cutting horses
NCHA has selected a new official photographer. • Photo by Ted Petit Photography

New Team Named Official NCHA Photographer

A California-based photographer and videographer has been selected to capture images during the five National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA)-produced shows.

Ted Petit, of Video West Productions and Ted Petit Photography, will begin a one-year contract to shoot action photography for the Fort Worth, Texas, organization in early March at the NCHA Eastern National Championships in Jackson, Mississippi. He is also booked as the official photographer for the association’s Super Stakes, Western National Championships, Summer Spectacular and Futurity.

“I just found out,” Petit said. “It’s going to be a great challenge. We shoot other shows — I shot in [Las] Vegas and we do El Rancho, which is all outdoors — so this will be a great challenge for us.”

Petit is already on contract with the NCHA to produce video at the association’s events. He plans to take photographs simultaneously while shooting video for the NCHA, he said.

“It’s a different approach; I shoot differently than other folks,” he explained, noting that he’s shot the NCHA Western Nationals using his specialized method for years. “I’ve been a photographer for 30 or 40 years in other aspects, but for cutting, I guess I started about 14 years ago. I developed a technique many years ago where I shoot video and photography at the same time. I tell people my right hand is for my photos and my left hand is my video.”

Petit will replace Dave and Arlene Hart, of Hart Photos, who have been shooting the NCHA’s major events since the 2012 Futurity.

“With a heavy heart, I will miss the times we spent together, the visits, hugs and smiles,” Arlene Hart wrote in a Facebook post on Feb. 18, vowing to maintain more than 15 years of cutting photo archives from their work. “I’m still big on smiles. It has been an important part of my life sharing your families, watching you [and] your children grow into such remarkable individuals … becoming friends, an extended family.”

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