Category: - LeicaLux

Sequoia National Park...

9/3/2018

Redwood Meadows Campground... previous not a viable destination due to its lack of flush toilets and shower, is now obtainable because of the Winnebago Revel. Having the RV has opened up the world of possibilities, especially with its 4x4 drive, it'll take us to places we've not thought about before. In this way, it has contributed to my photography.

I took a lot of pictures in the Trail of 100 Giants. Mounted the WATE for its super-wide 16mm, I was able to capture the sceneries in close distance. We also visited a natural waterslide where freezing water helped us cool off our feet. A short hike to Peppermint Falls offered beautiful stream-side views and we could walk along side of it until it reaches the drop-off from one giant mountain of granite. All these not heavily advertised officially, but enough people find them to create a well marked trail. I blame the Internet :)

Too see the full set of images, [CLICK HERE].

Sunrise over Silverwood Lake...

8/5/2018

Spent the weekend camping in Silverwood Lake State Park. The over 90 degree temperature didn't inspire a lot of photo-taking :) However, I did wake up early on the last day to catch the sunrise. The black and white photo above doesn't do it justice, so here are the color ones...

Visiting Point Dume State Beach...

7/21/2018

Soft sand, aqua blue water, and a cliff for you to hike... what not to love about Point Dume?! Today was the perfect day to hit the beach with temperature around 70F. We've driven past Point Dume a few times before, and I've always wanted to check it out. So we packed up the Revel and drove about 1.5 hour with traffic to this beautiful place.

The 28'Cron is such a great lens. I've been thinking about selling it since I got the WATE, but I just can't do it. It's got a slightly more contrasty rendering and a little natural vignette. Besides cropping down to 5x7 ratio and adjust exposure, I don't really have to do much post processing.

Brown's Owens River Campground...

7/9/2018

After getting the Winnebago Revel home, I immediately started adding some small mods to make living in the RV a little bit more comfortable. For our first proper trip, we revisited the Brown's Owens River Campground near Mammoth Lakes. It was perfect timing, too, because we left LA just as a monster heat wave slammed it.

Not a lot of pictures from this trip because there was too much fun to be had. While the boys were off fishing and off-road riding, I took some time to take some arial footage from the Mavic Air.

Just a couple of miles from the campground, there was Convict Lake, which is a beautiful lake sitting at the bottom of giant mountains. We didn't spend a lot of time here since we only came here for the free RV dump station, but it's now on my list to visit for the future.

Exciting Trip Coming...

6/10/2018

Ah... tent camping... I'm going to miss you. As I mentioned before, we're putting our savings into a Class-B RV, the Winnebago Revel 4x4. We'll soon by flying out to Iowa to pick it up from the dealership and take the long way round back to California. I've already scoped out all the cool places to stop along the way, with Yellowstone National Park being our main goal.

I'll be packing the M9 with the 50'Lux and WATE, and also bringing the Mavic Air, too. I hope to capture some amazing wide open spaces and will try to upload the pictures and footages as internet connections allow. Here's a quick clip from my practice run with the Mavic Air near my house:

New Toy... Mavic Air

3/4/2018

I've been thinking of getting a drone to film some air footages when we start to travel with the RV. The recently released Mavic Air looked interesting for a beginner like me. Here's my first attempt at creating a video using royalty free background music and merging multiple clips together. This is my first time flying this thing in public, please forgive the choppy camera movements.

Aloha...

2/21/2018

It's been a few years, but we went back to visit the island of Oahu again during the President's Day / Chinese New Year weekend. Can't really say it was well planned, it was just the weekend that we're all available to take a few days off. On the day of our flight to Hawaii, the weather was forecasting to have thunderstorm storms almost all of the days that we're there. But what can we do? The trip was reserved at the end of last year, and we never visited in February before, so we didn't know the weather patterns around this time of year.

Well, the day that we landed was sunny enough. As it turned out, we only had one day of thunderstorm, and we were very thankful for that! However, not knowing how the next day was going to be, we maxed out our sun utilization, hitting Hanauma Bay and the swimming pools whenever we can.

On the day before the storm, we were treated to a dramatic sunset as we walked out to the Waikiki beach and around the marina area.

I'm amazed by the trees in Hawaii every time we're here. I just love the squiggly branches and the canopy they provide.

This was our first time staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel. It must have been the biggest hotel complex in Waikiki. This was also our first time visiting without a rental car. Because the hotel was centrally located, we only need to Uber to Hanauma Bay. The hotel offered good amenities and the view from our hotel balcony wasn't too shabby, either.

Off-roading at Miller Canyon...

11/25/2017

Old high school friends invited me and my son for a quick get-a-way at Miller Canyon OHV. Altogether, we had 2 RVs and 4 quads, 1 mini-jeep, and 2 motorcycles, and LOTS OF FUN!

I mounted the 28'Cron, not wanting to go too wide, I was able to capture most scenes as I see them. The quads kicked up lots of dust which made very dramatic images. Not good for the rest of us to breathe in, though.

Afternoon in Pasadena...

11/12/2017

Had a few hours to kill in Pasadena today... so we walk around the City Hall and checked out the once-a-month flea market. You never know what pictures you'll capture in a flea market... just have to let yourself be open to opportunities and be ready to snap.

Pirate Tower at Victoria's Beach...

10/15/2017

Okay! This was a photographic bucket-list accomplishment! I've always wanted to come and checkout this Pirate tower located south of Laguna Beach. Although high noon wasn't probably the best time to take pictures, but we just have to make do with what we got.

It was very warm day for mid-October, so we decided to take my son here. He can have fun chasing the waves, while I explored the Pirate's Tower. There weren't as much people around as summer, so that was nice. Still it was hard to take a picture of the tower without somebody standing around it.

Being in the hot noon sun, I also tried to go for some high-contrast BW shots. [CLICK HERE] to see the full album...