For the past twelve years the second weekend in December has meant only one thing: it’s time to head to Las Vegas to cover the National Finals Rodeo for Sports Illustrated. It’s my favorite assignment of the year, and frankly I’m not sure what I would do without this annual trip out west to end the post-Thanksgiving doldrums and launch me headlong into the rush to Christmas.

Favorite images from the 2009 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

A lot has changed in twelve years, and I’m not just talking about the skyline of the Strip–although it never ceases to amaze me how things change, and how quickly the concrete and glass jungle foliage can spread in that city over the course of a year–let alone a dozen of them. Professionally, in the way I and Sports Illustrated cover the event, things have come a long way as well.

I made my first trip to the Thomas and Mack Center in 1998. At the time, I was one of the S.I’s traveling lighting technicians, and former S.I. staffer Layne Stewart invited me to come along. From the second I set foot in the arena, and took in the sights and, just as noticeably, the smells, of the NFR, I was hooked. This was something different. The people were engaging, the athletes were accommodating, and the organization was happy to have us there. In short, it was everything you’d hope any major sporting event could be, but never thought you’d see. Over the next three years, I spent two long December days hauling more than a dozen Speedotrons up into the catwalk in an annual ritual of the hardest, most meticulous arena lighting job I’d ever have to do during my tenure as a lighting assistant for the magazine’s photographers.

I can’t remember how, or why exactly, it happened but after a few years of lighting and assisting, I began to contribute regularly as a photographer to Sports Illustrated, and the NFR shooting assignment fell to me in 2000. Ever since then, S.I. Picture Editor Jimmy Colton has had the confidence in me to send me out to Las Vegas year after year without a specific assignment, the only instruction being to come back with a two-page spread image to run in the magazine’s “Leading Off” section.

I don’t want to give the impression that that’s an easy thing to do by any means. But at the same time I always want to give my clients a little more than they’ve asked for. So at the Rodeo I’ll try to do something other than just straight action–maybe I’ll try a few portraits; maybe a remote camera in a unique position. Sometimes those things run; more often than not they don’t; the limitations and expense of magazine real estate tend to create distinct boundaries; despite Jimmy’s love for the NFR and his tireless advocacy for including its images in the magazine, if one picture is all we’ve planned on, that’s usually all the space we’re going to be given.

Behind the scenes with 2009 World Champion Bareback Rider Bobby Mote.

The advent of a viable online component, however, has given us the opportunity to expand our coverage a bit. This year I proposed the idea of a portrait series of the winning cowboys, tied in with my ongoing “Manual Labor” portrait series, and, with the help of my friend Ann Bleiker (who has worked in so many capacities with the NFR and its participants over the years I’ve lost count), arranged to spend some time going behind the scenes with Bobby Mote, the 2009 World Champion Bareback Rider. SI.com provides an outlet for projects like these that was previously unavailable.

We don’t light the building anymore; with digital imaging technology being what it is these days strobes have become almost obsolete. And the week-long assignment has turned into a weekend. But that won’t ever keep me from heading to Vegas if the magazine will send me, and from always trying to get as much out of the trip as possible.