Cowboy Monkey

No, I'm not talking about the popular downtown Champaign watering hole and music venue, but instead Whiplash the Border collie riding, sheep herding, cowboy monkey! I viewed in awe this amazing spectacle last night at the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo in Dodge City, Kansas, where I was following rodeo clown Barry "Boom Boom" Johnson for this Sunday's Ad Astra photo page (Post to come following Sunday's publication). Anyway, it was cool to shoot a rodeo again, this time with the monkey who the announcer once referred to as "the most famous cowboy in professional rodeo."

Thanks for looking,
Pat

Jr. Jedi

An outtake from shooting some wild art yesterday in Hutchinson. Wonderful.

Rubber on Dirt

Some photos from the 53rd Hutchinson Grand Nationals at the Kansas State Fairgrounds on Saturday night.
This place was LOUD.

Recycling Behind Bars

Some photos from a story on the recycling program at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. I was only allowed to shoot one of the guys working and he was happy to let me shoot away and go about his business. Surprisingly, at least outwardly, everyone seemed extremely nice. Definitely an interesting experience going inside a state prison.

-Pat

41 Years in Office

Elected in 1967, Darrell Pope of Hutchinson, is the longest serving NAACP branch president in the country. He was recently honored for his service at the 100th anniversary convention of the NAACP in New York where he met President Barack Obama.

I had the pleasure of making a portrait of Mr. Pope the other day for a front page centerpiece on his accomplishments for the Saturday, July 25th edition of the Hutch News. The page designer Lucas and I talked beforehand about the photo and everything came together for a really great front page lead-in for an awesome story. I've done plenty of studio photography before, but this was the first time I'd tried using a snoot to light only part of a subjects face to give some really dramatic light. Usually I'm out in nature or some poorly lit room trying to never use flash so it was cool to be able to be in control of everything in the studio for a change.

Thanks for looking,
Pat

Irish Dancing in Kansas

Aideen Hagan (right) and Rachel Hamill, both 15 and of Portadown, Northern Ireland, perform traditional Irish dancing during a rehearsal for the Ulster Project talent show at the Flag Theater in Hutchinson on Thursday afternoon, July 23.

This is one photo of many I took while following around this big group of Irish and American teenagers to several different events over about a two or three week period, during the Irish group's visit to Hutchinson. The Ulster Project is a program that brings together Protestant and Catholic teens from Northern Ireland and the United States in order to foster better understanding and friendship between the two groups in Northern Ireland. A group of Irish teens and support faculty was paired with teens and faculty in Hutchinson and the Hutch News did a big story following the group's activities. This was my favorite picture from the story.

Rodeo Part 3: Where Cowboys and Bulls Meet

This is the third of three posts from last weekend's Pretty Prairie Rodeo. Finally, what the rodeo is all about, watching man and beast compete. Disclaimer: the fourth photo is technically a steer and not yet a mature bull (Actually, thanks to "Rodeoshooter" correcting me- see comments below- steers are castrated, so I guess this little guy never will become a bull). Hopefully, there will be another rodeo around these parts before my time here is up. It was definitely an awesome event to cover.

Thanks for looking,
Pat

Rodeo Part 2: Bulls

This is the second part of a three part series from last weekend's Pretty Prairie Rodeo. My favorite event from the rodeo was definitely bull riding- each night they had 2 rounds of it, at the very beginning and the very end, which made for two very different lighting conditions in the same event each night. The bulls don't seem too happy about being there, but I'm sure they get pretty excited when they buck off a human attempting to ride them.

Stay tuned for the next post to see what happens when the cowboys and bulls meet in the ring.

-Pat

Rodeo Part 1: Cowboys

This is the first part of a 3 part series from the 2009 Pretty Prairie Rodeo - "Kansas Largest Night Rodeo." I covered action and put together slideshows for 3/4 of the days of the 4-day event, Wednesday-Saturday last week. It was the first rodeo I'd ever been to so everything was definitely exciting for me.

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed making them,
Pat

Recent Outtakes

To keep the blog from going stale, here are some outtakes from one of my recent assignments. I'm on my last day of covering the 4-day Pretty Prairie Rodeo so I'll have a big post from that coming up soon.

-Pat

A Day at the Downs

On Friday I shot my first Ad Astra Sunday photo page for the Hutch News. I went back down to Anthony, Kansas to Anthony Downs to shoot the horse and dog races. It was a really fun time shooting and the officials were very cool about giving me all the access I wanted. The jockeys and track staff also were incredibly accommodating and had no problem with me clicking away while they went about their business. After shooting for the entire evening, I have a new respect for jockeys- they get pretty beat up out there. I saw multiple riders get thrown from horses and even one guy get stepped on afterwords by the horse. But there's something about it they have to love, which keeps them coming back- some of the guys I talked to had been jockeys for 30 years or so. They ride because they want to and for little pay and usually little glory, which as a photojournalist is something that I have to respect.

Thanks for looking,
Pat

Six of a Kind

Last week I got the chance to head down to Norwich, about an hour or so south of Hutchinson, and hang out with the Headrick family for the evening. In 2002, Sondra and Eldon Headrick increased the size of their family from 3 to 9, giving then three year-old daughter Aubrianna six new siblings. The Hutch News has been keeping up with the family since the sextuplets birth, and today we published the latest installment of their story. Danielle, Ethan, Grant, Jaycie, Melissa and Sean Headrick are now 7-years-old and will be going into second grade when school starts again in the fall. It was an interesting experience making photos of the kids since they've grown up with periodic visits from people with cameras and for the most part ignored my ever-clicking camera shutter. Anyway, it was a fun night with a very nice family, who let me hang around for dinner and tag along to a pool party. I may try to catch up with them a few more times during my time in Kansas. We'll see.

Thanks for lending your eyes,
Pat

Desolation Drive-In

On my way to Anthony, Kansas the other day to shoot horse and dog racing at Anthony Downs (post soon to come), I stopped by an awesome deserted drive-in movie theater that I'd noticed on my way back from the fire coverage the day before. I love making pictures of decaying Americana, and I didn't let a 102 degree high stop me from exploring a little. Coincidentally, another Hutch News intern discovered the very same scene a scant 4 months earlier.

Anthony Burning

A few days ago I headed down south about an hour and a half to the town of Anthony, Kansas, almost to the Oklahoma border, to cover the aftermath of a devastating fire there. The previous day there had been a large fire that damaged at least six of it's downtown main street buildings. Somehow, under the weight of a truck, part of the alley collapsed behind the buildings, which triggered a gas line rupture. Investigation is still underway as officials access damage and look for the source of the gas line ignition. The source of the gas line ignition is still unknown. High winds also briefly reignited the smoldering ashes in one of the buildings. It's always hard to cover disasters, but luckily no one was killed, and hopefully the rebuilding process will begin soon.

Feature Hunting

One of the best ways to get to know a new town is by aimlessly cruising the streets and shooting photos. Luckily I get paid to do this. I was sent out to find a feature photo to fill space in the paper the other day and ended up at an old candy factory that a family is living in and restoring as well as tending a glorious garden in front of the imposing structure.

The Wilson's are a really interesting family and were extremely nice about allowing me to follow them around the yard and shoot photos. This summer is the first year that the garden has produced food and they all seemed excited at the prospect of their first "harvest." Eventually they hope to renovate the top floor of the building as a loft living space, create and rent out several apartments, set aside a woodworking shop and weaving space, and open a gallery space for their creative pursuits. Sounds like a great plan to me and in the mean time, their gardening project made for some nice feature photos for the paper.

And then, entirely unrelated, there was this truck I thought was cool.

More wanderings soon to come.
-Pat

Fireworks

A few nights ago I went out exploring to find some people lighting off fireworks. One of the other photographers pretty much had the fireworks Ad Astra photo page already covered so these didn't end up running, but here were my favorite 3 from the night.

-Pat

Dust, Sweat and Wheat

On Thursday I went out to cover the last of the wheat harvest in this part of Kansas. Basically my editor gave me the keys to a car and said to drive west until I found some combines cutting wheat. Since it had rained the night before we figured I'd have to drive fairly far to find something, however, within just a few miles of leaving the city limit, I came upon a group of guys cutting wheat and loading trucks. They were extremely nice about letting me shoot- they were all for me taking a ride in one of the combines and climbing up onto a semi as the grain cart deposited its load. Then I hung around until they were finished and shot the guys cleaning off the combines. It was an excellent day and I definitely increased my tan at the same time. Since I've been here it's been nothing but sunny with highs in the 90s and 100s.

More to come soon,
Pat

My First Day with the Hutchinson News

I moved into my apartment in Hutchinson on Monday, of which I'll post photos soon. Then on Tuesday I came in for my first day as the photo intern for The Hutchinson News, where current chief white house photographer Pete Souza once shot. Amidst filling out paperwork and attempting to learn photo processing routines, I ran out on a somewhat spot news assignment. A Great Horned Owl had gotten himself stuck in a barbed wire fence out in the country north of town. A man had noticed it while driving to work and called his wife, who called just about everywhere in town to try to get the bird some help. When I got there he was all alone and not looking very happy. Luckily after about ten minutes Ken Lockwood from the Eagle Valley Raptor Center in Cheney, Kan. showed up and cut the owl free. As far as I know, the owl is doing well- here is a link to the story and today's follow-up in case you'd like to know more about his condition. I was very relieved that the owl got some help and hopefully he'll fully recover and fly again. Anyway, it was a great first day and I'm definitely looking forward to shooting more assignments and exploring Hutchinson and "the better part of Kansas."

Farewell Weekend Part 3: Edwardsville & St. Louis

After leaving Champaign-Urbana, Emalie and I headed back to her place in Edwardsville. We went into St. Louis (about a 15 min drive) for the evening and she begrudgingly let me make some photos of her. The last photo is looking back at Illinois from the west side of the Mississippi. Although I cross this river a lot, sometimes multiple times daily, I generally return to the east side to sleep... along with 2/3 of the United States. But for the next 6 months I'll be residing many-a-mile west of her banks- in Kansas, which coincidentally is the state of my birth. Anyway, it was a great weekend hanging out with friends and family and a great sendoff for my internship.

Hasta luego Illinois, hola Kansas...
-Pat

Farewell Weekend Part 2: Champaign-Urbana

The second stop on my journey out to Kansas was my old college home of Champaign-Urbana. Brad and I drove down and we met up with my brother Garrett, who is living in Champaign for the summer, my girlfriend Emalie, who drove in from the QC to enjoy the weekend with us, and my good friend Maria, who managed to keep livin' the college dream by getting jobs in this great town. We all went over to Maria's on Thursday night for some sushi makin', berry pickin' and archery. Then we went out to Murphy's Pub to relive some typical Thursday night college revelry. On Friday we went to a few stories downtown Champaign and then had an excellent evening with bread, hummus, and wine. Brad left Saturday morning via train back to Chicago, but Emalie and I stuck around and chilled out with Garrett for another night. On Sunday my parents came down to visit Garrett and we all went out to lunch before Emalie and I left in our seprate cars to her place in Edwardsville...

Farewell Weekend Part 1: DeKalb

So, I'm all moved to Kansas now and beginning my third day of work at The Hutchinson News. I don't have internet at my apartment yet- hopefully it'll be hooked up on Monday. Also, I'm still going through and editing photos from my travels before getting all the way out to Kansas. This weekend I hope to get caught up on editing and I'll put up my first Kansas posts early next week and then I'll be up to date on the blog. For now, here's the first installment of my farewell to Illinois tour, which included DeKalb, Champaign-Urbana, and Edwardsville.

Last Wednesday I headed east (the opposite direction of Kansas from Rock Island) to DeKalb and hung out with good buddies and fellow former Daily Illini shooters Brad Vest and Beck Diefenbach for some beers and photo banter. Good times for sure.

On Thursday Brad and I headed down to Chambana... the photos from which I will post as soon as possible.

Cheers for now,
Pat