Papa-papa-Raaaazzi!

I can finally add "Paparazzi" to my list of occupations...

So my friend Lewis decided to propose to his awesome girlfriend, Julie on Nov 1st, 2009 (her birthday-day!!) For the occasion, he enlisted in my help. He wanted me to capture (on camera) the entire scene of when he would propose to her at "Fort Totten" (which is a beautiful shore area that over looks Throgs Neck Bridge)

Just so you can get an idea of how far I actually was:



Gotta love the fishermen!! :)

So... in preperation, we set up my AWESOME HOT EPSON PHOTO printer (^_^) and workstation at Wing's house. I took at Canon 100-400mm Lens out there with me, crouched behind a car and photographed the entire scene (in freezing weather...) Afterwards, I went back to my workstation and edited/printed the best picture that I was able to get. It was pretty hard since Julie's back was mostly turned toward me and it was really rare that I was able to get a good shot of her face! That night, Lewis planned a surprise dinner with all of his and Julie's friends to celebrate the wonderful occasion... and we surprised her with the printed image of what happened earlier that day =)

It was pretty cool. Congrats guys !!!!

Thursday Nights at the LaundryMat

Spent last Thursday night at Julian's film shoot. We didn't start until 10:00PM... there was a lot of setting up. It was definitely an interesting experience. I've never actually seen or understood how films were shot. It's COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than a still photo shoot. There is so much more work/crew involved. Something I learned, since, they were using a manual film camera and they had to do something called, "lens rehearsal". I thought this was insane. Basically the lens-guy had to adjust the lens at almost every angle the actor walked in... it's crazy how much has to go into shooting a film. They had to rehearse, over and over again. It really blew my brains because I probably would never be able to have patience for all of that ..

Anyway, me, being me- the photographer- was set there in order to get a good shot for his "movie poster" when he goes to advertise his film. I haven't had the time to actually look through them all and do some real editing, but I did quickly see this image, and buffed it up a little bit.. so you can have a sneak peak. I really like her expression. Since you guys have no idea what the film is about, give it a shot and see if you can figure it out from this shot. Comments please! =)

Upcoming projects!!

So a friend's friend contacted me the other day. He's shooting his senior thesis film called, "Labels", and he asked me to shoot the still photography on-set. It's basically about a story about two people who do the, "Love at First Sight" deal.. but it's not really the typical story. I'm a huge skeptic when it comes to romantic, typical-like ideas, but I read the screenplay and I must say, it was pretty good. I'm going to shooting the still photos on set on Thursday night for the end product of the movie poster. Exciting ! :)

On another note, my cousin is part of a planning committee, it's pretty much a non-profit organization that helps raise money for different causes. They had a wine-tasting event last Thursday. She asked me to donate some artwork.. so I was like, "why not.. it just sits in my basement collecting dust...". So I donated 3 pieces, and went to the event. It was a really great time. A good number of people showed up too. It was great having people look and study my work again. Getting feedback on my work, meeting with different people, getting different insight on my work... it's all extremely valuable to my process of growth. Hopefully there will be more events to come and more chances to show my work!

project: DRYWALL - DAY 1

Project DRYWALL went into affect this morning at 8:00AM. (at least that's what time I think my brother got up this morning.. I got up at around 9AM)

So, like I showed you before, this is how the room(s) looked before we began the renovations. A little background information, basically there are two rooms that we have here, we tore down a wall, to combine the two rooms, took out the old wood panels, re-installed good insulation, put up sheet-rock (and will plaster/paint at a later date).

Tools list: Circular saws, saws, measuring tape, rulers. hammers, power drills (so fun), masks, googles, gloves.

TEAM: SUNNY, BRIAN, JUNIOR, ALEX, WING, PHIL, MR. CHUNG, & ME :)

Pre-game: Cleaning, starting the breakdown of the wooden panels and wall.
Alex: Tearing down walls
Cindy: Hammering out unwanted old nails (and taking a million pictures as the day continues on)



Step one: DEMOLITION WALLS !!!
9:30 AM:
First to arrive: Sunny (along with his crazy circular saw, his extra set of tools, and TABLE!)

Sunny and Alex continually tear down the walls as we wait for more help to arrive.
Brian & Wing arrive, and help demolish the walls while Sunny and Alex go back to Home Depot to purchase the sheet rock.



My dad and I are outside, tearing out all the nails from the previous wood panels. Yes... I did do some work too >_>



Brian and Wing continually took down the walls...



until it was all cleared and ready for the addition of new insulation:



Junior came too, and helped with the cutting of the sheet rock:



The first wall went up:



THEN we had a pizza lunch break:
(Mm... cascarino's pizza (peppers/spinach (the BEST!!) and pepperoni and sausage), apple juice & soda..)



Phil then joined us, and we put up most of the sheet rock and worked til night fell...



We finally called it quits at around 8:30 PM and went out to get some dinner. We ended with most of the walls finished except a few little sections! But it was great! Everyone did an amazing job! It was really fun and interesting to see come together !!!!!



Memorable images of the day:




Thank you everyone for their help!!!

PROJECT DRYWALL PT 2 (SUNDAY AFTERNOON)

A few awesome people came by to finish off the rest of the walls: Thank you!!! Jenny, Trust, Wilson, Jason and Winbin! :)

Step two of Project DRYWALL will continue as soon as Alex and I get a chance to stop our oh-so-busy-lives during the week. We will need to plaster & paint the walls next. Stay tuned!

Project: Drywall has Begun!

Wintertime is near and my workspace is getting colder and colder as the days go by...so..finally my brother and I have decide to drywall and re-insulate the entire basement (aka the first floor). I'm pretty excited about it. The past two nights we've been moving and packing things up so we could store it until the drywall/painting is complete.

I have taken up the task to document our status in images...so.. I present to you, projectDRYWALL part 1:

Haystacks

Been awhile since I updated with some work. I miss haystacks.



Thanks leo.

Shoes, shoes and more Shoes...

I suppose my focus for this shoot really wasn't on SHOES per say... but when I looked back at my contact sheets, I realized that it did seem like a good idea.

Well anyway, due to the ghetto-ness of my basement, and my lack of a seamless... I had to tape together some white sheets and just figure something out. I mean, this isn't the best.. but what can I say. Some critiques that I can give myself is, in the left image, I do agree that the hand in the pocket is extremely distracting, however I really love the expression on her face, and the angle of her legs.. and how her shoes look. In the second image, I really love her confused face.. totally makes the image. I liked how we worked with the crappy studio and sort of, just made it part of the image.. talk about making good use of what we got.. I shot a lot more, but these two were my favorites.

I really enjoy working with people and just having fun... and I love it when models are experimental with me too.. they add a different flavor.. and everyone can be a little creative when the time calls for it ^_^ v