Tufted Puffins

Ron was generous enough to let all of us take turns on this scene halfway up the rocky cliffside with his 600mm f4 + 2x TC. With the 1.6x crop sensor of the Canon 7D camera body I was using the focal length was equivalent to 1920mm in focal length! According to my EXIF data, [...]

Horned Puffin

On the morning of our 2nd day, Jenny and Drew took us on a short boat ride over to see the historic Snug Harbor Cannery and then to an island frequented by horned puffins and tufted puffins. The ride was pretty nice as you could see countless waterfalls flowing down into Cook Inlet from the [...]

Bald Eagle – Yellowstone

One of the things I love about Yellowstone is that you can drive less than five miles and photograph a wide variety of wildlife. Shortly after photographing the elk, I saw this bald eagle perched in the tree. I had only seen a bald eagle in passing roadside near the Salton Sea so this was [...]

Canon Trick: Teleconverter

As mentioned in the previous blog post, certain Canon lenses do not autofocus with the 1.4x teleconverter on crop sensor cameras. There is a simple trick to get around this issue however. Just simply tape over the three closest pins to the left of the red lens mount dot.
The Canon 400mm f5.6 lens essentially now [...]

Another Pretty Picture

I have nothing deep to add other than I just wanted to share another pretty picture taken on the Canon 400mm f5.6 lens.
See more of my bird pictures.

Canon 400mm F5.6

I received a Canon 400mm f5.6 lens this week and went to test it out locally at the Los Angeles County Arboretum. I previously blogged about renting the Canon 500mm f4.0 lens and testing it out on wood ducks at the L.A. County Arboretum but not liking the bulk of that lens so that led [...]

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 [...]

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In the Field: Photo Blog by Richard Wong