She's Here.

Helen Elizabeth Veazey-Heying

Born 7:55 p.m. on September 2, 2010

5 pounds, 10 ounces

17 inches long

Perfect

"True Dreams... Of Wichita"

Photographed the Dave Matthews Band in Wichita on Saturday night. Not really music I'm all that familiar with, but from the standpoint of a newspaper photographer, it was one of the most photo-friendly shows ever. First three songs like always, but they play some loooong songs. Like this one.

Converted some of my stuff to black and white and I'm kind of digging it. Good show.

"And if ya' let me cool you one time, you'll be my regular stop"

There's a debate ragin' here in Wichita.

All my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy from Travis Heying on Vimeo.

The Last Stand

Many historians have attempted to tackle what happened to Gen. George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry soldiers on June 25, 1876. Recently, author Nathaniel Philbrick wrote about the topic in the new book "The Last Stand."

Two things about this book are interesting: Philbrick's prior writings have focused on maritime history in the New England area. "Mayflower" was a Pulitzer finalist for non-fiction and "In the Heart of the Sea" won the National Book Award. Both are fascinating stories. Philbrick is venturing way outside of his comfort zone with this book. Secondly, Philbrick uses resources to reconstruct the battle that a lot of other historians have discounted.

After finishing "The Last Stand" recently, I decided to make a return trip to Little Bighorn in southern Montana. This time though, I explored it much more thoroughly than I have in the past. I spent several hours walking the battlefield last Wednesday. The area is as well preserved as Gettysburg, which I visited last year. It truly is hallowed ground.

Markers like these are spread out over a five mile area known as Battlefield Ridge. The battle consisted of three main parts: Major Marcus Reno's initial attack on the large Indian village along the banks of the Little Bighorn River, The routing of Custer and nearly 200 men under his immediate command, and finally, a siege of the remaining 7th Cavalry soldiers under the command of Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen. The marker above is near the area of the siege, nearly 5 miles from where Custer and his men had already been killed.

Two markers just below Last Stand Hill, the place where Custer and his soldiers made one last attempt to hold off the Sioux, Cheyenne and Crow warriors.

On Last Stand Hill, the place where Custer died is marked. The marker in the foreground is for his brother, Tom Custer, who won the Medal of Honor twice prior to his death at Little Bighorn.

Last Stand Hill. The trees in the distance are where the Indian village was located.

Most of the remains of the soldiers who died were buried where the obelisk is in the background. The remains were eventually exhumed and given proper burials.

It was a beautiful Montana afternoon. Even though the weather was cool, you got the feeling the rolling prairie looked just as it did on that day 134 years ago.

In the top of this photo, you can see the Little Bighorn River at the point where Reno and the men under his command retreated. These markers are for a group of Arikara scouts who were working for the 7th Cavalry.

In Philbrick's book, he describes how survivors under Reno's command claimed that he had been drinking whiskey most of the morning, and was probably drunk when he ordered the initial attack on the village. Reno is now buried at the National Cemetery at Little Bighorn. Surprising, in my opinion, given that it's likely the scene of his greatest failure. Both Reno and Benteen survived the battle and both spent the rest of the lives criticizing Custer's decisions about the attack.

If you're a history buff like I am, Little Bighorn is well worth your time.

What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas. And Then Eventually Show Up On A Blog

Spent a few days in Vegas this week with reporter Roy Wenzl to work on a story. Hadn't been there in nearly 10 years. Hardly looked like the same place. My stay in no way resembled the movie "The Hangover" except....

Most of you have probably have already seen this gem on Facebook or Twitter, but I had to put it on the blog. Roy and I, along with his friend Colleen Kenney and her husband Todd, were walking out of The Venetian when we spotted this flaming redhead to our right. Sure enough, it was the comedian Carrot Top, who stars in a Vegas show.

The point of the trip was to spend time with a Wichitan who now happens to be the owner of a Casino on the strip. He took us for a spin in his $500,000 Rolls Royce. I bet the monthly insurance is more than the value of my car.

Fun with slanted windows.

The windows were slanted because we stayed at this place. The Luxor. The only thing cool about it was that it's shaped like a pyramid. Other than that, it was kind of a dump.

I'm not a gambler. At all. I played $1 in a penny slot machine, and it wasn't even my dollar. At the end, I couldn't bear to lose everything, so I cashed out with a penny left. Colleen actually claimed the penny, and later claimed our Carrot Top encounter was due to the lucky penny.

I was still focused on the fact that I lost 99 cents.

Chase(ing) A Dream

This is Chase Kear.

I've blogged about him before because he was part of a pretty big project I did last year.

Chase nearly died on October 2, 2008 while practicing the pole vault at Hutchinson Community College. He bumped his head. Hard.

Chase had a large portion of his skull removed to relieve pressure on his swelling brain. His doctors gave him little hope, and that would be putting it mildly.

On Saturday, a year and a half after his accident, Chase was back in action.

His family, who I got to know over the process of making "The Miracle of Father Kapuan" were on hand to cheer him on. They're good people.

Not one person in Gowans Stadium on Saturday, minus Chase Kear, ever thought they'd see this again.

He cleared 10feet, 6 inches. It wasn't going to win him any medals, but given how far he's come, he might have just as well set a world record.

Yup. He's a big deal. Coincidentally, Chase was featured on ABC news the night before.

I love my job. Always have. Without a doubt, the best part about it is the people you get to meet and the stories you get to share. A lot of those stories just come and go. But some of them, and more importantly, some of the characters, really stick with you. Getting to know Chase and his family has been a great pleasure. Watching Chase Kear leap over that pole on Saturday reminds me that no matter how hard things get, you can overcome just about anything.

On The Road Again.

The last time I shot college basketball, I blogged extensively about it.

It's been a couple of years, but it sure has been nice to blow the dust off the still cameras (okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration) and shoot some sports.

It's not really the games I like, It's the travel. I'm in Oklahoma City this week and If Kansas State can hold off BYU tomorrow, it's off to Salt Lake City. The Final Four is in Indianapolis, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Here's the desk in my hotel. I'm the only shooter for the paper here, covering both Kansas and Kansas State. I'm shooting both team's games, plus getting video of all the press conferences, locker room media scrums and such. It's a hell of a lot of work, but a lot of fun.

Turns I still know how to rig up a remote camera. Who knew.