People went pretty crazy with the yellow chalk on LiveStrong Alley in Old Town Clovis for the fourth stage of the Amgen Tour of California. The street, otherwise known as Pollasky Avenue and would serve as the final stretch for the riders, was completely covered with messages, mostly in praise of Lance Armstrong, as cycling fans killed time waiting hours for the riders to arrive. When they finally did the build up of chalk was so heavy, it caused an enormous yellow cloud as the speeding cyclists tore down the street to the finish line. You almost couldn't see the rest of the field when Mark Cavendish pumped his fist in victory. Might want to go with crayon next time.

One of my favorite streets in the Valley is 21st Avenue in Kingsburg. The little residential street is lined with giant camphor trees pushing the curbs and sidewalks up and towering over the street creating a canopy in front of rows of stately old homes. There's just something very homey and quaint about that street. It makes me wonder what it must be like to have been a kid growing up there.

Being a newspaper photographer has its perks. The main one being you get to see a lot of stuff that most people don't get to see. On Sunday I was treated to not only a special place, but a special sound. Scott Horton, the music director and organist at First Congregation Church of Fresno permitted me enter the upper access ways to view the pipes of the church's casavant pipe organ in the main sanctuary. It was a beautiful instrument with an even more beautiful sound. Horton demonstrated by playing J.S. Bach's Toccato - you know, the Phantom of the Opera music, which was outstanding. The floors actually rumbled. I see why now the organ is sought out by many performing arts groups. The 1967 organ is, however, in need of some restoration work and the church is reaching out for financial help. To read more about it the church has a special website for the project. There's some audio of the organ on the site too.

More pictures after the jump.

I'm really drawn to old barns. There's something stately about them and how they offer a bit of a window to the past. They almost feel alive with history. I even worked on a photo essay one time on old barns. So naturally I hit the breaks when I saw these kids playing basketball in front of a 100-year-old barn in west Fresno. You just have to wonder if the man or men who built that old barn could ever imagine the cars and homes and people that now surround it.

It was "Move that bus!" day for the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition project on Robinson Avenue today. I camped out in a tiny local media area with photographer Eric Zamora for about five hours as we waited out delays and multiple takes for the show. Eric shot still for the paper while I captured video. The moment of truth for the Riojas family finally came sometime after 4pm.

This is John Littlefield, a designer with the reality TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which came to town today to start filming at a home site in central Fresno. During a break in taping, John came over to chat with the media and started checking out my buddy Perry Cooper's camera. That's when we started shooting pictures of each other. I'd like to see his shots.

The Visalia minor league baseball team has taken on a lot of different looks and names over the years, as depicted on a cement berm mural by Karla Thompson at Recreation Park. The club, which has been in existence for more than 60 years and known by such names as Cubs, Stars, Redlegs, Athletics, White Sox, Mets and Rockies, has changed once again. They are now known as the Rawhide. Even better, the park itself is taking on a whole new look. Construction had been going on through the 2008 season on a new two-story building along the right-field line to house new team offices, a team store, improved right-field seating and a hospitality lounge. The good news is the work is supposed to be completed by the time the 2009 season opens in April.

On the way back from an assignment near Pine Ridge on Sunday I stopped at the Vista Point at the top of the Four Lane to grab a shot of the Valley fog and clouds as they wrap around the foothill peaks. There was snow visible on the near peaks but not enough on the road to require chains at that point. It's a great spot for families to get to the snow fairly quickly without having to deal with a lot of road hazards.

James Hetfield and Metallica had Fresno rockin at the Save Mart Center Saturday night. See Mike Oz's review and others on his blog.

More photos after the break:

Okay, so this isn't really news, but my news assignment at Fresno City Hall fizzled so I went out to make a picture at the City's Christmas Tree. Since we already had this in the paper, I took a slightly different angle on it.

One of the great holiday traditions in Fresno is the annual Messiah Sing-Along at First Presbyterian Church downtown (website). This year marked the 31st for the event in which the audience sings Handel's famous creation and was held on November 30. Participants were asked to bring canned food items for the church's needy food program. The program was directed by Dr. Julie Carter with music performed by a professional orchestra, many of whom are members of the Fresno Philharmonic.

I've heard that the header is a very small part of soccer and some sports editors complain when all photographers give them is similar shots of players smashing their skulls into those fast-moving projectiles. Who cares? I still like this shot from Fresno State's game against Idaho at Bulldog Stadium Sunday.

This is young Erik Telen, 7, the son of slain Fresno County Sheriff's deputy Erik Telen, who was killed in the line of duty seven years ago by Ramadan Abdullah. Shelley Wiens, Telen's widow, was eight-months pregnant with Erik when her husband was killed. Seeing this moment unfold was very sad. From my lens I could see the tear start to roll down his cheek and all I could think of is how empty he must feel that his father was taken away from him before he ever got to be held in his arms. It was a tough picture to take but I thought it told the story of a family's loss better than anything else could. I hope that the community can keep the Telen family in their thoughts as they continue to cope with the senseless act that turned their lives upside down. I know I will.

PGA golfer Rocco Mediate chips out of a bunker onto the 9th green during Monday's Save Mart Shootout charity golf tournament at Riverbend Golf Tournament in Madera Monday. Rocco proved to be a crowd pleaser on his first visit to the Shootout.

Reporter George Hostetter swears he had nothing to do with this, but I found it funny that the place that he and the rest of the Fresno media ended up interviewing Charles Magill, the attorney for DUI defendant Jason Shirley, was along a basement wall at the Fresno County Courthouse that was covered with old Fresno Bee front pages. I thought he could have at least found one that had one of my photos on it.