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.

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:

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.

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.

The Shafter basketball team celebrates their win behind Hanford West's Kalia Parker after their playoff game on Thursday, Feb. 24.

For the past two weeks, boys and girls varsity basketball players experienced the highs and lows of the California Interscholastic Federation’s playoffs. When the dust settled two of the seven Kings County schools will  vie for a Central Section Division championship at Selland Arena. Kings Christian girls will play for the Division V championship against Central Valley Christian. And Hanford High girls will seeking their fourth title and first Division I championship with their match up against against Clovis East.