Before the Friday Lights

High School football season is almost upon us. I've been shooting lots of team photos and practice stuff lately for a big football preview special section coming out this week. This photo is an outtake from some random shooting with a team in Marion, KS before shooting the actual assignment- a portrait of their coach for the football tab cover. In order to keep myself on my toes for the high school football season, I'm going to try to make at least one feature photo during every game or high school football related event that I shoot throughout the season, hopefully revealing different aspects of the sport than just the game action we usually print. At the end I hope to make a nice photo essay for an Ad Astra photo page out of it reviewing what it's like for the athletes off of the field during their season of hard work. So I'll try to post a few outtakes after every Friday night, but save the best photos for the end package. That's my plan. We'll see how it all pans out.

Cheers,
Pat

Kansas Sunset

A few pictures thanks to the gorgeous Kansas sky from the other day driving back from an assignment.

OMG Dogs!

This weekend the big public swimming pool in Hutchinson, Salt City Splash, closed for the summer. To celebrate the end, however, they opened again today only for dogs. People came from all around the area to play with their dogs in the water park. It was a really fun time shooting everyone having a good time, although a few dogs were reluctant swimmers. According to one of the staff members I talked to, they expect about 100 dogs visit the pool on the dog day, in addition to about 300 people. Not the most hard hitting of news stories, but definitely one of the most purely enjoyable. Anyway, you know you've had a good day when you come back to the office barefoot.

-Pat

Finding the Crescent Moon

Last night I went out just after sunset to shoot some photos of the crescent moon that appears for a short time for the few days following the new moon, which first appeared just after sunset on the 20th. This new moon kicked off the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. I'm thinking this might make an interesting photo within a story about Islam in Hutchinson... if I can find anyone... Either way, it was fun chasing the moon around trying to shoot it in frame with some contextual pieces of Hutch.

Thanks for looking,
Pat

Locked Up

These are a few photos from my Tuesday visit to the new Law Enforcement Center in Scott City, Kansas. The new building houses the Scott City Police, Sheriffs Department, Emergency Management and the jail. Apparently the old facility was in much need of replacement- it started out as a Sheriff's house, which had a jail built on and was added onto ever and over. The new building is outfitted with state of the art technology and we did a story detailing the features of this new facility. The most interesting part for me was the jail. It was divided into different pods containing separate cells for prisoners as well as a small recreation yard and interconnecting hallways. Everything is compartmentalized with locking doors and glass everywhere. When a prisoner is walking in a hallway, the next door is never opened until the last one is locked. Prisoners buzz a button to open doors and move about their space, everything being controlled by one jailer watching over it all. It seemed to be a pretty nice place, complete with lots of Healthy Choice frozen dinners. Still, it's not a place I'd really like to spend too much time.

Thanks for looking,
Pat

A night with a rodeo clown

Last week I followed around rodeo clown Barry "Boom Boom" Johnson during one night of the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo in Dodge City, Kan. for this week's Sunday Ad Astra photo page. A broader slideshow from the night can be seen here. Luckily for Barry, but sadly for my camera, the bulls never got near Barry's barrel. It was a great time and I was happy to get the chance to cover another rodeo.

Thanks for looking,
Pat

Visit Sunny Hutchinson, Kansas!

Friday and Saturday were pretty slow news days so I was sent to shoot some general file photos of local landmarks and the two main tourist attractions of Hutchinson. Some could view this as a lame assignment, but I had a good time exploring and was challenged to make interesting pictures. Here are a few of the photos put together in a slide show, which may inspire you to come visit me.

-Pat

My Apartment: Before and After

I've been meaning to post some photos of my place for a while, but finally got to a little cleaning today. Here are some diptychs I put together of what my little place here in Hutchinson looks like before and after I moved in.

-Pat