Firefighter John Martens

I did a profile shoot for a story about John Martens, a Manhattan firefighter. He took me and the writer on a tour through the fire station, and showed us the trucks.

Chimp Enrichment

Once a week, Sunset Zoo has an enrichment day where they try to stimulate and challenge the animals so they don't lose their minds in captivity. I shot the chimp enrichment because it was a birthday celebration for the youngest chimp— Nia, who was turning three.

9/11 Remembrance Day

September 11 fell on a Sunday this year and there was a remembrance service held in Bosco Plaza that afternoon. It was the 10th year anniversary since the attacks.

Opening remarks— the three trees behind the podium were planted in 2001 in remembrance of the three areas hit.

Invocation by a local pastor

Programs

Catching up from the start

Whew! I've been pretty busy lately. Shooting for the Collegian, studying for class, getting my logo developed (more on my photo business here: Lauren Gocken Photography), and trying to have some fun with friends. Here's a few photos from August.

Josh Blue, winner of Last Comic Standing's fourth season. He was really funny, I remember wanting him to win when the show was still on.

Noah Reagan, head chef of Della Voce, doing cooking demonstrations at the Farmer's Market.

Lovely plated Caprese.

Pet POOL-ooza

Me and Matt alternated walking Abe and shooting the dogs in the pool event this past weekend at Cico Park. Dogs and their owners are invited to swim in the pool and donate $2 that goes towards the local animal shelter. They allow the dogs in because it's the last day the pool is open for the season before they drain it— so who cares if it gets a little hairy.
The shallow end had really small dogs and really big dogs— there were two gigantic great danes who were reluctant to get in the water. Then the larger swimming and laps pool was retriever paradise. There were at least 20 dogs in the pool fetching tennis balls and frisbees. It was wonderful but it made me miss my own two pooches.

Nick Kunze, Olsberg, carrying Jordy, a lab mix, out of the laps pool.

Kanrocksas • Day Two Aug. 6 • Kansas City, KS

Day two's set list: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Cage the Elephant, Flogging Molly, A Perfect Circle, Girl Talk, The Black Keys, and Muse.

Grace Potter

Cage the Elephant

He performed like an old-school rock star, it was great to shoot.

Lots of random dancing performers on platforms for each of the concerts.

A Perfect Circle

Black Keys— who were surprisingly hard to shoot.

Rainbow strobes on The Black Keys.

Muse opening.

"Uprising"

Kanrocksas • Day One Aug. 5 • Kansas City, KS

I received a press pass to shoot the Kanrocksas music festival that happened in Kansas City Aug. 5-6. I got to see so many great bands, my favorites were Primus, Muse, Bassnectar and Flogging Molly.

Graffiti art wall

More art wall

Arctic Monkeys

Primus

Bassnectar

Flaming Lips were awesome. They had confetti, giant balloons, streams, smoke and strobes. Epic show.

Balloons and megaphones

Wayne Coyne is awesome.

Bluestem Bistro Paella

Bluestem Bistro has an international night each Monday, this Monday was Spanish paella with shrimp and mussels. I'm not fond of seafood so I didn't indulge, but I did think it was beautiful.

Country Stampede

Country Stampede is an annual country music festival that lures thousands of people from across the Midwest and it's held at Tuttle Creek State Park in Manhattan. This is a notoriously interesting event to shoot because of the huge amount of things to do. Besides the live music and big name headliners, there's rides, vendor booths, lots of drinking and partial-nudity, and of course the campgrounds.

Lots of party beads, men and women.

Joe Nichols

Lady Antebellum

Lady Antebellum

Lady Antebellum

Not an unusual sight at Stampede.

The flier.

Crying after the show.

Blake Shelton.

Brad Paisley's audience.

Reading Editorial Photo Illustration

I did my first photo illustration ever today! I wrote an editorial about the benefits of reading and the value of young adult fiction. I took the photo at the Dusty Bookshelf an used my soft box flash attachment then used the gradient map feature instead of the greyscale feature to turn it black and white in Photoshop.

Manhattan's Cozy Inn Opening Day

The highly anticipated Cozy Inn has finally opened in Manhattan. The hamburger shop originally opened in Salina in 1922 and is well known for serving greasy, delicious bags of sliders. The sliders are pretty simple, just meat, onion, pickle and a dab of ketchup. I'm sure this new (and cheap!) restaurant will be an Aggieville favorite in no time.

Owner Steve Howard starts the first burgers of the day on opening day.

The six stool counter.

Slider maker.

George Clinton and the Parliament Funk

Me and Matt went to the Smokey Hill River Festival this Saturday and we saw George Clinton. The put on a tremendously funky and awesome show.

Wine in the Wild

I had a hectic day of shooting yesterday because it was Manhattan day! I shot lil Weenie dog races in the morning, then later in the afternoon shot the Humboldt/18th Manhattan day get together BBQ (which was delightful), then finished off my day at the Wine in the Wild, Sunset Zoo's annual fund raising event.

Beautiful etched wine glasses.

Jace Carter • Baby Session

My very good, and old friend Irene asked me to take some photos of her niece Jace. We took these in Westin Gardens.