Digital color photo, converted to sepia

This piece was orginally published in LNF Weekly. The photo is by Al Rendon, and the words are also Al's, as captured and edited by Jim Feuerstein.

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It’s time again for the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. I started attending the stock show and rodeo when I was just three or four years old, and it’s something I’ve been documenting for decades as a photographer. It always provides a lot of opportunities for good photos.

Not all of those opportunities are the shots you expected.

Twelve years ago, I was downtown at the big rodeo and stock show parade, on assignment for the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau. They wanted photos of longhorn cattle coming down Houston Street. I was maneuvering to find a good spot in front of the cattle, when I came across this guy.

Yes, I was there to shoot other things, but how could I pass this up?

San Antonio has an image as a fun, friendly, and welcoming place, and I think this is a good illustration of that spirit.

Immediately after I snapped the shot — and before I could ask him who he was and what he was doing — a friend of mine appeared and momentarily distracted me. When I turned back around, my subject was gone.

Blended back into the herd, perhaps.