Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs – Marty Robbins

Cowboy dreams

These images were taken from Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. I previously went out with some friends to check out the park and to take some photos. Coincidentally, my crew and I were assigned to work at PEFO a few weeks later. Our job was to work with the NPS to finish fencing along the border of the park and the delegated livestock land. We used barbed wire and regular wire to prevent cows and horses from entering the park. We used post pounders to jam posts into the sandy ground. When we would hit bedrock, we used a “Cobra drill” to burry the post approximately 14in deep. Fencing is simple but there are many opportunities to problem solve. Due to the landscape and predictable erosion sites there were many factors to consider when tightening and pulling wire to fence the border of the park. I’m glad I was on that last hitch.

Petrified Forest National Park sends you back in time. From the petrified wood and ancient strata to the petroglyphs found on boulders, you can start to imagine how long ago geological events occurred on our crust(millions of years ago!). Damn, geology is really cool.

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All images were taken on the same day on my Sony a6000 camera. I switched from my 55mm – 210mm kit lens and my prime 50mm lens. Of course, I want to continue to photograph people but…Landscapes are fun and easier for me. So, maybe I’ll get some portraits soon or maybe I’ll post other frames that I have enjoyed.

Westerns are adventurous to me. The whole idea of moving west to become a cowboy has been an inspiration during my time in AZ. So when my friends played some Marty Robbins during one trip to the mazatzal mountain, I had to save his most famous album, Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs. I have been listening to it for the past days and I felt like they went well with my PEFO photographs. So below I decided to assign a song from Robbins’ album to each image above. Enjoy.

I decided to pair the first image with “Big Iron”. Welcome to the West.

Next, I felt that “In the Valley” would be fitting for the second image.

I’m as sad as the willow

That weeps in the valley

Since you’ve gone

Since you’ve gone from my arms

MR

“Running Gun” seemed fitting for the third image. But a woman’s love is wasted when she loves a running gun

Last we have “The Master’s Call”. The Master had a reason, life is his to take or give

I fell in with an outlaw band, their names were known quite well

How many times we robbed and plundered, I could never tell

This kind of sinful living leads only to a fall

I learned that much and more the night I heard my Master call.

MR

Again thanks for looking.

See you Space Cowboy…