Another exciting night of mixed martial arts at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino.

TPF 11 results:

{Featherweight Championship}
Georgi Karakhanyan (17-3) won by SUB over Isaac De Jesus (9-4)
[4:02] – Round 1 – triangle choke

{Bantamweight Championship}
Ulysses Gomez (9-2) won by SUB over Cody Gibson (5-2)
[12:36] – 2:36 Round 3 – guillotine choke

Dustin Ortiz (8-1) won by TKO over Josh Rave (18-9)
[14:38] – 4:38 Round 3 – doctor stoppage

Phil Collins (11-7) won by SUB over Mickey Martinez (7-6)
[4:39] – Round 1 – guillotine choke

Francisco Rivera (6-2) won by KO over Brad McDonald (7-2)
[0:40] – Round 1 – punches

Savant Young (10-8) won by SUB over Robert Washington (11-5)
[7:41] – 2:41 Round 2 – guillotine choke

Bubba Jenkins (1-0) won by SUB over Josh Williams (0-1)
[2:04] – Round 1 – punches

Anthony Figueroa (6-6) won by UD over Paul Ruiz (2-1)
[15:00] – 3 Rounds – (30-27 all)

Jesse Bowen (8-6) won by UD over Sergio Quinones (7-9)
[15:00] – 3 Rounds – (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

Edgar Diaz (2-2) won by SUB over Alex Perez (3-1)
[0:43] – Round 1 – guillotine choke

Javy Ayala (3-0) won by SD over Freddie Aquitania (3-1)
[9:00] – 3 Rounds – (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)

It isn’t officially winter yet but we have been experiencing winter weather. For Hanford that means the Tule fog rolls in and frost covers the ground. I haven’t been up early enough to take any frost pictures. It pretty much has melted off by the time I’m out the door in the mornings. But there have been a couple of days when the fog comes in early and doesn’t burn off. Visiblity can be a hundred yards or less at times. King County seems to experience a thicker and longer lasting fog. Sentinel reporter Mike Eiman wrote a pretty good story on why this happens.

TPF 10 results:
1 Musa Toliver defeats Andy Miranda Decision (Unanimous) 3rdround 5:00
2 Brad McDonald defeats Sergio Quinones Submission (Armbar) 1st round 3:36
3 Kenny Ento defeats Phil Collins KO (Punch) 1st round 1:46
4 Ulysses Gomez defeats Drew Bittner Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) 2nd round 1:21
5 Jorge Lopez defeats David Marshall TKO (Retirement) 2round 5:00
6 Giva Santana defeats Doug Marshall Technical Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) 1st round 0:29
7 Jussier da Silva defeats Mamoru Yamaguchi Decision (Unanimous) 3rd round 5:00
8 Eddie Yagin defeats Joe Soto Submission (Guillotine Choke) 1st round 2:00
9 Ian McCall defeeats Darrell Montague Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) 3rd round 2:15

The only regret that I have is that I wasn’t able to stay the whole time. I had another assignment so I missed Hanford’s Darrien Leal hit one over the right field fence with two runners on, giving the Bullpups a 4-2 win over Tulare Western. Please click on the pictures for a gallery of photographs from the game.

The TPF 9 results:

A few weeks ago I was asked to take pictures of Francine Giron, the starting catcher for Hanford High’s varsity girls softball team. She has played on the varsity team for three years. But it wasn’t until summer before her season that the her coach, Donnie Fagundes, found out that Francine was legally blind in her left eye, a problem that started when she was in third grade. However, this hasn’t really been a problem for her. She has played almost every position on the softball field. She has even learned to adjust her batting stance. A natural right-handed batter she switched to being a lefty because her left eye, her bad eye, was closest to the pitcher causing her to swing late.

A worker looks over solar panels at the solar farm being constructed in Avenal, California.

Sometime in March I was asked to go and take pictures of the 420-acre solar farm in Avenal to go along with a story about a second Kings County solar farm proposed to be built in Stratford. But this post isn’t about solar energy. It is about a photographer’s right to photograph anything or anyone that can be seen from a public space.

As you can see from the picture above, I took it from outside a chain link fence running along the perimeter of the farm. When I arrived at the construction site there was an office for security controlling the flow of trucks and works at the main gate. I asked to talk to a supervisor so I could get onto the property and shoot pictures of any construction. The very helpful security guard made three to five phone calls to see if had permission but it seemed like he wasn’t getting a direct answer.

So he told me that what I should do is to follow the county road along the property and take the picture from there. He then started to give me a lesson on something I already knew. The guard told me that as long as I was on a public road and I could see anything from that road I could take pictures of it. There was no expectation of privacy. The only warning he gave me was to be careful because the road was in disrepair.

Hearing this from a security guard was pretty refreshing. Usually it’s the other way around. Most rent-a-cops don’t know basic rights and laws when taking pictures in public. I’m an avid reader of Calos Miller’s Photography is Not a Crime blog and he has countless stories of photographers being harassed because security guards and even law enforcement officers are ignorant of a person’s right to photograph.

It’s good to know that there was someone who knows how to do their job.

Click on thumbnails to see larger image

The pilots of VFA-151, the “Vigilantes,” VFA-137, the “Kestrels,” and VFA-2, the “Bounty Hunters,” return to Lemoore Naval Air Station on Friday, March 18 2011 after a after a six-month deployment in the Persian Gulf near Afghanistan. I was able to follow the families of VFA-137 as they greeted their loved ones home.

Click on image to see larger picture.

A few weeks ago I had a chance to photograph Donna and Jesse’s wedding, which was held at St. Luke Catholic Church in Stockton, Ca. It had been raining pretty much everyday that week before the wedding but the sun decided to shine and help celebrate their union. With lots of friends and family around the help put the event on, the wedding had a very special feel. I’m glad that they chose to me to take part in their special day.

RB Umali: iPhone Fisheye from Already Been Done on Vimeo.

This is a pretty cool video of skateboarding filmer RB Umali showing how to use the iPhone 4 to shoot the skaters with a fisheye lens.