This was a depressing day... it was the first time I've ever attended a funeral for someone younger than me.  17 is way too young :\  Well I don't want to get into details about that because it's too depressing, but the funeral ended at 3:30pm.  My buddies T.O.P. (they're a martial arts stunt group) had a performance at Tet Festival in Seattle Center at 4pm.  I told my friend Dre that I'd be there to film their performance.. so I had 30 minutes to wipe off all that watery stuff coming out of my eyes, de-puff my face, and un-red my eyes.  I think I did a good job because no one looked worried or asked about me

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:



Sorry it got shakey near the end.  My scrawny arms couldn't hold up my 20 lb camera any longer ughh I wanted to die and my arms felt like jello!!!  I didn't want to be in anyone's way so I sat behind the army of photographers.  When the fight scene started, that's when all the photographers raised their cameras and started snapping away.  Me having a height disadvantage, so I had to crawl up a bit so cameras and shoulders didn't block the view lol so sorry if I gave you motion sickness around the 5:00 mark in the video!

I was going to leave after this performance but then a young fellow with a camera came up to me.  It took a bit for the gears in my brain to work and realize it was my cousin Ming's boyfriend lolol at first I thought he was going to be one of those mean male chauvinist photographers I used to encounter at fashion shows.  Whew! XD I didn't get much sleep, didn't eat anything and I had just left a funeral.  Can't blame my brain for not working 100%!

Anyhoo, he told me Ming was in a fashion show that was coming up next.  I really wanted to leave since I was having a terrible day, but I figured it would be rude to not stick around for it since he already told me about it.  My mind was still stuck on the funeral so I wasn't so enthusiastic about shooting.  I only limited myself to ONE shot of each model (besides Ming - she's special so she got more than one shot).  I know.. such a terrible idea lol what if that one shot turned out terrible and out of focus and wrong and etc etc???!  That didn't cross my mind at the time!  Since I was emo (still am) I totally ignored the colorful background that I'm sure people spent many hours working on and just wanted a complete black background (or the most I could make use of).

Here are the pictures from the Thai Nguyen fashion show:











































I hope those turned out ok.  I'm not too satisfied with the way the colors turned out, but I'm not in the mood to do any post processing.  Take it as it is!





Can you tell which one is my cousin??  I didn't stick around for the whole thing.  I couldn't breathe in there!  So I went outside for some fresh air and waited around for the T.O.P. dudes to gather up, then off to Chinatown to eat!  I wanted to go to the little wonton shop, but the dudes wanted to go to Jade Garden. Now, here we are!


Cindy and Ayane.  Oh her cheeks~ ^__^


mmm got my egg noodles!  I don't really like Jade Garden's wontons so I settled with beef.


BATTLE SCAR!  Giang and Dre

..AND SO WE FEAST! The end