Stories from the Ranch: Will’s Journey from Guest to Wrangler Photographer
How It All Started
No one could have imagined that a family vacation 30 years ago would impact a young boy’s life so profoundly.
At 10 years old, Will Carnahan first visited Hunewill Guest Ranch with his family. Will, who grew up in Los Angeles, had never been around horses before, and he was a little nervous about riding a horse for the first time. On top of that, he had broken his arm just a couple weeks earlier.
“I remember it so well. I was nervous about riding, especially with a cast. The wrangler for my first Buckaroo ride, Sallie, walked over to me and said, ‘Cowboys only need one arm to ride a horse.’”
Will (11 years old) & family
Located in California’s Eastern Sierra, Hunewill Guest Ranch is the state’s oldest working dude ranch, and a living piece of Western history. The Hunewill legacy began in the 1860s, when Napoleon Bonaparte Hunewill built a lumber mill in nearby Buckeye Canyon to serve the booming mining town of Bodie. Soon after, he and his family settled in Bridgeport Valley, raising cattle to supply beef to the miners. When the Great Depression hit, the Hunewills opened their ranch to guests to preserve their family tradition.
Guests experience the ways of the American West, riding horses through thousands of acres of pasture land and mountain trails, herding cattle, and taking in the all-encompassing natural beauty of Bridgeport Valley. Today, there are 7 generations of Hunewills, continuing a tradition that’s lasted over 150 years.
Little did young Will know, he and his family would continue to visit Hunewill Ranch for the next three decades.
“So that was the foundation of it,” Will says.
At 12, his mom handed him a Nikon camera with some black and white film at Hunewill Ranch. The barn is where he captured his first frame on a professional film camera.
“Just to look through that apparatus at something so beautiful. The horses coming into the paddocks in the morning, the sun rising over the snow-peaked mountains, being able to capture that on film really sparked something inside of me creatively. I have a very distinct memory of that summer.”
“ I remember thinking like, man, it's so beautiful out here. I wish I could give something back to the ranch.” Will said.
Years later, Will found the perfect way to do that. Just so happens, he is now a professional photographer and co-owner of a video production company. He and his business partner pitched the idea of helping the Hunewills with their social media, and a collaboration was born.
“We’ve been coming up here to work on their social media assets for the past five years now. It’s been a really great way to stay connected to this place,” Will said.
Becoming a Wrangler
News travels fast at Hunewill Ranch.
On an afternoon ride last year, in conversation with Aspen Hunewill, a 6th generation Hunewill, Will casually mentioned how incredible it must be to spend summers working at the ranch. Without missing a beat, Aspen said, “You should do it then.” Will laughed it off.
Later that day, after unsaddling his horse, Will sat on the bench near the Ranch House and cracked open a drink. Aspen’s mom, Megan Hunewill sat down next to him. “I heard you want to work here,” she said, completely straight faced.
Bewildered at the astounding rate of how fast news does indeed travel, Will was speechless. The rumor mill at Hunewill, it turns out, moved at the speed of a gallop.
During their brief conversation, Megan floated the idea: Will could learn the ropes as a wrangler while also stepping into the now-open photographer role, Will promised he’d consider it. He left the ranch that summer with a sense of possibility.
And then, he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“I remember calling my parents, my business partner Sam, talking to everybody. And on the drive home, I just kept imagining it. I couldn’t get it out of my head.”
For years, Will had built a life in film. He studied film and cinematography, built a production company, chased the Hollywood dream. “Since COVID, I’d been struggling with it all,” he admits. “When you work so hard for something and it becomes your identity, even just considering a different path feels terrifying. But I kept thinking: maybe there’s a way to stay in the creative world, just not how I thought.”
That winter, months after leaving the ranch, Will got a call from Megan. “So…what do you think?” Without hesitation, he said yes.
It felt like something he’d been circling back to for years. “I remember being 15 and seeing Dwayne, the Wrangler Photographer back then. I watched him and thought, that’s the coolest job in the world. I never imagined I’d have the chance to do it myself. I didn’t think I had the confidence to apply, especially as a wrangler.”
These days, as the resident Wrangler Photographer, you can see Will loping through the fields with the reins in one hand and the other holding his camera.
“Guests often tell me, ‘Wow, you have the coolest job in the world.’ Honestly, I’d have to agree with them. I love this place, and it’s a privilege to capture moments that help families remember their time here.”
Capturing Moments
When asked to recall any favorite moments so far this summer, Will couldn’t help but smile.
“Oh man, there are so many!” he said. After thinking about it, he grabbed the memories like a lasso to a bull, “Okay, I’ve got a couple.”
Out on the trail one morning, Will found himself loping alongside a first-time guest who burst into laughter mid-ride. “This is so much fun!” she kept saying. Capturing those candid, joyful moments of riders are some of the most rewarding.
“Some stories are really meaningful, like this one,” Will recalled.
One morning, before heading out on horseback, a guest quietly pulled him aside. “If you can,” the guest said with a lowered voice, “could you get a photo of my dad riding toward the mountains? He’s been bringing me here since I was a kid, and this might be his last year riding.”
Will looked at the man and his dad and was transported to a place and time when he was just 10 years old, his dad excitedly taking his family to Hunewill Ranch for the first time, and Will’s experiencing his parents getting older over the years, Hunewill being the constant variable in the bittersweetness of passing time.
That morning, Will trailed behind them, capturing them together on horseback, the vast Eastern Sierras stretching beyond the frame.
When they returned from the ride, the older man embraced his son and said, “I’m going to ride next year.”.
From Will’s own connection with Hunewill Ranch, he knew the importance of capturing this moment.
The ranch isn’t just a place to visit, it’s a place families return to, generation after generation.
In Conclusion
For Will, Hunewill Ranch brought him clarity and connection, but it also added a new dimension to his life and opened his eyes to other possibilities.
Most of the year, he grinds through the L.A. traffic to get to work, but in the summer months, his commute is a short walk to the barn to ride for the day with guests and fellow wranglers.
A wrangler, professional photographer, college professor, and co-owner of a video production company, and it all started here at Hunewill Ranch 30 years ago!
