Lucas Boland Photography (2024)

30/03/2022

Pre-tip shots from throughout the K-State men’s season. How soon until the fellas make the tournament?
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16/11/2021

Good boy.

09/11/2021

Teacher: “I’m glad you don’t have a fever anymore,” Cardenas said. “You can come have fun with us at school.”
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Kid #1: Zhao said (still in jest) that she still didn’t want to come to class, adding that she thought it was “going to be really boring.”
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Kid #2: “How dare you say that,” seven-year-old Benjamin Guelker said from the desk in front of Zhao.
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Teacher: “Benjamin thinks it’s fun,” Cardenas said.
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Kid #2: “I like it,” Guelker said.
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…
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Ah the sick day – sometimes a gift to children and sometimes the bane of parents. Hate ‘em or love ‘em, they’re a thing again as students in USD 383 attend school fully in person.
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05/11/2021

Troy Auman tries to help people of all ages find more confidence not only in their bodies but in all parts of their lives.
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Auman, owner and chief instructor at Evolution Training Center in Manhattan, has spent more than 20 years teaching martial arts and self defense skills. What started as a way for Auman to deal with bullying has evolved into a way to help people of all ages find the same confidence.
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“We want them to be confident in themselves and their abilities,” Auman said. “That confidence does a lot for them in so many other ways. Learning to believe in yourself is huge.”
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✏️: Kristina Jackson

27/10/2021

Mac Phrommany said the “universe conspired in my favor” when he got his dream teaching job.
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Phrommany (pronounced PRO-muh-knee) is the head debate and forensics coach at Manhattan High School, a position he’s held since 2018. Born in Iowa, raised in Olathe and of Laotian descent, Phrommany said he was tenacious for several years in his goal of getting a job with the MHS program.
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A K-State graduate with a degree in secondary education, Phrommany, 27, also advises the MHS Asian Student Union, the MHS Interact Club (which is the high-school offshoot of the Konza Rotary Club) and is an active Rotarian. He’s also an avid skateboarder and car enthusiast.
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Phrommany said being tenacious with what he wanted in life “wasn’t always second nature,” and that debate and forensics in high school helped him realize how he could help himself.
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“It can show people how they can change themselves,” Phrommany said. “It can show people how they can change the world. Even if you don’t feel like you are ‘that kind of person,’ you can become that person.”
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12/10/2021

OZtoberfest – a very, very Kansas event in the town of Wamego. The Dorothy costume competition was a hit, and the winner? The little one pictured at right, two year-old Dorothy Baucom with father Kiydaar. Yes, her name is actually Dorothy and she is doing a great job living into her namesake.
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11/10/2021

One guess to tell me which buffalo is “Moses,” the herd patriarch at Plumlee Buffalo Ranch near Alma, KS…
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I went out with a single flash, 50mm lens and the intent to try (my best, anyways) to recreate one of my favorite animal portraits done by of the famous lion C-Boy in Tanzania.
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What I discovered was that…
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1. It’s very difficult to make a cool portrait of a well-known subject (failed at my recreation effort).
2. Buffalo move almost constantly when grazing (hard for pics).
3. A Kansas field at sundown in the summer has the feel of what I imagine a safari to be like. Can’t wait to compare one day.

10/10/2021

Products that contain enough THC to get people “high” are legally available in Manhattan and the rest of the state, due to a loophole created by new laws.
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Delta-8, a version of the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) compound derived from h**p plants, are available to customers 21 and up at several stores that have previously sold cannabis products without THC.
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Delta-8 THC is an isomer of delta-9 THC, which is the psychoactive compound in ma*****na that gets a person high. The only difference between the two molecules is the location of a double bond between two carbons. That difference is enough that delta-8 is legal for sale in Kansas because it does not meet the definition of ma*****na. Products containing it have started appearing on local shelves, as well as those around the state, in recent months.
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Tammy Roca said she visits the CBD American Shaman store in Manhattan weekly to restock on treatments for the severe pain she lives with because of scoliosis. The 59-year-old, originally from Pueblo, Colorado, said prescriptions and over-the-counter medications weren’t working.
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“This is my pain medicine,” Roca said. “I’m able to get out with my grandson, I’m able to walk my dog again. I’d be remiss if I said I was healed, but this keeps me going.”
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07/10/2021

Protestors speak with Kansas State University President Richard Myers and other administrators to convey frustration, ask questions, demand accountability and propose action items to address the issue of sexual violence within the Wildcat community Tuesday evening in Manhattan. In the second photo, Paige Eichkorn, far left, and Sydney Lancaster, center left, lead students in a march around campus. The event, organized by Wildcats Against Sexual Violence, began with speakers and sign making on the Anderson Lawn and ended at the President's Residence.
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01/10/2021

Say it with me, everybody: I am a…

24/09/2021

An air guitar competition led by a man with the stage name “Nordic Thunder.” I bet you can assume which man this is… A lot of moments where I thought, “What on earth am I witnessing here?” More butt cheeks and fire breathing than I anticipated. And one of the most fun events since I’ve been in Manhattan.
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22/09/2021

This is my friend Mary (), one of the earlier people I met on the job last fall who went on to become a great friend of mine along with her husband Taylor (who I haven’t had the privilege of photographing…yet).
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Mary is an incredible multimedia artist (and person) who specializes in print making. Her work has been displayed in galleries around the U.S. and features colorful landscapes reminiscent of the tallgrass prairie in which she grew up, and other conceptual things that will punch your heart, like the nostalgia of play.
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You should check out her website at https://www.mary-gordon.com/6196920-home if you’re looking for art that belongs on your wall.
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Side note: to my total surprise, this simple portrait of Mary in her home studio actually won the 2020 Kansas Press Association environmental portrait category in its biggest division. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

21/09/2021

Manhattan Brewing Company - one of my favorite watering holes in MHK. They craft a lot of fine beers and a lot of community here. Photos for a review of the year-old establishment in downtown. Article is out in the fall edition of 313 magazine.

15/09/2021

Amy Guffey – badass clarinetist who doesn’t mind a little lowkey trespassing for a good portrait spot.

13/09/2021

I dusted off the old pen and wrote a feature story for The Mercury about rocks deposited by ancient glaciers in Kansas, and why recent tests aged them younger than researchers expected. Yes, once upon a time there were glaciers in Kansas. You can read all about it by following the link in my bio!
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//
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Five to six hundred thousand years ago, instead of windmills and grain silos rising out of fields near Wamego, hundreds of feet of glacial ice would have towered above.
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“If you look across the Big Blue it lies there; it’s glistening. You can see it, and it might be halfway dirty with rocks on top of it, too. It’s blocking to the south the Kansas River Valley and it creeps up on the other side and bulldozes all sorts of stuff in front of it,” imagined K-State geographer Arnaud Temme, who led a recent effort to determine more precisely when this ice cap retreated.
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A massive glacier once covered much of North America, extending all the way from the North Pole to its southern edge within a few miles of Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie. As the frozen ice sheet’s weight and imperceptibly slow movement shaped the northern U.S. landscape, it covered Riley and Pottawatomie counties in a shimmering white. The glacier was taller than the Manhattan Housing Authority’s 12-story Apartment Towers, and so immense that it dammed the Kansas River and created a massive lake stretching from Salina to Manhattan and north past Tuttle Creek Lake.
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“This is an inner sea, this is not a lake,” Temme illustrates.
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In 2019, Temme and his team sought to more accurately determine how long ago the glacier covered the now grassy and abundant Kansas landscape. As if the glacier knew that one day humans would wonder about its existence, it left behind quartzite rocks that contained the answer, like pebble-to-car-sized breadcrumbs of the geologic past.
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10/09/2021

Football makes it return to Manhattan this weekend with Friday night lights. Ready for some dudes to run into some other dudes!
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07/09/2021

People enjoy a visit from the steam engine "Big Boy" in Manhattan last Thursday afternoon. The 132 foot long train, built in 1941 for Union Pacific Railroad, served 20 years and traveled over a million working miles. The engine was recently restored and now chugs along tracks from its Cheyenne home to visit locations around the country. A few hundred people came to the tracks on Manhattan Ave. south of Fort Riley Blvd. to see the train during its scheduled 30 minute stop.
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02/09/2021

Lauren Ritterbush was hiking in her home state of North Dakota when she looked out at the landscape and asked herself a question.
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“I knew I lived there, but I also knew people lived there before me,” she said.
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Ritterbush, a professor of archaeology at K-State, studies historical sites and documents to learn about the past. Since arriving at K-State more than 20 years ago, Ritterbush has spent much of her time studying the Kanza people. She assists in excavating Kanza villages, reads documents written about them and works with members of the modern-day Kaw Nation. Ritterbush says that by looking at the past, we can connect to people, places and the future.
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“You have to put all these different clues and look at the context in which they’re found to come up with some credible interpretation of what their lives were like,” she said.
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✏️: Kristina Jackson

30/08/2021

Summer winding down. Are you ready?

26/08/2021

People kayak at the Sunflower Summer Campout at Tuttle Creek State Park on July 22. The campout, with activities like archery, animal talks and barbecue for dinner, was free through the state education department. One shot I liked from the last month and a fun half hour on the water after not getting up to many adventures this summer.
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25/08/2021

Jason Hartman, state forester and proof that sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. As the son of a forester, Hartman grew up wandering down forest roads and tromping around grasslands, and was later looking for direction in college. He realized then that he always loved being outdoors and perhaps should make a career out of it.
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“From when I was a kid, that’s where fun was,” he said. “Fun wasn’t in a house.”
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So, he took after his father and became a forester, too. He’s worked in 18 states and overseas in the time since, fighting wildfires across the American landscape.
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✏️: Kristina Jackson

24/08/2021

Before Manhattan’s waterparks go on “paws” for the year, some of its furry residents got a chance to go for a swim.
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The annual PetPoolooza was Saturday, marking the end of the season for city pools. Sydni Baker, aquatics recreation specialist for Manhattan Parks and Recreation, said PetPoolooza is one of her favorite days of the year and she can tell the dogs are excited, too.
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“They cannot wait to get into the facility,” Baker said. “They’re at the door champing at the bit.”
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✏️: Kristina Jackson

23/08/2021

Two men with a friendship forged in wartime are reflecting on their service and sharing worry for families as Afghanistan, the country they fought to protect, falls to the enemy.
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Matiullah Shinwari, an Afghan now living in Manhattan, said his children feared Independence Day fireworks when they first moved to the United States in 2017.
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“All of my kids were just like, ‘Is the Taliban coming here too?’” Shinwari said.
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Shinwari’s friend, Manhattan city commissioner Aaron Estabrook, said artillery blasts from Fort Riley training sessions also frightened the family from Afghanistan.
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“That first week (in Manhattan), Fort Riley was shooting, and the kids were asking if that was the Taliban,” Estabrook said. “They were so used to that, but now it’s just like, that’s Fort Riley.”

The bond between the two men, both 37, dates to 2009 when Estabrook — then a sergeant in the U.S. Army — chose Shinwari out of a group of Afghan citizens to work as an interpreter for his platoon patrolling Kandahar Province, one of the most dangerous regions of the battle-scarred country.
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20/08/2021

If you’ve eaten at Hillside Cafe long enough, you’ve probably heard the sound of a friendly whistle.
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That whistle was a trademark of the late David Silva, who was loved fiercely not only by his family, but by the Manhattan and Riley County communities.
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“He always whistled,” said Lourdes Silva, David’s wife. “So a lot of kids, they always called him the ‘Whistle Man’ or the ‘Bird Man.’ Actually, the ‘Bird Man.’ And he always promised them, ‘If you finish your dinner, you get a ring pop.’ So they always looked for him all the time.”
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David died in February after testing positive for the coronavirus. Joe Silva, his son, and Lourdes spoke to The Mercury recently about their family member’s passing and the restaurant.
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“It was tough,” Joe said. “There’s no other way around it. Juggling a small business and my own family — I mean I have a son that’s 9 years old — and then taking care of my father, it was extremely tough. I can’t even say that the light switch has turned off yet. I still feel that anxiety or that feeling that I have something that I have to do.”
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…
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Joe and Lourdes said they appreciated the community’s support following David’s passing.
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“They care about us. Actually it was kind of funny, one time it was so busy and we were running like crazy, we didn’t have enough help any way, so two of our regular customers, they said, ‘Don’t worry. We clean up tables for you.’ They picked up the dishes and they went and cleaned up tables. I was kind of relieved in a way. I mean, how can you say thank you to somebody? They didn’t care, they were just eating. But they said, ‘Don’t worry. We can eat later or whatever. Let us clean up the table for you. Don’t worry.’ So it was kind of really nice. So that’s what it’s all about,” Lourdes said.
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17/08/2021

Heavy rain falls in Washington, D.C. Monday afternoon as protestors gather at the White House during President Joe Biden’s press conference inside. Faced with a chorus of scrutiny from both sides of the aisle, Biden gave resolved remarks reiterating his belief that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was the right choice despite the Taliban swiftly seizing complete control of the country over the last week.
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Biden argued that the Afghan military and government gave up despite being equipped and trained to fight the Taliban, saying,
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“Here’s what I believe to my core: It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not,” and, “I know my decision will be criticized. But I would rather take that criticism than pass this on to a fifth president. I am the president of the United States, the buck stops with me.”

12/08/2021

More Wamego carnival shots from the beginning of July. The best part about taking pictures of carnivals is that you can look in any direction and there’s something interesting happening. Thousands of fleeting moments going on all at once to try to photograph before they disappear.

05/08/2021

Catching up on more portraits from the spring with local hoopers Dawson Zenger and Jessi Brummett. The pair were designated as ’s All-Flint Hills Players of the Year in basketball.

03/08/2021

May 8 // The glass case affixed to the wall outside Riley County’s gymnasium is supposed to preserve every track and field record in Falcons’ history.
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For the past three seasons, however, the girls’ shot put and discus records have been neglected. Falcons’ senior Ames Burton broke the “current” records, which the display case attributes to Jesse Reed (shot put, 2001) and Tammie Zeller (discus, 1983), as a freshman, and she’s broken them several times since.
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That’s why Riley County head track coach Jesse Woodard refuses to update them.
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“I haven’t put those up because I don’t want to change them all the time,” Woodard said, “She’s going to keep breaking them.”
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Burton set her most recent record two weeks ago at the Council Grove Invitational. Her 153-foot, 6-inch discus throw cleared the competition by 40 feet, a margin closer to ordinary than outlier when Burton competes.
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She’s a Division I athlete in a Class 3A world; Burton signed last week to throw for Missouri beginning next spring, while most of her contemporaries won’t compete beyond high school.
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UPDATE: Burton went on to secure two state titles later in May in shot put and discus.
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Story from for .

02/08/2021

Manhattanites and visitors play carnival games, scream on rides, munch on funnel cakes, and show livestock at the Riley County Fair on Sat. July 24. The weeklong event, hosted at the fairgrounds at Cico Park, saw full grandstands for the rodeo and some lengthy lines at the carnival despite the hot and humid weather.
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Lucas Boland Photography