After photographing the Beard family on their ranch, I was thrilled to visit again to capture their son’s senior photos in Ellensburg. John Beard is a high school senior graduating from Ellensburg High School this spring. After high school, he plans to apply to the four-year Aviation program at Central Washington University and become a commercial airline pilot. Until then, he’s helping his family on their fourth generation rodeo ranch and pitching on the Ellensburg High School baseball team. John has played baseball since he was just a little guy at six years old on the T-ball team. His parents still recall their many years of freezing cold springs, sitting through 9 innings of Ellensburg wind.

As for the ranch, his parents say he’s truly their right-hand guy.  At home John helps sort, haul, load, and feed the livestock. During the rodeo, he does everything in the back pens including loading the chutes. He knows all of the animals and their names and brands, etc. His dad, Daniel, can turn him loose on the farm and everything will be taken care of without question.

“John is so kind and considerate. I can’t tell you how very helpful he is to us. Even when we travel with rodeo, he innately knows what to do behind the scenes to help his dad.  At home, he is very close to his brother and takes it upon himself to teach and mentor his brother about rodeo life and life skills. He’s quiet and shy but he has always worked harder than many of the kids around him.”

When it was time to capture his senior photos in Ellensburg, our location choices were fairly obvious. We chose to photograph John on the family ranch in Ellensburg and at the local baseball field. We were able to create iconic sports images at the baseball field, and epic environmental portraits at the ranch.