The Historical Inland Empire

I don't like hot weather and its been pretty hot here for the past few weeks but I couldn't take being indoors anymore so I went to Riverside yesterday afternoon to photograph the California Citrus State Historic Park. My sources told me that the oranges wouldn't be ripe yet but I felt the urge to go do a scouting trip, 93 degrees and all.

I got there around 4:30 p.m. I must have went to the new part of the park because no one was there. Then I went to the developed section of the park and I saw the beginnings of a wedding party happening at the Sunkist Center and a family picnic in the park but no one wandering around the citrus groves. I'm thinking that it was either too early in the season for oranges or I arrived too late in the afternoon. Either way I didn't find anything I was passionate about shooting there. The park closes at 7 during the summer season but the sun sets around 7:30 so I think for scenics it would be best to wait til the end of September. In October the park closes at 6 so definetely September would be better for light on the landscape. I'm not sure when the oranges will start to become ripe but I imagine probably in another month or two.

Picture: Carrizo Orange Seedling (Poncirus trifoliata x citrus Sinensis citranges), California Citrus State Historic Park, California

The coolest part of CA Citrus SHP is the giant fruit stand on the street corner. It is actually the marquee for the park but I thought it was kinda cute to shoot. There is an actual fruit stand across the road that was open when I first drove in but closed by the time I got back out there to shoot the Giant Orange Fruit Stand. Next time I'll try to see if I could get some photos of the worker at the regular fruit stand.

I had never been to Riverside before other than a few band competitions at Riverside Community College when I was younger, so I wanted to check out the Mission Inn. My mom's friends went to a wedding there a few months ago and the hotel looked awesome from the snapshots I saw so I needed to go see it for myself. The architecture looks even more impressive in person but I think the only way to photograph it is to be invited to a wedding there or eat at one of the restaurants because the hotel isn't that big and most of the space is devoted to those activities. The Mission Inn is modeled after the Spanish Mission style of architecture and is a registered National Historic Landmark. I had never seen architecture quite that beautiful before. Outside of the two square blocks surrounding the Mission Inn however, downtown Riverside doesn't look too impressive.

Photo: Mission Inn, Riverside, California

There is a Mission Inn Museum adjacent to the hotel which gives daytime tours of the hotel in areas that are generally inaccessible to the public. That would probably be a nice tour to go on. A building that beautiful deserves to be seen.

Free Magnets Available

Photo Magnet: Couple About to Share a Romantic Kiss Next to Lifeguard Tower at Huntington Beach

I ordered some new business cards recently and the print company threw in a stack of photo magnets for free so now I am offering them for free as well! There is some weird faded text on the magnet for some reason but they're free so what the heck?

To get your magnet, send me a self addressed stamped envelope. Email me first though: Richard (at) rwongphoto.com

Thanks.

New Screen Saver for Sale: Colors of the Southwest

My mom's co-worker used to live up at Big Bear Lake and bought a Big Bear computer screen saver because he missed the place so much. He let me borrow the disc the other day and that gave me an idea for creating my own screensaver to sell off of my website.

Product: Colors of the Southwest Computer Screensaver

This "Ken Burns" cinematic-style screensaver features 25 beautiful southwestern images from Arizona, California and New Mexico set to the seductive rhythms of latin music. Most of the images on the cd can be found on my "Colors of the Southwest" photo gallery. The price is $9.99 + $1 shipping and handling. Previous clients and friends can get the cd for the discounted rate of $4.99 + $1 s+h. I accept credit cards for payments through my website.

Click on the photo to access the product page.

Thanks.


Added 8/23/07: Product test research done by Ron Niebrugge has prompted me to include screensaver installation instructions with the disc. Users with a dual monitor setup and Mac operating systems will be the next technical support topics that I will attempt to address.

China Camp State Park Then and Now

Photo: Old Historic Shrimp Fishing Village and Female Sunbather, China Camp State Park, California

Clearly I prefer color photography but there are certain situations where color can be a distraction. For this image of the last remaining Chinese shrimp fishing village in the San Francisco Bay Area, I wanted to juxtapose the historical aspects of the China Camp fishing village with the modern day site being used as a recreational park.

The best way of converting color images to black and white is quite easy. All you have to do is open the photo in Photoshop and use the "Channel Mixer" adjustment layer then check the "Monochrome" button. The image will turn black and white with the slider at 100% Red, 0% Green, and 0% Blue. Those values correspond to the type of B&W filter that you would use if you were shooting it on film. Each image responds differently to the color values so you should experiment with the sliders. The important thing is to make sure those three slider values add up to about 100% when you are done.

For this image, I used 100% red to simulate the Red B&W filter effect. What this does is create a stark black sky where there was originally blue, and accentuate the high contrast on anything else of a lighter color. Ansel Adams used this filter often and very effectively for his most famous images. Of more subtle detail is the female sunbather being juxtaposed in color. I just masked the channel mixer layer out of the area around the woman.

To see a bigger photo, click here.

San Diego Spanish Art Village

Picture: Table and Chairs at Balboa Park Spanish Art Village, San Diego, California

On Saturday I went to San Diego to shoot the Spanish Art Village and Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. I got off to a late start however and got stuck in a stop and go traffic from Irvine to La Jolla. That was very frustrating but since traffic is a way of life these days in Southern California you just deal with it.

I wanted to shoot some more of the colorful southwestern type of subject matter so I thought the Spanish Art Village might make for a good shoot. I'll try to go early in the morning before the galleries open next time because the colorful doors will be closed and no tourists will be creeping into my pictures. I think diffused lighting would lend itself very well to this place.

Some tourist lady got on my nerves as I was shooting pictures of a colorful door. I noticed that she was hanging around my vicinity and looking at me for quite some time so I made eye contact with her. She asked me what I was shooting so I mentioned the door looked pretty cool. She started laughing condescendingly and said, "ookay." Some people just don't know when to keep to themselves...

Immediately after that incident I recalled that Galen Rowell used to always preach about how important it is to learn how to see the way your camera sees things rather than how you think it looks. By not doing so, you're likely to always be disappointed that your photos never come out the way you intend. That lady clearly has clearly never reached that level of seeing and probably never will. If she understood how photography works then she wouldn't have been questioning the validity of what I was doing.

After the Spanish Art Village, I went to Old Town San Diego. I had driven through a few times but never had walked around there so I thought maybe it would be like Olvera Street. There was only a little bit of mexican culture there but the state historic park was quite interesting. It reminded a bit like Old Town Sacramento because it in a wild west type of setting. I had to rush my way through there though and treat it like a scouting trip however because the shops were about to close as I was walking around. In particular, I thought the cigar shop had a lot of photographic potential and took some pictures in there. Next time I'll be sure to do that place some justice.

After dinner I noticed some nice looking victorians at Heritage Park as I was driving off so I'll have to go back another time. I wanted to shoot the San Diego city skyline at Coronado Island but noticed that it was overcast along the coast. My map indicated that there was a toll to cross the Coronado bridge so I didn't feel it was worth it considering that it was overcast. I ended up driving to Shelter Island instead which was located nearby. It was alright but a bit too far from downtown to get a strong photo of the skyline. I took some pictures and thought of driving back towards home in hopes of catching some sun in La Jolla or Carlsbad but it was more of the same until it was dark outside.

The War on Photographers

Last year, Popular Photography Magazine published a well-written article on the subject of photographers being harassed by the authorities since 9/11. If you've read my blog for some time then you probably know my experiences and opinions regarding this.

Here is the link: "The War on Photographers"

Freelancing is like Wine and Roses

I lied. While the majority of folks who have regular day jobs might long for the independence of having a freelancer's lifestyle, not having a steady stream of income is like having invisible handcuffs. Freedom is a relative concept. For a realistic look into how difficult on a family it can be to earn a living as a freelancer, check out these forum threads at Lightstalkers.

How do you pay the bills?

Bye bye Photography, Looks like I'm out.

In my opinion, I think that teaching at the college level is the best financial compromise for a traveling photographer. It allows you to have ample free time to pursue your professional endeavors while earning a predictable paycheck with job benefits such as health insurance. This might be a career path that I'd like to pursue eventually. I'm sure the competition is fierce for these teaching jobs because there's probably several thousand other photographers thinking the same thing.

San Francisco Coast Guard Pier

Photo: Coast Guard Pier, San Francisco, California

When there is an image that has a strong center of attention, I find that it can be beneficial to add some vignetting around the edges to help draw the eyes toward that subject instead of drifting off to the corners of the frame. In this particular image, I have a foggy sky that isn't as interesting as the main subject matter so in order to de-emphasize the sky, I added a bit of vignetting. I used the PTLens software to accomplish this but I'm sure there are other simple ways of accomplishing this effect as well.

ColorMakesFlowers.com Website Launch

My mom's custom floral arranging and craft design website has partially launched. I created two gallery pages yesterday and added the About Page. I finally got around to photographing her work the past few days and will be adding more to the website shortly.

Feel free to take a look at the website: Color Makes Flowers: Fresh Custom Floral Arrangements & Silk Flower Design Arranging

The site is a little more "feminine" than my own website.

Graduation Day Floral Arrangement: ColorMakesFlowers.com