Mammoth Lakes Scenic Vista (Caption Help Needed)

I’ve had this and another unprocessed photo sitting on my computer for six months now because I haven’t been able to track down the name of this location. This scenic vista was taken from the waterfall bridge on the Mammoth Lakes Loop. I don’t recall the name of the bridge nor know what the valley [...]

The Journey is the Destination

Travel photography is not about F-stops, HDR or the size of camera-sensor pixels. Travel photography is about the experience. My first visit to the Eastern Sierra region was in the summer of 2004 when my friend and I took a three-day camping trip to Mono Lake / Bodie and Bishop. It was quite the trip, [...]

Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge

One of the most amazing places in California is not even located in a pretty location. However, during the winter months, the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge comes alive with hundreds of thousands of migrating Pacific Flyway birds. I visited on a December day five years ago to shoot some new slides for class and was [...]

Wade in the Water

The nice thing about all this rain we have gotten in February is that we have water in the San Gabriel Valley. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen anything other than a dry river bed. This photo shoot was a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. There was a vantage point that [...]

Bridalveil Fall Double Rainbow

Excuse the lack of blog posts lately as I have been tied up with optimizing the photos in my web galleries for faster load times. Some of the web galleries get bogged down because I was lazy when I created my site by not creating small thumbnails and just used a one-size-fits-all solution. Anyway…
I took [...]

Green Heron

I’ve had luck in the past with birds at the Fullerton Arboretum so I took the gargantuan 500mm lens out for another test run. A quick run through of the ponds revealed nothing more than common ducks and American coots until I was about to leave when two green herons flew from out of nowhere [...]

Mandarin Duck

I had only seen one mandarin duck before but didn’t get a picture of it so this has been on my trophy photo list for a while now. I didn’t expect to see one on Saturday but I caught a fleeting glimpse of it from afar when the ladies near me asked what I was [...]

Wood Duck

In preparation for my upcoming travel, I rented a Canon 500 f4 lens to see what it would be like to lug that monster around. I took it to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and headed straight to the lagoon where I knew there would be some colorful wood ducks. I found it cumbersome to [...]

Film Photography in the Digital Age

I took this photo not long after moving to San Francisco in 2002, which was also the year that I started to take photography seriously. Digital photography wasn’t that advanced back then so I was primarily shooting with Fuji Velvia. I have to admit that I miss the feeling of anticipation while opening a box [...]

Foggy Pacifica

As with the Point Reyes National Seashore post, I’m going to be posting some older images in the coming days. I didn’t have a blog back then so it should be fun to take a trip down memory lane. Anyway…
This photo was taken up the street from my apartment. I had lived at this location [...]

Point Reyes National Seashore

There was a point in my development as a photographer that I realized how lucky we are in this country to be able to pursue our passions such as landscape photography. That moment for me came to me one weekday morning at Point Reyes National Seashore six or seven years ago when I had a [...]

Mulholland Drive

If you are the “hustle & bustle” type then L.A. is probably perfect for you. As I was turning left onto Cahuenga, I intended to stop inside of the gas station but noticed this Mercedes following way too close to make it into the gas station safely so I kept going. Before you know it, [...]

Downtown Church

As I was driving down from the Santa Monica Mountains with Patty Griffin’s fantastic new album, Downtown Church, playing on my car stereo, I spotted this large cross overlooking downtown L.A. so I immediately pulled over into a ditch then used the last of my three remaining frames that I had on my memory card. [...]

Oops!… I Did It Again

This was taken on Wednesday night after another day of rain on Tuesday. I can’t keep talking about the same thing over and over again so I’ll talk equipment this time… My first few attempts at this scene were taken with a Canon 70-200mm lens on the full-frame 5D Mark II but it wasn’t enough [...]

LA Skyline Twilight

From where I live, Mount Baldy looked great. However, from L.A. not so great. The peak kept getting obscured by haze but then it peeked out just barely for a few minutes as the sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean. It was cold and windy outside, and I kept having to refresh the Yahoo [...]

Los Angeles Skyline Photo With Winter Backdrop

I am coming to the conclusion that mid-morning winter light might be as good as it gets in Los Angeles. As a landscape photographer, I am always evaluating air quality and lighting conditions in every way and time imaginable even when I’m not photographing. The morning after a storm is usually as clear as our [...]

Winter in Southern California

After a week of heavy storms that has brought big snow to the local mountains, it promises to make for some amazing photos. I’m so excited! I’m crossing my fingers to see if I can get enough clearing to get my dream L.A. skyline photo.

“The Size of the Rat”

If you have been following this blog over the past month or two, this scene has probably become a familiar sight. I have this compulsion to get this photo exactly the way I want but all the stars haven’t aligned quite right just yet. In some shots I even got the bloody red sunset light [...]

Mid-Winter Foliage in Southern California

I liked how the bare trees contrasted with some remaining “fall color” along the San Gabriel River. We don’t really have true winters here in Southern California but it is nice to photograph the seasons while in transition. The blog isn’t really a good way to view detailed images so I put up a full-resolution [...]

Mount San Jacinto State Park

I’ve always been impressed with the size of the San Jacinto Mountains rising above Palm Springs and I knew that one way to go to the State Park was via the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I was curious to see if there was another way to photograph the area so I drove toward Idyllwild. It [...]

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In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong