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

Having a job as a photographer I sometimes get to go to places I normally wouldn’t go to if I didn’t have a camera swinging around my neck. Today was was one of those times. I was working on a story about Lakeside Dairy, which is the first dairy in the Hanford area to use solar energy help power its operations. While there, I took the usual photographs of the owner beside the solar arrays.

During the course of the picture taking he mentioned that a good way to get the four acres of solar panels into the picture would be to climb one of the silage piles. I’ve climbed a lot of things in my career in order to get a better angle for a picture but a huge pile of feed for cows was a first. The mounds were covered by tarp tied down with the help of old tire sidewalls. See this repetition of circles, i knew I had an iPhone picture.

Our dog Donny has been posing for a lot of pictures the last few days. He’s becoming a real pro at mugging for the camera. The latest one of him was a portrait taken with my iPhone 4.

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:

Pictures are opportunities are every where. Even when you are cleaning the bathroom.

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.