Cody Stampede Launched Click Thompson's Career As Top Rodeo Photographer

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.