Spring Photo Fun Contest

I don't know about our friends up north but here in Texas, spring is in the air! We had such a blast with our Fall on the Farm photo contest that we are hosting another Spring Photo Fun contest to share and celebrate the beauty of life out in the country, on the ranch, or in the barn.

So are you a photographer? Here's how you get in on the fun....

1. Email your photo to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com between the dates of now and March 17, 2013.
2. The photos will be posted on our facebook page during the week of March 18-22 and the photo with the greatest number of likes will be chosen as the fan favorite winner.

The winner will receive a float wrap print of their winning photo. If you don't know what a float wrap is, it's like this....it's a print that kinda sticks out from the wall.

Now we should say, if you do happen to win, you will have to provide us with a high res photo of your entry to print it on the float wrap. So like an instagram photo won't be high enough resolution. But don't worry, if you do win, and you don't have a high res picture, we'll find something else cool for you to get.

We loved seeing the fall photos, and we can't wait for spring! So go ahead and email those photos in to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com and let's get started on the fun!


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Official Rules To Join the Fun....

• By sending us the photo you grant release to RHD and Facebook to post your photo on the RHD facebook page.
• This game is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with Facebook. It's just something fun we're doing at RHD. 
• Winners will be selected by a panel of judges here at RHD along with input from fans. The winner is not selected on how many likes they get. 
• The winner will be notified by email if they are selected.

Denver Photo A Day Challenge

Join us for a fun way of showcasing what's going on at Denver this year! Post your pics on Instagram and tag @ranchhousedesigns and #rhdphotoaday. Post your photos from ANY of the categories on ANY day. Each day we will choose one favorite photo to win an RHD prize. Prizes will vary each day but will be t-shirts, caps, RHD hoodies, inspirational metal art and more. Then, after Denver, we will post each of our daily winners on our Facebook page and our fans will choose our "Best in Show" Denver photo. That winner will receive a free ticket to our April Livestock Marketing Workshop!

Show Champions

In keeping with our new thing of spotlighting our industry partners, this week are sending a big shout out to everyone at the Show Champions crew!

Show Champions has revolutionized the way we think of livestock show photography!

I remember being a little young Shorthorn exhibitor at Denver years ago, and the way we viewed our proofs was on these long photo film print outs that Mrs. Browarny (Allan's mom) would thumbtack to the wall. You walked up and flipped through all of those rows of photo films. Actually, this wasn't too long ago. I'm sure many can close their eyes and picture this same exact set up as you walked around to the Browarny booth in the hallways of the Denver show ring.

Wow...fast forward to present day. We all know how the Show Champions set up is now! From the days of thumbtacking proofs to the wall, to nearly instant show proofs available both online and at the show on computers. Now, you walk up to the computer, find your image, buy it, and walk away with your pictures on a memory stick!

As a designer, we love it when Show Champions pictures a show because we get the opportunity to browse and purchase their Hot Shot images. These are AWESOME for ad backgrounds! It is also extremely convenient to be able to proof, order, and instantly download pictures online. This is so helpful to us as designers on tight deadlines. Usually the Show Champions crew has the show pictures up online just a few hours, if not sooner, after the show occurs. This means that we can download your pictures for you and have them up on your web site in no time after the win occurs!

As a livestock showman, I also love it when Show Champions pictures a show because I know the quality of the photo will be great. Their photos are consistently high quality, the calves are set up correctly, and the pictures are awesome.

I have also had the opportunity to become quite good friends with Allan and Dave, as well as many other Show Champions team members. Allan has personally done on farm shoots at our ranch for the past two years. (I think he knows I'm a sucker for his pictures and that I'll pretty much buy every shot he takes ha ha!). Though my legs and arms were extremely sore from running around the pasture as Allan's official ear getter.....to me this in itself was a huge honor to get to work with this esteemed photographer. We also collaborated with Allan on a special client photo shoot for Ganadera Karla Mary in Panama. Allan took the photos then we designed the GKM special donor and sire catalog for the 2010 World Brahman Congress.

So as always, we just want to say Thanks to the Show Champions crew for being so great to work with, and for the outstanding service you provide the industry.

Texas Drought Photos

A few days ago, Brandon and I were on a photo assignment from my mom and dad to get some pictures of the ranch's pastures to show some of our northern friends about the drought. She posted several on the V8 Ranch facebook page of the pastures and stuff but while we were doing the ranch photos, we decided to take some pics of Mollie vs. the drought.

When I came up with the idea to take Mollie's picture in the drought conditions, my husband said his typical response of "you are crazy". In fact, he and my granddad have this acronym they use on the ranch for problems that occur due to "W.A.C.".....standing for Women Are Crazy. Ha, that's another blog topic. And, as you can see from her picture, I guess Mollie agreed with her dad. I'm pretty sure she is thinking, "Mom, REALLY? Why are you making me do this?"

But, I insisted on taking these photos. Because years from now, when we tell Mollie that she was born in the worst drought of modern Texas times, we can show her these photos and help her put it into perspective. When I think of drought, I think of these poor helpless pioneers in their dresses and bonnets during the dustbowl.

Then, I am reminded of the fact that our drought is worse than the drought Texans faced in the 1930s. So Mollie is living in the modern day dustbowl. So we thought it would be a good illustration to photograph Mollie standing next to the big cracks in our pasture. To put it in perspective, Mollie is nearly 5 months old and weighs 15 pounds. As you can see, the cracks are bigger than her.

I know it is somewhat hard to see, but here she is standing next to the cracks that we had just put her whole body into in the pictures above.

 And here is one where you can see, her legs and feet fit easily into the cracks.

This picture shows one of our fencelines on the ranch, where the cracks in the pasture are causing the fence posts to lean over and be crooked.

These are at a different spot on the ranch, but you can see these cracks are wider than my hand.

Here is a section of what we call our "springer pasture." I was getting scared to drive across this actually.

More pictures of some smaller cracks on the ranch.

We are located about an hour south of Houston, and I know there are lots of folks out there worse off than us, especially further west. Many of our customers and friends at experiencing weather-related issues due to drought or flooding this summer. While I think we are in a rough situation at V8, every day we continue to be THANKFUL for all the many things we DO have. We are so much more blessed than most, and we try to keep this in mind. We have all of our customers and friends in our thoughts, and continue to be optimistic for the future!