In Focus: Staff photos from May 4-10
The sun sets on the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier. The attraction, which has provided millions of rides since 1996, has been sold on EBay and will be disassembled and shipped to its new owner in Oklahoma. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Kobe Bryant holds his National Basketball Assn. trophy as Most Valuable Player while his teammates applaud during a ceremony before the Lakers’ game at Staples Center against the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Semifinals. (Rob Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Moorpark High School students celebrate their record-setting victory in the National High School Academic Decathlon, held in Garden Grove. The team’s score was the highest in the 26-year history of the national academic competition. This year’s theme was the Civil War, for which team members prepared by studying seven hours a day, six days a week since September. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Eight times the size of San Francisco, the Tejon Ranch property in Los Angeles and Kern counties embraces the juncture of four ecosystems: the Mojave Desert grasslands, San Joaquin Valley oak woodlands, Tehachapi pine forests and coastal mountain ranges. Ending years of debate, conservationists and developers have approved a conservation plan for Tejon Ranch that would put 26,000 houses in wilderness. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Oscar De La Hoya, right, who landed about 100 more blows than Steve Forbes, connects during their 150-pound bout at Home Depot Center’s soccer stadium in Carson. De La Hoya, who won the match in a unanimous decision, said, “I’m a little disappointed I didn’t stop him or knock him out, but that didn’t happen; that’s the way he fights.” (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Ashlin Finley, 21 months old, shows off a flower as she spends time with parents Christopher and Johanna Finley in one of the fields they farm in the Santa Ynez Valley. The Finleys are getting into farming and selling their mix of vegetables at farmers markets. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Phillip Goold executes a cutback during the Oakley Pro Junior surf competition at the famous Lower Trestles break in San Clemente. (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)
Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Cathedral City) jumps at the sight of Sir Hoppington, her frog in the annual legislative frog-jumping competition at the state Capitol. (Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times)
Sean Rosenthal, left, and Jake Gibb celebrate beating John Hyden and Brad Keenan in the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ men’s title match at the 2008 AVP Crocs Tour Gold Crown Championships in Huntington Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Fans smooch between stages at dusk during the three-day Stagecoach Music Festival at the Empire Polo Field in Indio. The lineup featured not only George Jones, Tim McGraw, Earl Scruggs and Carrie Underwood, but an 8-year-old fiddle player and singers in their 80s. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)