Dale Hirschman picked up his camera “a little bit less than forever ago. I started in 1972,” he said. “I was entered and got my mom’s camera and took my first rodeo photos – I was bored.” Dale got serious in 1998. “A couple of the guys I rodeoed with asked me to take photos of their kids at the JRCA, the Junior Rodeo Cowboys Association, a new association they had started.” He’s been shooting rodeo since Sage Kimzey was mutton bustin’ “His dad competed with me,” said Dale. “Sage has stayed himself through his success – nice and humble and that’s been amazing to watch.”
Dale is the official photographer for the Central Plains region. “I’m the chaplain and the president of the geriatric crowd – we really don’t have a geriatric club because we forget when we’re meeting.” He has outlasted all the coaches and just keeps going. “I don’t stop.” Dale is a retired high school art teacher in Clinton Oklahoma. As a male teacher, especially of the elected classes, he got all the students that were looking for an easy “A”. “I taught two things – respect and responsibility. My subject matter was art. I taught the way I wanted to be treated. The students were ladies and gentlemen – they were never boys and girls.” With a Bachelor of Art in Education and master’s in education, he really learned how to teach by watching his teachers teach. “I learned that students will rise to the expectations given them. It might take a while, and they have to figure out that you are actually for them. As the chaplain, I am not to condemn. If they want my opinion, I’ll tell them. Otherwise, I don’t bring it up and I keep loving them. We are all at different growing spots in our lives. In some areas I might have convictions in, you don’t. We make choices as we grow and that’s something that we need to give people space in.”
Dale got his PRCA photography card 8 years ago. “For a long time, I had a contestant’s card, not a photographer card.” He tried his hand at several of the events, settling on bareback riding. “With bronc riding you need finesse, with bull riding, you took you yanking; barebacks were a little of both.” He got kicked in the side of the leg by a bull and hurt a knee bulldogging. Picking up the camera was the next step. He started with a Pentax K1000, 35 mm. Now he shoots Nikon D500.
The camera is the tool to reach people for Christ. “I grew up in church – I got involved in fellowship of Christian athletes on the college level and committed my life to Him back in the late 70s. I went to Cowboy Church and had been a committed Christian for three years, and the guy that was leading it went home early and I stepped in to keep it going and it’s been going ever since. God told me in that still small voice – don’t promote yourself, I’ll do it. By the grace of God, I’ve been able to. When my attitude and thought life stink, God waits. Like the time my leg was stuck between two pipes on the bucking chute and the horse froze – it could have wiped my leg out – first thing I thought is how merciful God was. 180 degree change in that horse.”
Dale is married to Sarah who is in charge of marketing fo Western Technology Center, with five school campuses. “My wife is made for the job she’s doing – that’s her calling.” They have two daughters and two grandchildren.
He’s going to keep doing what God calls him to do. “I don’t want to grow up.” As a chaplain, he doesn’t want to just do church. “I want to see lives change through the Holy Spirit to the love of Jesus Christ. I want to see those kids grow deeper in that relationship, and if there’s something I can see or do to help them succeed, I want to do that. If that’s not happening, I just need to go home.”
