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.