out run them.

I got a shot of Chad with the shovel and because I just could not make eye contact with the machete, Cherie gladly offered her photo of Steven (below) and his enormous, shiny knife. Good-bye world!!!

But wait a minute...something just didn't quite make sense. The terror was leaving my inner being and replaced with common sense. How stupid of me...it made perfect sense to me now. We were in rattle snake country and the shovels were to get those suckers before they got us. We were trodding through rocky, grassy rattle snake habitat. The machete? It was brought in case they needed to cut through some tall weeds and grass to get to the old building. I do think even though the intent was to protect us, the boys secretly enjoyed the feeling of perhaps scaring a couple of unsuspecting, sweet photographer ladies, although we never, and I mean never, let on that there was an ounce of fear in our bones!! So, the shoot began...