Spring, when everything is starting
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The fun part. Rides, hikes and foraging, a decade of flying, and the things I make, real and imagined.
The newsstand
All 10 magazines →The Field Notes as made-up magazines: real stories, each dressed as a feature.
Field Notes
Rides, hikes and foraging walks in the high desert and the Sierra, written up by Christian Gehrke and told as short episodes by a narrator who came along.
Hike · Sun, Oct 18, 2026
A dog on a boulder and three stones on a post
Christian, Helena and Marley spend a bright Sunday morning at Whale Beach on the east shore of Lake Tahoe: a view through the pines, magnetic sand in a ring on a phone wallet, carnelians left where they lay, one very dense stone that isn't a carnelian at all, Marley chasing her ball and posing on a granite boulder, and Helena making a leaning boulder look easy on the way back.
Ride · Sat, Oct 17, 2026
Two lakes and a corral
Christian, Helena and Marley spent October 17 at the Highland Lakes above Bear Valley: about nine miles of riding with roughly twelve hundred feet of climbing, a pass through a horse corral on the way in, drone views over both Upper and Lower Highland Lake, and a day by the water with the hammock up.
Showcase · Fri, Oct 16, 2026
Color in a Jar: The West
Color in a Jar: The West is the first volume of Christian's AI-made coloring book, where every page holds a small world inside a jar. This Note walks through ten of those worlds, from an oasis and a peach orchard to the deep sea and the polar jar, each shown in color, in black and white, and in a companion scene with GlazyArray, Starlee and A.L.T.A. The book is on Amazon in print and digital, with Volume Two on the way.
Adventure · Thu, Oct 15, 2026
Echoes of McKinney: sending A.L.T.A. to the bottom of the lake
Christian and an AI built a side quest for A.L.T.A., the Ancient Lake Tahoe Automaton: a mission log that dives to the debris field of the McKinney Bay landslide, a real lake-wide collapse tens of thousands of years ago. It is told with AI-made charts, looping video and a look at the wave reaching Sand Harbor, and A.L.T.A. narrates it herself.
Showcase · Thu, Oct 15, 2026
Coffee, All the Way Down
Christian's AI-generated coffee coloring book, Color In Coffee: Vol. 1, published May 13, 2026 and on Amazon: cafés, whole cities inside cups, a train platform, drying beds and wild Arabica beans. Black-and-white pages are shown beside AI-colored versions, with AI clips of GlazyArray, A.L.T.A. and Starlee coloring along, one in an Incline Village café by the lake.
Hike · Mon, Oct 12, 2026
An Owl Trying to Take a Nap
A Long-eared Owl tried to sleep through an October day while jays kept mobbing it. Christian shooed them off twice, took a few photos and clips, and left the owl to its nap.
Mini-Cast · Mon, Oct 12, 2026
Starlee Has Something to Say
She talks now. RIVETING TONE sits down with Starlee, the robot companion dog built after the real Marley, who's about to start her own podcast to get real dogs adopted: each guest is a robot version of a real dog looking for a home.
Ride · Sat, Oct 10, 2026
Gold on the doubletrack
A late-morning return to the Marlette Lake trail from Spooner Lake Trailhead, now that it's open again: Christian rode with Marley, Helena walked with Sofi, and the aspens were at full gold. About seven miles, with more time stopped for the trees than riding.
Mini-Cast · Fri, Oct 9, 2026
A.L.T.A., the Ancient Lake Tahoe Automaton
On October 9 Christian came up with A.L.T.A., the Ancient Lake Tahoe Automaton: a copper-and-bronze mechanical mermaid built to help protect our waters and teach kids water safety. She's a potential new narrator for the show and will help local pools with water-safety lessons. He made a character description, a turnaround, a mouth chart, a still at the glass and a set of short clips of her moving.
Mini-Cast · Fri, Oct 9, 2026
We Took the Tumble Time Machine for a Spin
A brass cockpit, nine browsers under glass, a porthole full of bubbles and a dial that goes to 88. Our test pilot took Christian Gehrke's web time machine for a spin, and came back with different hair.
Mini-Cast · Thu, Oct 8, 2026
GlazyArray Will See You Now
She narrates every Field Note, wears a different hat for every holiday, and has never once been late to a rest pose. RIVETING TONE spends an evening at the Workshop with the brass voice of the Field Notes.
Mini-Cast · Tue, Oct 6, 2026
The narrator gets a face
A case study of GlazyArray, the Field Notes narrator, becoming a little brass robot in every Listen bar: a talking head, hands from one video, cheeky hints to press play, and fourteen looks.
Mini-Cast · Tue, Oct 6, 2026
Three exposures, one photo
A case study of the Studio's HDR merge, tested on twelve real drone shots: four brackets of three exposures become four photos, with the sky and the shadows both kept.
Mini-Cast · Tue, Oct 6, 2026
The whole machine
The capstone: how the lake, the Parts Catalog, the Workshop, the Studio and ProPre fit together as one machine, told as a brass automaton coming to life.
Mini-Cast · Tue, Oct 6, 2026
The press in the browser
A case study of ProPre Engine, the browser tool that takes a coloring book from first prompt to print-ready cover, and the project that brought me back to web development.
Mini-Cast · Tue, Oct 6, 2026
One lake, four seasons
A case study of the main site, V2: one hand-built lake where every tab is a season, with night, weather, wildlife, a hidden beach and links that remember it all.
Mini-Cast · Tue, Oct 6, 2026
A drawer for every part
A case study of the Parts Catalog: 60 pieces of the lake scene, each running live on its own card, with 15 rigged origami creatures and a deep-sea header.
Mini-Cast · Tue, Oct 6, 2026
Teaching the bench new parts
A case study of the Workshop: a prompt builder for new parts and a tracer that turns a picture into the scene's origami format in under a second.
Mini-Cast · Mon, Oct 5, 2026
A river through the Studio
A case study of the Studio's header: a glowing river with three liquids, day and night, two small toggles, 36 clips that hand off cleanly, and a liquid that now runs through the whole page.
Hike · Sun, Oct 4, 2026
Arms wide on the Rim Trail
An early October evening hike on the Tahoe Rim Trail at Tahoe Meadows, near Chickadee Ridge, with Helena and Marley: a lake view through old snags, arms wide on a granite rock, a chickadee taking seed from Helena's hand, the Ophir Creek sign, a boardwalk at golden hour, and an orange sunset over Lake Tahoe from the car on the drive down.
Ride · Fri, Oct 2, 2026
Friday night dinner ride
A Friday evening ride out for dinner with his wife: a rainbow running through a cloud over the ridge, no bike lights, and a sunset on the way home.
Mini-Cast · Fri, Oct 2, 2026
Three scenes and a sleeping dog
A Mini-Cast about one day of building animated scenes for the site: a canyon rescue, a deep sea and a workshop at night, and how each idea led to the next.
Ride · Sat, Sep 12, 2026
Clear Creek after dark
Spooner Summit to James Lee Park on the Clear Creek Trail with his brother and nephew, visiting from Buffalo, New York, on their first ride in years. The last stretch was by bike light.
Showcase · Wed, May 13, 2026
Romaine Between the Lines
Color in a Salad: Vol. 1 is Christian's coloring book, published on Amazon on May 13, 2026 and made with his ProPre engine. Every salad comes as a pair, its ingredients on one page and the finished dish on the other, so once it's colored in it works as a cookbook.
Ride · Sat, Mar 28, 2026
Whale Beach at sunset
A sunset ride down to Whale Beach on Lake Tahoe's east shore while Helena walked down with Marley. They spent an hour on the beach, flew the drone over the whale-shaped rocks, and Marley swam the whole time.
Ride · Sat, Mar 14, 2026
Clear water in March
A short March morning on the Skunk Harbor trail at Lake Tahoe: Christian rode down to the shore and back up with Marley along, and spent most of two hours flying a drone over clear water, snowy granite and the posts of an old dock while Marley went swimming.
Ride · Sun, May 25, 2025
Through the burn
Christian rides the Corral Trail Loop from the Corral trailhead on May 24, 2025, up to the first lookout above Lake Tahoe, where he turns around. He goes from green pine forest into a burned area and ends at a creek. Marley is with him the whole way.
Ride · Thu, Sep 5, 2024
Up to Marlette
An early September morning with Marley from Spooner Lake up North Canyon to Marlette Lake, one of the last rides up there before the trails closed for two years of dam repairs.
Ride · Sat, Aug 31, 2024
A hammock above the lake
A late-August 2024 ride on the Flume Trail near Incline Village with his wife and Marley, and a stop in the pines above Lake Tahoe: a blue hammock between two trees, granite boulders, and the lake through the forest.
Ride · Sun, Jun 16, 2024
Two miles, a beetle and a swim
A short, fast June ride of about two miles down to Chimney Beach on Lake Tahoe's east shore, then an afternoon on the sand with Helena and Marley: a black beetle on a thumb, Marley on the beach, and a low shot of her swimming with a stick in very clear water.
Aerial · Sat, Mar 9, 2019
Oahu from above
A feature rather than a usual Note: a collage of Christian's favorite drone footage from his years living on Oahu, from the Mokes and Lanikai on the east side to manta rays off the North Shore, with a little about the island.
Aerial · Tue, Jul 10, 2018
Above Ireland
A montage of footage gathered over the years in Ireland, where Christian lived for nine years: drone flights over the turquoise coast near Ards Friary, the hills and cliffs of Donegal, Grianán of Aileach and Kerry, plus iPhone clips of the puffins on Skellig Michael and of the fort on a recent trip back, after drones were banned there.
Daily Dose of Paradise
Short videos from real mornings, trails and lake days around the Carson Valley and Lake Tahoe, usually with Marley.
From Above Real photographs
Nearly a decade of flying, from Oʻahu's reefs to the Donegal coast. Real photographs, shot as an FAA Part 107 certified drone pilot since 2018.
Daydreams Made with AI
Ideas that only exist as pictures, so far. Made with AI: Google Flow, OpenArt, Veo and Seedance, depending on the piece.
Carnelian Concepts25, real and imaginedTwo halves. The real stones, found a little at a time and lit from below, and the AI daydreams they set off: fire armor, glowing kitchens, carnelian headphones.
Fake Tahoe10Lake Tahoe as a tilt-shift model railway: tiny boats, tiny beaches, all of it made with AI.
Under the Surface16Each scene is a famous film, under water. Can you name them?
Marley and Me12Marley, the dog from the lake scene, and Christian on adventures neither of them has actually been on.
E-Bike Expedition Concepts9Camper trailers sized for an e-bike, for nights out a long way from the car.
Illuminated Desk Topper8A lit onyx top for a standing desk: the light-jar idea at furniture size, worked out as a concept with build drawings.
Terrarium Head Newts9Newts with tiny gardens growing in glass domes on their heads.
Autoped Scooter, 19158The 1915 Autoped was one of the first motor scooters. These are AI re-imaginings of it in use, not archive photographs.
Reno, 188211One 1882 photograph of Virginia Street and Second Street, and AI renders built from it: the same street from other angles, and the people in it, to see what they saw.
Action Grandpa12Made for my stepdad, who loves every one of these and posts them himself.
Mega T2 VW Van10A lifted 1970s VW camper built for a friend in London. He laughed, which was the point.
Wave Riders11Over-under shots of surfers and paddlers, every one of them AI. Keep Tahoe Blue is the League to Save Lake Tahoe's motto.
Silly Boats12Things that should not float, floating.
Taco Time12Tacos in places tacos should not be: Lake Tahoe, a zen garden, a tsunami.