When you hear the word cattle ranch, what do you think? I know my Dallas photographer imagination runs wild with vivid images of dusty cowboys moving massive numbers of cattle across a scenic vista so beautiful it would make anyone want to pack up and head out there. There are so many great cattle ranches in Texas, and many have these beautiful views. Any time I get the opportunity to go out and photograph at ranches it is going to be a good day. I think it also has something to do with being a seventh generation Texan; ranching and agriculture are a major part of Texas history and therefore part of my history. My mom’s side actually came in with Stephen F. Austin to settle, and my great grandparents were farmers.

There is also the fact that the photographer in me is always up to document something that in interesting and exciting, and ranches fall well within that category. For this particular story, I was sent out to photograph at five different family-owned ranches: the Bonds Ranch in Saginaw, Texas; the R.A. Brown Ranch in Throckmorton, Texas; the Twin V Ranch and Saunders Cattle Company, run by the Saunders family in Parker County; the Swenson Land and Cattle Company in Stamford, Texas; and the Moncrief Ranch in Parker County. With such a wide swath of area to cover, I put quite a few miles in heading to the various locations. After counting it up, I conservatively put about 900 miles on my SUV, which doesn’t include the miles spent riding around with ranchers across their acreage.  

The ranch that was the farthest out was definitely the Swenson Land and Cattle Company. From my house I could have either driven to Austin or to Stamford; they were basically the same distance. However I didn’t have a ranch assigned down south, so I headed west. The drive is pretty incredible, and is a very scenic one. Given that I am prone to taking photographs as a photographer, I had to take several breaks to get photos. In fact, I just wrote a blog about this particular leg of my journey, you can go check that out here. There are so many great little Texas towns, and man that sky. It feels like the farther west you go, the larger the sky gets. You feel so much smaller out there, which only adds to the majesty of the scenery. I worked with Dennis Braden, who is the ranch manager for Swenson; he was my guide for the time I spent there, and a great guy to boot.

That was something that was immediately apparent to me as I met the various ranchers, ranch managers and ranch hands for this story. Some were certainly characters, but all had great character, and were just all around good people. They just have such a solid attitude, very solid work ethic and willingness to help. Those are qualities that I strive for continually. I was given all the time I needed at every ranch, which is something that I don’t take lightly. All of these people are working hard, and the time they spent with me is time they didn’t get to spend doing other more pressing matters. I am really appreciative of that fact, and made sure to make the most out of every moment I had.  

All in all, it was an incredible experience as I learned about some of the ins and outs of ranching, and how day-to-day operations go on at the different ranches. Each place was unique in how they went about things, which was really cool for me to see. Now I just need to go eat a burger to round out my ranch to table experience. Enjoy!