Patrick Bennett Photo/Motion

Out of 9 nominations in the Americana Color Awards I received two 2nd’s, a 3rd place and three Honorable Mentions. This 2nd place in the Sports category was shot at the Omak Stampede of their annual Native American Su***de Race. This is the only day they race in daylight, basically ride 30 meters to this almost cliff, ride down to and through the horse head high river, up the opposite bank and along the levy to the rodeo ring for one lap and whoever crosses the finish line first, both horse and rider, wins. Plenty of horses have crossed the finish line riderless but they don’t get the win for that, gotta have your human aboard. Today’s example was our competitor with the red, white, and blue streaming from his helmet in the upper right, he had to swim across well behind the others. Not having seen the race before I anticipated their path, all the hoof prints made that easy, and rather than try to get really close to the action like I do when I have more control over a shot, I backed off and used my 500mm f/4L lens to make it appear as an aerial photo. That shows the steepness of the bank they were riding down, steep. Did I mention it was steep? This was originally shot for the Scenic Byways of Washington State project.

Self Portrait at 60mph. Americana Photo Awards: 2nd Place in the Abstract category. On a cross country journey I set the throttle, held my camera beside me and shot my shadow at 60 mph. Half way through my journey home to Seattle from the Harley 100th in Milwaukee it was my first day traversing the Rocky Mountains. Early that morning I set off from Colorado Springs and, as was my custom on this trip, flipped a coin at the crossroads for Hwys 285 & 24. Heads, I headed north and eventually wound my way up, and by up I mean elevation, to Independence pass. Temp was in the teens, at most. I stopped at the summit for a quick selfie, only after I grabbed the hot cylinder head between my gloved hands to get some warmth back in them. As I was crouched beside my bike a woman gets out of her mini van, walks over to me and says, “You think it’s cold, we’re from Florida!” She can’t see my sunglass covered eyes burning a hole through her heart at this moment but I reply, “Why don’t you go over to your minivan, get in it, turn up the heat and complain to me some more.” Shocked she walked away for a moment. Florida woman. 🙄 Moments later she returned and offered, “Would you like to get in our van and warm up?” To which my quick reply was “YES!” While my now de-gloved hands were caressing her heater vents she asked me if I was crazy. I had to think about that for a moment. The roads leading up the east side of the mountain were bare and dry but the west side of the mountain was hard ice from the precipice downward. “I don’t know.” I responded. After about 10 minutes of warmth I ventured back to my Dyna Glide, got my selfie and began to slowly roll over the summit to the western, icy side. Within 30 meters I gingerly halted the bike, both boots down, slowly rolled it back and forth across the ice covered pavement and headed back east to the cold, but dry roads. An hour later Leadville was the first opportunity to find a hot coffee and I took it.

https://mailchi.mp/patrickbennett/group-aerial-photos-2026-may-liftoff Climb aboard for my 2026 aerial photography shoot from a helicopter! Group discounts for aerial photos in the Pacific Northwest. Contact me for a spot today!