Shrinkage on Mount Baldy

So we go from a happy birthday post for my grandmother to something as wacky as this post.

Photo: Stream Waterfall, Mount Baldy, California

There was a bunch of new snow on the local mountains today and a rare day of clean air so I continued on my quest to find a good scenic viewpoint to photograph Mount Baldy. I think I have found the location today but wasn't able to scramble up there to get to it because I noticed the spot after the sun had already gone down. But being out there today reminded me of a couple weeks ago when I went for a little trail walk near the Mt. Baldy Ski Village. It was about 40 degrees that day but no snow and little water in the creek but apparently enough for one guy to be skinny dipping in the creek! His girlfriend was fully clothed (unfortunately) and laughing at him. Thankfully for my eyesight he was covering his package with his hands as I walked by. I probably wouldn't have noticed them if it weren't for his girlfriend's loud screaming so I guess they weren't expecting to see other people up there on a weekday afternoon. Crazy.

This waterfall photo was taken not too far upstream from Mr. 40 Degree Skinny Dipper.

Happy Birthday Who!

Today is my grandmother's 80th birthday. My brother, cousins, and I call her "Who" because that means grandmother on my mother's side of the family in our family's dialect of Cantonese. She has never used a computer but she deserves recognition on my website because without her there would be no rwongphoto.com website.

She didn't want one this year so this is last years birthday cake.

She was born in Boston, Massachusetts and moved to China with her family after a couple years but was forced to flee the country back to Boston during World War II when the Japanese military invaded the Chinese countryside. She remained in Boston until the early 1950's when she married my grandpa. He lived in Pasadena, California so she moved out here to live with him after their cross-country honeymoon. She has lived in Pasadena ever since and that is where I spent most of my childhood with my cousins. My grandfather passed away right before Christmas in 1997 and two days after I got my driver's license. He was very happy and I wished I had an opportunity to drive him as a licensed driver but I did drive him a few times when I had a permit. So here we are a little more than nine years later and my grandmother is still going strong. I hope I can have that type of health when I get up there in age.

With or without Google, the photography carries on.

As I wrote a few posts ago, Google has some serious issues. My images were mysteriously dropped from Google Images earlier this month after I submitted a new computer generated xml sitemap. Previously I sent in hand-typed text maps. I still haven't made it back on there. Very lame considering that this is a photography website. Thankfully there are other search engines hot on Google's tail. Here are some of the more interesting searches that I have had this month so far.

"Richard Wong" - Who on earth would be looking me up 16 times on Yahoo? Hopefully photo editors, art directors and my future wife (Carrie Underwood, Reese Witherspoon, Hilarie Burton, a camera-wielding goddess or whoever). :-)

"How to obtain Peyton Manning's autograph?" - This one stems from the posting I wrote last summer about how I was photographing right next to the Colts quarterback in the NHRA pit crew VIP area in Indianapolis and some dude asked me to get his autograph for him as I was leaving. I declined. Whoever was searching for that info must have been disappointed when he found my blog.

"How much money does a scenic photographer get in a year?" - Not that much. Probably none eventually if clueless photographers keep giving their rights away for free and "selling" for pennies on microstock websites.

"Outside waterfall wedding ceremony in Dubuque Iowa" - Um ok.

"Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Picture and Info" - Picture: Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Portrait at the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas

Info: Dwight David Eisenhower was born in 1890 in Dennison, Texas and died in 1969. Was the first Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces (NATO) during World War II in Europe, and served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. Eisenhower, his wife and son are all entombed in the chapel of his presidential library museum complex.

BTW. Thanks for that search as it's given me an idea for my website. Maybe I'll put up a page of search queries and the pictures for the ones that aren't on my regular website galleries and will lure in future clients as a result.

The other day I wrote this long diatribe message to Google supported by ample evidence to their re-inclusion index. They expect you to click this box and consent to some wrongdoing of sorts in order to write to them so I clicked it because I had no other choice then promptly denied any wrongdoings and put it right back on them since they seem to like playing power trip games with people. Don't get me wrong. I like how innovative their company is when it comes to technology but their search engine is the most flawed search engine out there. A lot of great sites out there aren't coming up high enough of the results if at all. Unfortunately it is also the most popular search engine. So much so that the term "Google" is now in the dictionary and synonymous with searches.

The #8 Most Popular Stock Photographer Website

On photographer Ron Niebrugge's blog yesterday he pointed out a list from the Alexa web traffic ranking site that ranked the top ten most popular stock photographer websites. He was ranked #2. The list also had my website, Two-Lane Road Photography by Richard Wong ranked #8! I was pleasantly surprised and humbled to see my name up there. Thank you to everyone that has visited my site and has read my blog, I hope you continue visiting as I plan to keep documenting my travel adventures on this site for many years to come.

Click on the graphic to see the full-sized screen capture.

As always, photos on my website and blog are available for rights-managed image licensing for publications by filling out this form or emailing me for a specific image request submission.

Las Vegas Photos Found at Last!

Photo Caption: Arc de Triomphe and Paris Water Fountains, Las Vegas, Nevada

If you read my blog in December, you probably know that I lost half of my Las Vegas trip photos due to a portable Image Tank flash drive failure. So last week I decided to power up the hard drive again. Same result. But I did notice that I had 3 gigabytes worth of photos on there so I thought maybe that if I stuck a 4 gigabyte compact flash card into the drive that maybe I could upload the files onto the card since my computers won't recognize the hard drive as a drive anymore. So I went to Fry's Electronics and got the cheapest 4gb card there to try it out. It took most of the day to upload the files onto the card because the card was very slow but it worked! The files aren't corrupted either. I was beyond excited.

I have learned my lesson as a result of this debacle. It's better to buy the best equipment instead of trying to be cheap. Or better yet, don't buy anything if you can't afford reliable gear. The Epson P-4000 portable photo drive would probably be a much more reliable option than using an Image Tank; plus the large LCD playback screen. Hence the much heftier price tag.

Hopefully I'll have another opportunity to photograph Las Vegas this year. I was mostly limited to indoor pictures due to the overcast, cold rainy weather during our December trip.

I recently added a new gallery of Las Vegas and gaming photos on my website.

On a Las Vegas business-related note: I was just looking through Creative Hotlist at their job listings section and read that panoramic photographer, Peter Lik is looking to hire a $60,000 "Creative Director" someone who will help them develop a marketing program for their new exotic furniture products. Lik seems like a nice dude from the one-time that I met him in San Francisco, but exotic furniture? If you don't already know, Peter Lik has several retail galleries in heavily trafficked tourist locations in the U.S. and Australia dedicated to selling his panoramic photography fine art prints. Four of which are in adjacent casinos on the Las Vegas Strip!

I don't know how much he sells but I would imagine that he is quite successful since he has so many galleries. The few other photographers who own their own galleries such as Tom Mangelsen and Galen Rowell sell hundreds if not thousands of fine art prints so I'm sure Peter Lik is up there with them considering where his galleries are located. So it struck me as quite odd that he is branching out into the exotic furniture industry. Who knows, maybe collecting furniture has always been a side hobby of his? :-) But hey, you gotta give credit where credit is due if he can make it work especially in today's competitive world of photography.

3-7-07 P.S.: On a business profiling website, it said that the Peter Lik, Inc. grossed over $6,000,000 in revenue while Galen Rowell's Mountain Light Photography grossed over $500,000 I believe. I don't know how accurate or current that information is but one thing that I can guarantee you is that Peter Lik has a lot more overhead costs to deal with than Mountain Light for sure.

The O.C.

Photo: Laguna Beach Coastline Including Heisler Park, Laguna Beach, California

Yesterday I went to Laguna Beach to shoot a -1.2 foot tide. On California coastal beaches I have seen everything from whales to half-eaten seals to crustaceans, but one thing I have not seen is an octopus. And the search continues. Despite my failures, I've never been disappointed with a tide pool. The beach I went to yesterday is nicknamed "Mussel Shell Beach" by some locals.

A couple sleeper waves almost took me out to sea with the outgoing tide, and I did capture those on my camera. Perhaps captured a little too much of it... I blew those shots due to overexposure of the backlit sun so I can't show them here.

In this picture is the Laguna Beach coastline with the popular Heisler Park where those palm trees are in the middle of the photo. A few minutes before I shot this I saw a pretty blonde girl with a very tiny red and white bikini screaming while running out into the tide. It was a cold and dreary day yesterday with the storm passing by so I haven't a clue why she was out there in a bikini but I'm not one to complain about that. :-) I contemplated pulling out the telephoto lens for her but I thought better of it. In a place like Laguna, I might get mistaken for a paparazzi and that's not the reputation I want.

I decided to post this picture because I watch the once-popular tv show, The O.C. whenever I can. The series is going off the air in a few weeks so I'm going to need my own fill of Orange County scenic coastline footage to make up for that!

Photo Tips:
1. Keep your eye out for the waves. There is powerful wave action going on at this beach.
2. Bring a lens cloth. It's more effective to wipe off your filters with a lens cloth than a shirt.
3. Bring a long telephoto. You can see seals and birds on Seal Rock just off shore. I have a 300mm and that wasn't quite enough.