MAYVILLE, N.Y. — Renowned photographer Dr. John Gerber is set to unveil his latest photography exhibit, showcasing the awe-inspiring journey of the wildebeest during the Great Migration.

The exhibit documents the wildebeest’s remarkable 1,100-mile seasonal trek across the Mara River, from Kenya to their calving grounds in Tanzania.

Gerber, Mayville resident and world-class international photographer, has traveled extensively, capturing breathtaking moments in Africa, India, Brazil, Patagonia and beyond.

Reflecting on his work, Gerber said, “By photographing our planet’s last great migration, I hope to show that beauty can be found even in the harshest of circumstances and environments.”

Accompanying the exhibit is Gerber’s latest book, “Songs of the Serengeti, Meditations on Wildebeest,” a photo essay chronicling the struggles and triumphs of Serengeti. The book intertwines imagery with Gerber’s reflections, offering a blend of visual and literary artistry.

“The Great Migration” photography exhibit will be on display at The Sheep Barn Gallery, 5155 Morris Road in Mayville, from Aug. 10 to Sept. 8, with open gallery hours from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. For additional information and event updates, visit johngerberphotography.com or email hello@johngerberphotography.com.

CODY — Two-time National Finals Rodeo Photographer of the Year Christopher “Click” Thompson has returned to this legendary Western Wyoming town that helped launch a rodeo photography career that has exceeded even his own wildest dreams.

Thompson returned last week to shoot the Cody Stampede Rodeo.

While he was here, he took time to give a little something back to the town that helped him get his start by hosting an exclusive photography seminar for rodeo shutterbugs.

Thompson has captured artistic, gritty shots from hundreds of rodeos, and he’s a regular at some of the best rodeos in the world. That includes Cheyenne Frontier Days and the Cody Stampede, as well as the Calgary Stampede and the Pendleton Roundup.

“It’s a surreal moment being back here,” Thompson told Cowboy State Daily. “Five years later, the resume looks quite a bit different than it did then.”

Then, Thompson was flat broke. He barely had enough money to buy a camping tent, and he wasn’t exactly sure how he was going afford gas to get back home to Texas.

He needed to shoot five Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) rodeos to become a card-carrying photographer on the circuit. A friend of his, who was the main photographer at the Cody Nite Rodeo and the Stampede Rodeo, invited him to come out and work with him to complete that task.

He’d been looking at a cheap hotel in the area, but it seemed pretty sketch. His friend suggested camping instead.

“I had never camped before,” Thompson said. “But they had their RV here at the Ponderosa campgrounds, and you can tent camp there as well. I”m like, ‘Well it saves me money, so why not?’”

His friend did a lot of work at the time for Coleman, an outdoor outfitters company, so they went to Walmart to buy Coleman camping gear, and Thompson placed his tent at the bottom of the hill at the campground, so it would make a cool photography shot.

“I was right by the river,” Thompson recalled. “And there were some 4H kids there.”

Thompson realized, watching the 4H kids working on their camps, that he probably didn’t know as much about camping as those youths.

He also had even less money than when he’d landed in Cody.

But there was a shower upstairs and he just had to have faith that all was going to be well. All his needs were being taken care of, somehow some way. All he had to do was concentrate on his best photography while he was here at the Cody Stampede Rodeo.

The Check Was In The Mail

Thompson had second-guessed leaving his Department of Defense job to chase photography dreams many times.

The time he spent in Cody was no different. Being flat broke, not knowing exactly how he was going to get back home, was a scary place to be in life.

“I think part of the reason my Plan A was successful was I really didn’t have a Plan B,” he said. “I mean, I knew that I would be OK if it didn’t work out. I knew there were other ways I could go, but I was kind of all in on this deal.”

About the time he was doubting his path the most, his mom called to tell him a check had arrived in the mail for him. It had $150 on it.

“Put that check in the bank,” he told her. “That is how I’m getting home.”

To this day, he doesn’t know where that check came from. Maybe he’d paid too much in taxes. But it didn’t matter. It was the boost he’d needed, right when he’d needed it.

“Every time I would maybe kind of second guess or doubt what I was doing, God would give me some reason, or there would be some sign that like, I’m on the right path,” Thompson said. “This was that moment in Cody.”

Camping in Cody was the first and the last time he ever had to sleep in a tent, Thompson said.

“Now I’m sleeping at the Holiday Inn, and I”m teaching people how to do what I do,” he said.

Home At The Rodeo

For Thompson, Rodeo has been one the most welcoming of environments. That’s part of the reason he fell in love with the sport while he was in Virginia.

A friend had invited him out to take photographs at a rodeo. Thompson arrived without expectations — but was almost immediately hooked.

There was the movement of the bulls — those muscles rippling under the surface, that power in their eyes. Each had a different personality. A personality he could capture with his camera.

They were captivating — and that was before he even saw bull-riding.

“Then a downpour came and here I am standing under a tent with a bunch of people I don’t know,” he said. “And it’s just a bunch of cowboys.”

But Thompson had this feeling that somehow he’d come home. This was where he was meant to be.

After that, he’d do a rodeo as often as he could. He was obsessed.

The bulls were raw power. Forces of nature.

And the cowboys who rode them …

He couldn’t get enough.

Before too long, Thompson’s photos were getting a lot of attention, and he got a couple of rodeo gigs over the course of a year, which made around $20,000.

“I thought if I could just string a couple more of these events together and do a few things on the side, maybe I might have something here,” he said. “I mean, it ain’t going to be the luxury lifestyle, but the freedom and the quality of life is definitely going to change.”

That Gold Buckle Feeling

When Thompson shows up for a photography seminar, he brings an impressive array of telephoto and wide angle lenses. There’s at least 16 on the table and that’s not even all of the lenses he has.

But what really makes the difference is not the equipment. It’s his mindset.

He’s going to change his location. He’s going to think like the bulls and the cowboys, so he can anticipate where the action that makes the best photo is likeliest to happen.

He also knows the cowboys well. He knows their habits. He knows which ones are going to jump off the horse and fly through the air and which ones are going to take that moment to pump their fist when they taste victory in the dusty air.

The technical understanding of his equipment is important, but it’s the emotions he captures that makes a photographer of the year.

It’s an approach he freely shares with other rodeo shutterbugs during his seminars. It’s his way of giving back what he feels the universe of rodeo has given to him.

Being named PRCA Photographer of the Year for two years in a row was an awesome feeling, Thompson said.

But what really gives him the gold buckle feeling is knowing that he isn’t a Ferrari in first gear any more.

He’s in full throttle, chasing after his dreams, and, in doing that, he’s found his place in the world.

“No day is the same,” he said. “Each day is different. And there’s always new opportunities and I get to share what I do with people. So that’s pretty cool.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.

A once in a lifetime opportunity for these photographers.

As wildlife photographers, they most often spend their time positioning themselves to be unseen and unheard so they can capture the perfect shot of animals in the wild doing their everyday tasks. While I personally would never have the patience to make it in this field, and I am clumsier than a bull in a China shop, I would constantly be disrupting the perfect shot.

However, those in the field are experts at their craft and capture many moments from the wild that humans would never see without their talent.

With a job this hard, when the perfect shot comes to you, they must be in awe. And that is precisely what happened when this group of photographers were stunned to see a momma bear leading her cubs right toward the group of photographers.

An Alaskan wildlife photographer, Casey Cooper, led a group of photographers when this rare moment happened. Cooper took to TikTok to educate viewers on why the group remained still and quiet during the interaction, as the mom was checking out the group to ensure they would not harm her precious cubs.

“You’re probably wondering what is actually happening here and why this mother brown bear is getting so close to us so let me explain…. My friend Stone_images and I are longtime professional bear guides on the bear coast in Alaska. Scott has spent almost every summer camping in bear country with these bears for well over a decade and watched them grow from a young age, including this mother bear.

The safer option in this moment was to keep everyone close and just let her calmly pass by us. This is Alaska and in specific locations the bears have more than enough natural food for them so they take almost no interest in mammals or humans especially when they are habituated like this sow. (This would never happen in other regions of Alaska or really anywhere else in the world) but quickly getting up and moving under these circumstances would have made her uncomfortable and could have changed the bear’s behavior.

Also to this bear that is very used to people being around she has learned that humans are not a threat to her or her cubs so her body language is very relaxed. This is why it’s so important for you to do your research when choosing people to take you into bear country who can read bears and offer safe encounters.”

The informative information was wrapped up with sharing that brown bears in this part of Alaska are very tolerant of humans, but you should never let a group of brown bears get that close to you in the wild.

They are at the top of the food chain in the wild for a reason.

@cooperlost Brown bear brings her cubs right by photography group😳 You’re probably wondering what is actually happening here and why this mother brown bear is getting so close to us so let me explain…. My friend @stone_images and I are longtime professional bear guides on the bear coast in Alaska. Scott has spent almost every summer camping in bear country with these bears for well over a decade and watched them grow from a young age, including this mother bear. The safer option in this moment was to keep everyone close and just let her calmly pass by us. This is Alaska and in specific locations the bears have more than enough natural food for them so they take almost no interest in mammals or humans especially when they are habituated like this sow. (This would never happen in other regions of Alaska or really anywhere else in the world) but quickly getting up and moving under these circumstances would have made her uncomfortable and could have changed the bears behavior. Also to this bear that is very used to people being around she has learned that humans are not a threat to her or her cubs so her body language is very relaxed. This is why it’s so important for you to do your research when choosing people to take you into bear country who can read bears and offer safe encounters. Dont ever let bears get close to you or approach them. They are the apex animal on almost every continent and they will attack. The brown bears in the area this clip is taken are extremely well fed and tolerant of human presence. #brownbear #alaskalife #bearsofinstagram #apexpredator ♬ original sound – Casey Cooper

While many of the photographers remained as still as possible, a few in the group moved around, which made those in the comments extremely nervous.

“I don’t need to be faster than the bears; I just need to be faster than that first row of photographers, lol.”

“Too close, dude.”

“The woman who keeps moving!”

“No photos are worth my life.”

“Nope. Nope. The bears will bear. They’re glorious- do not get me wrong- but they’re gonna bear!!”

While these photographers were safe and all turned out well, I can’t blame the public for expressing their concern. I’d be shaking with tears running down my face if I were in this situation.

The end result, though…breathtaking.

@cooperlost Intense bear fight broke out extremely close to us 😳 #bearsoftiktok #katmainationalpark #brownbears #bearfight #grizzlybear ♬ original sound – Casey Cooper

This morning the world is looking at a picture by Doug Mills, a New York Times photographer, which appears to show a blurred trail of a bullet having passed President Trump or clipped his ear.

Many will be asking themselves “Is it possible to take a picture of a bullet in flight?” The short answer is “Yes”, so there is no reason to assume Mills image is a fake.

Taking a photograph of a bullet has been done before, but typically it’s done in controlled circumstances – Sweedish photographer captured a picture of biathlete Hanna Öberg, using a Nikon Z 9 which shows the bullet leaving the muzzle of a rifle.

Strand used a “spray and pray” approach with the camera’s 120fps stills mode and a shutter of 1/32,000sec, but it was still the result of a good amount of timing and practice getting to grips with the timing of the athlete’s firing so the bullet was fired while the image buffer had from to write to.

At 1/32,000sec, however, the ‘frozen bullet’ – despite some motion blur – is more or less visible for its shape….

Mills, being a professional, will also no doubt have used his burst and full image buffer to capture as many images as possible the moment it became clear something was happening.

With the bright conditions and the camera closely focussed on the President, a nearby passing bullet would be in sharp focus if passing close enough.

The only remaining question as to whether a blur is visible is how fast it was going compared to the shutter speed.

The shooter, identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, used “an AR-style rifle” – which would send a bullet at around 3000ft/sec as it leaves the gun.

A bullet loses speed as it flies, and the shooter was around 600ft from the former President. 

According to Politiko, Mills was taking photos with “a Sony camera capable of up to 30fps and 1/8000sec” (though they don’t say which one or what setting he was using). 

Mills is known to have spoken about why he switched to the Sony a9 (from Canon) in the past (the interview is on the Sony site). We now think he’s using a Sony A9iii.

In that case he might have been shooting at 1/8000sec (it was a bright day), but the camera offers up to 120fps bursts and 1/80,000 sec, not that anyone would choose that setting unless planning for a bullet!

Mills has since described the event to the New York Times (subscription required for full story).

The point being that the shutter speeds and ballistic math seems to suggest there is no reason why, in this photo, we’re not seeing air displacement from a passing bullet – though since 5 shots were fired it’s not clear if it’s the one which clipped Trump’s ear.

One might expect to see debris in that case, and according to Politiko again, Michael Harrigan, an FBI retiree agress that is could be a bullet but “the angle seems a little low” to be the one to go through the ear.

For more reading, check our guide to the best Sony cameras.