I have a loooooot of shoots to go through before I can get to any of my personal fun stuff, but here's a video from Breakin for Haiti over the weekend. My favorite battle of the night... Knuckle Movement vs Monkee Movement!



I'll put pictures up from that night later in the week. Enjoy! << MORE >>

I originally wanted to just have a collection of black & white photos of b-boys doing freezes, but I know not everyone is emo like me, so I did some color shots for my beautiful b-boy models!  I'll have another entry later for the black & white shots, so enjoy these color ones for now


Rybonix from Misguided Steps/20th Century Boyz


Ugly Duk from Dance Broomz Crew


Juan-o from Dance Broomz Crew


Juan-o


Ugly Duk


Rybonix


Whimsical elf


Jump!


SPLAT






Those were The CHIN poses








Elbow! That looks really painful


THE LIGHT IS SPEAKING TO YOU


..because this is good for your eyes, right?


Obviously it's not good for you to stare directly at the flash. What's going on here?


Juan doesn't even know


Descending


Keepin it gangstaaaa

Well that's it!  Stay tuned for my next entry - the black & white shots!  I'd like to have a whole series of them, so if you're a b-boy or b-girl and you're reading this and would like some new pictures, feel free to contact me!  Unless you're a creeper, then sorry in advance, I will ignore you. Sadly, this is the end. I'm not quite sure how I should end this entry.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here:













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Tet in Seattle Festival 2010. Well I got there at 4:20pm-ish but good thing the performances were running a little late so I didn't miss T.O.P.'s. Here's their performance that I recorded:



Also Thai Nguyen fashion show:



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Ok so I decided to break this up into three parts since I took too many pictures for one entry.  If I add anymore pictures to my previous entry, my blog, your computer, and the whole internet will explode.




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Sea of humanity

Click on "MORE" to view the full entry.
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This is entry is huuuuuuuge.  I shot over 400 pictures so you better be prepared and have a fast internet connection!



I know, this was a month ago.  I've been busy the past month and I shot waaaay too many pictures from this night.  It's just so looooong to go through each picture, convert it to jpg, resize, then add my watermark on. 

Plus, there was another delay.... I think someone HACKED into my blog yesterday and messed up this entry.  I was about one third of the way done with this, saved it, left it unpublished, and went to bed.  Next morning when I got to work, I checked my blog again, everything was fine.  Fast forward to the end of the day, I go home, open up my blog to finish it... and all the links to my pictures were messed with.. the links to all my pictures were broken and almost all of them got deleted!  All my text summarizing everything got deleted (am I that boring to read?  I'll type less for this entry and just show pictures...).  Extra html codes got added in too.. so strange.  I'd like to think my website/blog was just broken.. so hmm let's assume so and no one had bad intentions.  Well, here I am starting all over again :\

I hate typing up all this html *kicks*


Anyhoo, I went to NW Sweet 16 with Caroline the driver, Mr. Retired B-boy Jake, and Dre & Mike the kung fu masters.  Also, Dre's friend Hiep was in the Sweet 16!

Now continue on for a buttload of pictures!

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I started doing photo shoots again after a loooong hiatus and saying I'm quitting fashion photography.  Sometimes I can't resist it!  I got into it again after seeing news about the tragedy in Haiti being posted everywhere.  It's too depressing to not do anything about it, so I started taking a few gigs and donating the money I made from them.  Unfortunately, I don't post up photos from personal/private paid gigs but here is ONE.  I thought she was too gorgeous to not use in my portfolio, but of course I got her permission first!



This was taken at Heaven Night Club in Pioneer Square a week before Valentine's Day.  It was a ladies night out event where they come in to get glammed up by a team of hair stylists, makeup artist, and stylists, for a pin-up type of photo shoot shot by me!  It was a busy but fun night!

Another shoot I did was with Will from Mode Modeling Agency and clothes from DELI Seattle.  This was also my first in studio shoot with a model.  I was nervous and afraid I'd fail miserably.. no clue on how a studio set up should be.  I still don't know the proper way of lighting or what any of it is lol but since I've been drawing since I was 3, I already had a decent understanding of light so I apply it to photography.  Photographing light is easier than drawing/painting it afer all!   I'm not really a photographer.  I'm just an artist with a camera

Here's a couple of different looks with wardrobe provided by DELI:




















I hope these look fun, casual and catalogue looking because that was the look we were going for. 

If you know me, I'm not all about bright colors and happy rainbows so I wanted some shots of my own.  Time to bust out the darker look and into the black and white:





I know.  I'm such an emo.  My personal work is rather depressing isn't it?  It's like a complete 180 from shoots that I do for other people.  My art style isn't for everyone... but I don't do it to please others, it's to let a little of myself out.  No one is out there to listen, so I communicate through art.

While I was out and about a long time ago, I met a photographer named Marvin and later he added me on Facebook and sent out Facebook invites to this event called Capture the Movement which is (text taken from the event invite) an event to help raise money for R.O.O.T.S. Ministry (http://www.rootsinfo.org/), a young adults homeless shelter in the UW area that serves to men & women 18-25.  It's an art exhibit, has live performances, and 1 vs 1 bboy battle.  Art exhibit and bboy battle?!  What can get better than that??  So I went!  I brought along Caroline because she had nothing else better to do and Jake since he's a bboy and goes to this kind of stuff.

Going to this brought back memories of high school and early college days when almost everything I drew and animated were of bboys.. like so:


I can't find a bigger version of this... but I drew this in 2002-2003

This might be because of Jake since he used to be a bboy and probably also from my sister since she's friends with Massive Monkees. Bboys are the coolest boys ever!!  I think I stopped paying attention to them because of old age and work.  Sigh.  So old

It took us MANY attempts to try to get to Q Cafe.  We saw where it was, but just couldn't get to the street...



After much struggling, yay here we are!  Photo by Caroline.



Before it began.. setting up.


Me and Caroline.  Jake didn't want to be in the picture because he's so mysterious.  Why did I take a picture with my phone when I have a real camera? XD


I pulled out my phone and found free wi-fi YEAH!  Photo by Jake.



More people have emerged.


YES stuff is starting to happen!






Chase was here! He's the only other person I know from my high school that's in the game industry now yay! I didn't know he knew the random photographer I met out on the streets. Small world!




Talking and welcoming and introducing.



Lion's Ambition:































RNG





The judges - Cha Cha (AOM/Flava Squad), Tim Chips (Fraggle Rock), and Rybonix (20th Century Boyz/Misguided Steps).  I uploaded this to my Facebook so the quality isn't so great.

....AND SO THE BATTLE BEGINS.  I mostly took videos but I'm too lazy to upload them all plus I don't have a youtube account.  So you can just look at the pictures!  I only uploaded the videos I have of Chase since I know him, so too bad!



































Here I am enjoying the battle.  Photo by Jake.  His photo is the best one of the night!  I gave him my camera because my arms were hurting.











So the battle is over and Thesis won.  No surprise there since he's so godly!  I didn't get the last round on video because my battery was dying boooo but enjoy this one instead:


Sorry the video hiccuped near the end.  My finger slipped and I accidentally took pictures in the middle of recording lol

I was starving and wanted some waffles so we headed to Oasis to satisfy my craving.


mmmmm waffles, ice cream and fruit


Caroline got sweet potato fries o_O?  And since Jake has an eating disorder, all he got was a slush psssh.  This was a good way to end the night.  FOOD ;D

I was handed like four on those fliers for the NW Sweet 16 the next weekend so I thought why not!  Next post will be pictures from that... which will probably be in another week since I'm slow teeeeeheeeee~

I stole got permission from Jake to use these.  Jake and Caroline usually accompany me to my shoots since I'm kind of tiny and weak and can't carry my own gear around by myself.   I just need some helping hands to hold my light stands in case my umbrellas catch some wind and tip over a railing and fling my flash down a flight of concrete stairs like so:


lol... such a sad day.  Since Jake is such a Macgyver, he ordered some parts online and reattached all those colorful pretty wires and shoe mount back together for the 580ex II to work again!!  Kind of.  The bulb also got busted from the fall and there was no way to fix that except from Canon.  Boo!  My poor 480ex never got cosmetically fixed.   It still works.. its pretty little red face just fell off and I never put it back on.  Actually, now that I think about it.. where did it go?!

So three weeks after I decided I wanted to try to get into fashion photography, I was invited to shoot at a fashion show called Lux5 which is a luxury event with fancy clothes and flashy cars.  I honestly never thought I'd actually get a chance to go to one so it was exciting!  I was given this great opportunity by Ursula Mayes, who's been on major magazines like Maxim, Vogue, and is also suitcase model #5 on Deal or No Deal.




Before the show started. 

I had to duck under arms to be able to shoot anything and made me bummed out.  It was my first fashion show and as expected... my pictures didn't turn out so well.  My own fault!  Live and learn!







Here's a picture that Jake took (thanks for being my driver as usual!).  I'm in there somewhere but I don't know where


Tada~ me


Anyhoo, moving on.  Here's some pictures that Jake took while being my assistant.  I didn't even know he was taking pictures of me taking pictures, but now that I've discovered them, I think it'll be fun to share.  He holds flashes/light stands/reflectors and took these pictures at the same time.  Such a multi-tasker!!

 












Ray and I.  He's the best photographer I know!  Dude has a raw talent but he doesn't even realize it.  Such a modest guy.  Those types of people are always the most talented because they're never satisfied and always striving to improve.  My model had to reschedule last minute so Ray, Jake, Oudamn and I had a random shoot since we were out there anyway. 


We combined our lighting together just because!  We don't have a reason!  I think we had like 7 flashes set up lol sooo unnecerssary.  Photo by Ray.






I don't know why I put a watermark on this one but not the other two.


I think Ray took this one.


This looks like it's at night but it's actually during a bright sunny afternoon



This was during the shoot below. Thanks to Lisa and Rue Boutique for the wardrobe and location!










Talking to the model and setting up for the shoot. Caroline and Jake were my helpful assistants! Tourists even stopped to take pictures of us haha so embarrassing!












Why is my hair so brown when it's not even dyed grrrr


She came all the way down from Vancouver, BC for a shoot!  We picked them up from the hotel and showed them around for a little bit.












I have no idea where this was at or what I took pictures of??









Model, makeup artist, another photographer and two assistants!






Seattle Fashion Week Couture Finale 2009. My second fashion show! I had the best seat in the house - right smack in the front of the runway.




Toni Galang


Dirty Dog Jeans by Dolores Gill


Dolores Gill



 
Naomi B




Wai Ching




Logan Neitzel



 


Blayne Walsh/Richard Blayne from Project Runway



I was invited to another fashion show.  Brought along Caroline and Jake.  That's me behind the giant bright orb of light!





My logo projected on a giant wall at the Top Model Showcase. A judge and a host were both from America's Next Top Model!





 




This was my last fashion show.  I decided to retire because I just didn't have time anymore.  Photography is also bad for my physical health because I have scrawny arms.  I seriously feel like I'm dying when I'm shooting fashion shows.. they usually last at least two hours and my camera is way too heavy for me.  Also... I'm an artist, not a "photographer."



Applying the makeup


Testing, 1,2!


I think this is my last "fashion" shoot. I'm steering away from just looking pretty and want to go back to my artistic roots.


This is what my work is going to be like from now on.  Yes I know to other people this is boring and not the pretty images they like to see, but art is my diary!  It's not art if it doesn't come from within and I think people forget that.

I'm going to use photography as another medium for art.  Taking pictures for other people was a good experience but it basically means it's not my photograph.  Shooting things like fashion shows, weddings, and other events is not art to me.  I have no control of the environment and what I want to express so those are only photographs.  They're just a snapshot of the moment.  When someone tells me what they want, it's no longer mine.. it's just a photo. 

That doesn't mean I'll stop shooting events FOREVER.  There are going to be some events that will sound spark my interest and I just can't resist!

OOPS.  This post was suppose to be BEFORE my Hong Kong ones. I ruined the order!!  Oh well... just read this before heading to the Hong Kong posts

REWIND BACK TO TAISHAN~

I've never been all made up and get my hair all did (lol my ghetto slang) so I thought this would be fun.  I'm always behind the camera doing all the picture taking at everything.. so it's like I don't even exist :O


Makeup lady plucked away my untamed eyebrows that I haven't plucked for well over half a yeah haha I'm glad she kept the makeup natural looking.  I think that's the look that east Asian cultures like.  I reeeally dislike the dark makeup (eyeliner, black or dark eyeshadow.. basically smokey eyes) look that most Asian American girls rock back in the states.   Looks trashy D:

It's also interesting how the standard of beauty is in different parts of the world.  In China, people stare at my eyes and tell me they're so big and pretty while back in the US.. I don't think anyone has ever told me I have big, pretty eyes since they're small compared to the majority of the population lol *sad face* A universal thing is girls asking me if my eyelashes are real.  Girls notice the smallest details.   I feel sorry for you straight men out there!

Also, I'm FAT here *even sadder face*


The dresses did not fit me, but the lady picked out this pink dress that kind of fit me.  It still couldn't zip up all the way so she pinned it together -__-;  This is my favorite shot!  Unfortunately I don't know the photographer's name and the studio name's in Chinese

I was put in three different outfits.  The pink dress, a white dress (lol they turned me into a bride. Oh man -_-), and an old school Chinese outfit.  After the shoot I was HUNGERRRRR-ing so I went to a little noodle shop.


I was so self conscious about going out in public with so much makeup on.  Before I left the studio, I asked the makeup lady to take off all my makeup and she was like WHY lol so I felt bad and just kept it on.


My first time having wonton noodle soup in China mmm!

I spent the rest of the day packing all my things to get up early and head to Hong Kong the next morning.  I'll be staying in Hong Kong for two days then catch my plane back home to Seattle!

Since I had to leave the day after the shoot, I couldn't wait around for the studio to put my pictures together on these fancy hardcover photo books, so my parents picked them up for me yay!   I was given a CD of the pictures just 30 minutes after the shoot though.  Such fast turnaround time!  You probably noticed because I uploaded my picture to Facebook right after that hehe Facebook wasn't blocked in China at the time.. I miss those days.

I don't feel like uploading every single picture of myself and annoying everyone with my face so here's some shots of the photo books!







(Pretend I made this post before my Hong Kong ones.) Now off to Hong Kong~