In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong

Photography field reports by Richard Wong. Richard’s work has been published in magazines, books, advertising, and offers fine art prints of his work. Images may be licensed as rights-managed stock photos by contacting Richard directly at Richard@rwongphoto.com or (626) 422-6151. California stock photography, fine art prints, photo blog: www.rwongphoto.com

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 [...]

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 [...]

American White Pelicans

30% of the world’s remaining population of American White Pelican live off of the Salton Sea. It is not just fish that are impacted by the increasing salinity of the lake but an entire ecosystem is at risk.

Photo Editing

Most photographers always talk about their “vision” and how they shot such and such. However, the in-camera aspect is only the first step toward realizing a vision. There was an old cliche among photographers that the only difference between pros and hobbyists were that pros took a lot more bad photos. There is some truth [...]

Goodbye San Francisco

Monday morning rolled around and the weather in the San Francisco Bay was essentially the same as it had been since Friday afternoon. What I found strange about my moodiness on Sunday was that I loved the weather when I lived up there. But now that I was up there specifically for a photography trip, [...]

You either “get it” or you don’t.

“I have stagnated as far as image quality goes, now that I am in year 3 looking through the viewfinder (year 33 as a birder). I am a bird shooter, so take what you will. This is in two areas, particularly, that are almost completely unrelated. One is sharpness, and one is making an image [...]

The Faceless Birds of La Jolla Cove

Photo: Brown Pelican Head Throw (Pelicanus occidentalis), La Jolla Cove, California
I had been wanting to go back to the La Jolla Cove for quite a while now to photograph a brown pelican headthrow. My last visit to La Jolla was probably a year and a half ago. I didn’t have much time that day [...]

The Beginning of Life

Picture: American Coot (Fulica americana) Feeding Baby Chicks, Orange County, California
I had never seen anything like this before yesterday. Judging from the bald heads, I would say that these baby American Coot chicks were probably born yesterday or the day before. Man. I am getting really sleepy right now after lunch, but I have [...]

Snapshot Adventure

The other day on his blog, Gary Crabbe posted a link to a Superman Returns online photography game where you try to make it onto the front pages of various newspapers. It was fun. My high score was a 112. My brother, Eric on the other hand annilhilated me though with a 147, 146 and [...]

A Sad Day for Nature Photography

Photo: Contrails in Sunset Sky While Ducks Swim up to Urban Runoff Storm Drain that Empties into Upper Newport Bay, Newport Beach, California
The Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve is one of the largest remaining coastal wetlands in the Southern California. Critical bird habitat such as the Back Bay has been eroding at a rapid [...]

I’ll Stand by You

I just finished watching today’s episode of American Idol “Gives Back”. There was a video of Carrie Underwood singing an acoustic version of The Pretenders, “I’ll Stand by You” to a group of African children. I obviously have a crush on Carrie and she has the most amazing voice so I had to purchase it [...]

A Day in the Life of a Baby Wood Duck

My new addiction to bird photography is growing. What I am posting here pretty much sums up why I find this type of photography to be so exciting. I took these over the course of three hours at the Cal State Fullerton University Arboretum on Thursday afternoon.
Picture: Baby Wood Duck Chick (Aix sponsa) With [...]

Birds As Savages

My birding skills are mediocre at best, but I do have somewhat of an addiction to bird photography. I’m not really interested in shooting traditional bird portraits though. While I do shoot some for stock photography, many people can do those much better than I can with much better equipment that I can afford. What [...]

Birder’s World

In the past few days I have gone to the Los Angeles County Arboretum several times to photograph the Indian Blue Peacocks Pavo crisatus. Their courtship ritual is unlike anything else I have ever seen. The males (peacock) have the colorful feathers and raise them to try wooing the females (peahen). They get a bit [...]

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