Since retiring in 2007, Richard Hunter has renewed a life-long love affair with nature photography. Photography became a low priority during graduate school. Following completion of a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, photography remained on hold while Rick and Robert McIver, his friend and graduate advisor, formed IonSpec Corporation — a company that designed and manufactured high-performance mass spectrometers.

After 23 years of growth and expansion with sales around the globe, IonSpec was sold to and merged into Varian, Inc. in 2006. After completing the integration of IonSpec into Varian, Rick elected to take early retirement and revive his passion for photography.

A long-time film photographer, Rick has now embraced digital photography and has traded hours spent in the darkroom for hours with the computer "lightroom".

After a quarter century of tolerating business travel around the world and only seeing airports, hotels, and laboratories, Rick now looks forward to world travel that allows him to capture images of the incredible diversity of life forms and landscapes that our planet offers.

Rick is a pilot, enjoys bicycling, and when not searching for new photographic subjects calls Irvine, California home.