It Gets Better in Hutch

Kansas sky

Found a robot walking home from work on my way home for my dinner break on Halloween.

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge

Last weekend I went out to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday for the paper. Quivira is normally home to two large salt marshes and a ton of migrating birds, however because of this year's prolonged drought, it's really dry out there and (though I haven't seen it in other years) I'm fairly sure there are a lot less birds than usual. We did however still manage to run into a few members of the Boulder Audobon Club, who had taken a field trip down to the Refuge because it is a migration stop point for the very very endangered Whooping Crane. Sadly we didn't see any Whooping Cranes but they did let us look through their scope to check out some Sandhill Cranes instead. Very cool.

The day started out as a bit of a feature hunt but instead the photos ended up running alongside a story on how the drought is effecting bird hunting season, as you can hunt some birds in certain areas of the refuge.

Getting Ready for Halloween

Celebrity Goat Milking

Rashell Lozada, a member of the KSCW-TV celebrity goat milking team, has some difficulties taking her turn milking during the Celebrity Goat Milking competition at the Kansas State Fair. (9/16/2011)

Trinity Catholic vs. Bennington

fading Friday night light

The highest point in Hutchinson

The state fair has dominated the past 12 days of my life.

Yoder Heritage Day

I spent the day at the Yoder Heritage Festival in Yoder, KS this past Saturday. Yoder is a community with a large population of Amish and on the last Saturday in August everyone in town gets together and participates in traditional area activities, like buggy races, tractor pulls, horseback football and a big old parade. There's also some amazing homemade food (pie and ice cream!) and traditional music and 'cowboy poetry.'
I was intially concerned about getting names of people whose photos I shot, as Amish are traditionally reluctant to have their photos taken and I know that sometimes they decline to give their names (making them sometimes unpublishable in the newspaper as a result) but I either got lucky or was worried for nothing, as everyone I spoke with was very accomodating. A good day all around.

National Track and Field Junior Olympics

A few weeks ago I spent my mornings all week long and days off shooting at the National Track and Field Junior Olympics at Cessna Stadium in Wichita. 7,000 junior olympians came from all over the country to compete in traditional track and field events during one of the hottest and most brutal weeks of the year. A lot of these kids were from milder climates and the heat and sun definitely took a toll. They even started spraying the kids down with a garden hose at the 3/4 point on the track. There were a lot of incredibly impressive athletes there, I can't say I've ever seen an 8 year-old pound out a sub-six minute mile before. All in all, it was a brutal brutal week that cemented my tan in place and I hope I never have to shoot 40 hours in constant sunny 110 degree weather again.

Fire in Burrton

Boy Scouts!

Spent a summer evening with the Boy Scouts in Nickerson, where members of the local troops gathered up flags for retirement. While any private citizen can retire a flag, it is commonly done by Scout troops and veteran's associations, who have their own ceremony procedures. The most common way to retire a flag is through burning, as recommended in the U.S. Flag Code.
Never having been to a retirement ceremony before, it was pretty neat to watch and these scouts definitely took their duties seriously.

Summertime in Kansas

Roy Williams, of Mulvane, looks on as grandson Bryson Williams, 9, unhooks a fish he caught while at Pete's Puddles. The family has been coming to the lake for five summers.


Marie Cochrane, 1, of Hutchinson, plays at the Fairgrounds Water Park in Hutchinson, KS, on Saturday, July 16. Triple-digit temperatures will continue to plague the area through-out the coming week.



Sophia Rose, 5, of Hutchinson, looks back to her family while waving an American flag prior to the start of the 4th of July parade down Main Street on Monday morning.


Tylia Bruton, 11, center, Andryce Jackson, 9, left, and Angie Imel wash a car during a fundraiser for the Little Miss Hutch Pageant on Saturday, July 16. The car wash, which raised funds for a float in the Emancipation Day parade among other things, was held on front of Gray's Barber Shop on Main Street

Features Features Features

Tracey Rogers takes a break from the triple-digit heat under an umbrella during the Sunday, August 8 Monarchs baseball game agaisnt the St. Joseph Mustangs at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita.


Olevia Dennis, 3, paints on a sheet while at the Kansas Kids Museum Parking Lot Adventure at the Hutchinson Mall on Saturday, August 6. The event featured activities inside the musuem and in the parking lot, including a dunk tank, learning stations, and police and fire department booths.


Jolynn Martin runs through water from a fire hose with neighbor Ireland Rutan, 2, during the National Night Out, held on Lyman Avenue on Tuesday night. The event, which included free activities and hot dogs, was a way for locals to connect with their area police and fire personnel.

Kansas, Idaho, Wyoming

Kansas



Idaho



Grand Teton National Park



Wyoming

Took a last-minute trip up to Idaho to visit my boyfriend a few weeks back. Drove 16 hours up in a straight shot, luckily the scenery got increasingly beautiful as I went along. These certainly aren't groundbreaking in terms of landscapes, but I still like'em.

I love zoos

In search of different hot weather photos (it's been in the triple digits for atleast a week now and we're running out of photo subject matter on the topic(cute kids in water!)) I was sent to the Hutchinson Zoo to see what they do to cool off the animals. These are not those photos since they're not running until tomorrow buttt they're still from the zoo.

Zookeeper Ryan Witmer showed me around the zoo's rehabilitation facility while I was waiting for animal snack time (frozen pureed bananas with crickets!) with another zookeeper.

So I moved to Kansas.

It's outragously hot and full of bugs and weather I have little experience with, but it's going well so far. It's pretty in a 'Little house on the praire' sort of way.

PS There's a very good chance I'm going to get a wordpress blog soon. very soon. Stay posted, my six google-reader subscribers.

Michigan's Empty Schools

Steve Grose, School Board President of Holland Public Schools, stands inside of Lakeview Elementary School. The building, which once educated about 150 students per year, has been closed for over a year and is now used as a storage site for the district.
(Amanda Loman | Grand Rapids Press)



Paint peels off of the walls in a yet-unrenovated section of the former E.E. Fell Junior High School building in Holland.
(Amanda Loman | Grand Rapids Press)



Kel Tenbroeke, right, a plumber, and John Wycners, a plasterman, work on the second floor of the former E.E. Fell Junior High School in Holland. The building is being renovated to provide housing to senior citizens.
(Amanda Loman | Grand Rapids Press)

RV Expo

Allie Breese, 4, plays with a table setting inside of an RV while parents Jeff and Jenny look on. The family was attending the Grand Rapids RV Expo at the DeltaPlex on Friday, February 18.
(Amanda Loman | Grand Rapids Press)

Sugarbush Trail Tour

Marcy Yanos, center, receives a taste of maple syrup from outdoor educator Nicole Durso, Yanos was at the Blandford Nature Center's Sugarbush Trail Tour with daughter Meg Riter, 2, son Colin Riter, 5, and husband Web Riter, right. Tours will be held every Saturday in March, culminating in a pancake breakfast on March 26
(Amanda Loman | Grand Rapids Press)