Babe on frozen lake

I can scratch this off my bucket list: Meet a hot chick on a frozen lake. 

Lake Mary, above Mammoth Lakes, Calif., is a beautiful lake that's frozen this time of year. Not entirely odd given Lake Mary is about about 9,000 feet above sea level. What is different is that because there hadn't been measureable snow in a month, the lake's frozen surface was clear, making it perfect for skating and venturing on foot ... and meeting up with my lovely wife, Sandi.

Our rafting trip makes TV news

I took Allie and Hanna whitewater rafting on the Kern River today and, voila, the TV news came along. 

A reporter from KGET, Channel 17, was doing a story on river safety and rode along with our Sierra South two-raft group. The reporter, using a waterproof videocamera, spent some time in one raft to get exterior shots of our boat, then jumped into ours to get an up-close look at the crazy fun. 

There are a few shots of Allie and Hanna, and one goofy up-the-nostrils shot of me paddling with about 1:10 left. While in our raft, the reporter was sitting at the front facing aft so she blindly experienced some nasty rapids and waves crashing into her back.

No one fell out of the boat involuntarily but there were several occasions on these Class 2 and 3 rapids when we came close.  

Promoting Capture Kern County

I appeared Friday on KBFX Eywitness News' morning show to promote the Capture Kern County community photo contest sponsored by The Bakersfield Californian and Tejon Ranch. 

I'm kicking myself for a lot of things I didn't say, but three-and-a-half minutes -- an eternity in TV news -- goes by very fast. 

Liberty High drumline, 2011 Central California finals

This is the Liberty High School drumline performing its show "Echoes" at the PPAACC Finals Saturday at Liberty.

The Patriots finished second in class, and earned the third highest score overall. They've worked hard over the course of the season, and this performance shows how far they've come from the video I posted earlier this year. There's some nice musicianship and visual elements throughout. 

This is my first video using a Kodak Zi8, which OfficeMax recently had on clearance for $88. I shot at the 720p (or medium) setting with the internal mike, and was surprised with the quality given the loudness drumlines can generate. The image processor struggles to keep up with slight movements, and because I shot without a tripod, there is some natural jerkiness that I tried to smoothe with software. The YouTube version of the video seems compressed vertically, meaning some students were cut out of the frame. I'll try to fix that conflict in the future but if anyone knows a quick fix, let me know. 

Liberty High drumline, 2011 show

This is the Liberty High School drumline performing March 5, 2011, at Bakersfield High School. This isn't the complete show, but it's the longest they've performed this PPAACC season. 

This was shot with my Droid, so the audio is distorted at times (drumlines can get kinda loud, you know). But there's enough dynamic range throughout the show that you can hear some of the nice touches, such as the echoes at the start.