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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Los Angeles Skyline and Mount Baldy

No colorful sunset because it was cloudy on the horizon but man, what a view! I’ve wanted to see a snow-capped Mount Baldy behind the L.A. skyline for years now. Friday night had some crazy red light on Mount Baldy that would have been perfect but I was hiking in my local hills which doesn’t [...]

Southern California Rain

“Weather” is sort of a joke here in Southern California. It is generally either hot or warm year-round out here in the valley but the past week was a bit cooler from the 40’s and 50’s during the day. While cool, the at times heavy rainfall this weekend wasn’t cold enough to produce any new [...]

Los Angeles Winter Storms

I took this photo right as our previous storm was passing through. By the end of this weekend’s storms, I’m hoping that we will have a snow-capped Mount Baldy which is located directly behind the L.A. skyline but obscured by clouds in this photo. I went up yesterday morning hoping to photograph landscapes in fresh [...]

Mount Baldy Village Mountain Light

Saturday was the first time in two months that I had gone anywhere to shoot photos. I’ve been burned out from processing and submitting travel photos so I needed a break. For the time being, I’m just going to focus on landscape photography just like how I started off chasing weather and light. I like [...]

Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll

This past Sunday was pretty crazy at the Venice Beach drum circle. Almost as soon as I got there, I was offered a pipe with some weed in there presumably. After declining, an amazing photo composition happened right there in front of me with the people lighting up. It would have been portfolio-worthy I kid [...]

L.A. Traffic

I never thought I’d shoot something like this in L.A. but it was quite fun surprisingly! It is very noisy here above the Harbor Freeway as you might imagine. I’m fortunate that I brought along the 17-35mm lens because the 24-70mm lens wasn’t wide enough to capture the traffic and buildings all in the same [...]

Nature Photography Multimedia Video

Nature Photography Multimedia Video
Since giving the nature photography lecture at the Sierra Club in March, I had been looking for ways to get parts of my presentation online. It wasn’t until I picked up the Canon 5D Mark II recently that I was able to figure out how to put all of the pieces [...]

Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area

Photo of Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area With Los Angeles Skyline in the Distance. In the Field Photo Blog by Richard Wong.

Clearing Winter Storm, Mount Baldy

The San Gabriel Mountains is not really a great place to shoot wide-angle landscapes since there is so many signs of human development all around. By zooming in with a telephoto lens however I can focus on the nice areas such as Mount Baldy summit.
See more of my Mount Baldy pictures.

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In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong