02.08.10

I recently did a photoshoot for my friends over at Banzi Bowls , my favorite place to eat while I am in town. I've kind of kept this on the down low for a minute, waiting for them to start using the pics, when I noticed that Greer's actually did a review on them! I'm really happy that the spot has really taken off, and if you do make it down there and you are in the mood for an acai bowl I totally recommend the Diamond Head with almond milk, its really amazing.

02.05.10

Its never a bad day when I can say that I spent it chillin with Snoop Dogg and of course Uncle Junebug.

01.26.10

Here's a pic I shot recently in venice beach with DJ Drez before he took off on his european tour. I hadn't met him until this day and I was really glad that I did, he's a really cool and sweet guy, and I look forward to hearing what else he has going on.

01.22.10

I know these have been out for some time now, but I was just able to get my hands on them. These figures were part of the "wayback throwback" collection that Todd James a.k.a. REAS did in collaboration with Stussy last summer. I saw these online a while ago, a knew I had to have them, I had just been really bogged down at work so it kind of slipped my mind, until this afternoon, where I had just a little time on my hands, and the will to leave the studio. I dunno what it is, but they are sitting here at my desk with me and I'm all smiles.

01.14.10

Here is the first teaser image to come out for the Creative Recreation photoshoot that I did recently in Kenya. This for sure one of my highlights from last year. It'll probably be a while till more of this stuff comes out, because my stuff that I shot earlier in the year from Cairo still has been fully released!

01.08.10

I worked on this during to what seem like a lifetime ago, but I don't love it any less. We had tons of adventures on this, almost losing Byrone to a waterfall, running away from the cops, getting caught by the cops, buying some girls a glass of milk at a bar, and the wizard!

01.07.10

Here is the first image to drop from shooting with one of my favorite skaters right now Theotis Beasley for Skullcandy. The set that we did with Theo was pretty amazing, so there will be alot more to come with him.

12.24.09

Happy Holidays everyone! Its been a remarkable year for me, and I can't express how much I appreciate the support from everyone just comeing to my site as well as all of my clients for keeping the lights on here at the studio. I just recently got one of these cards in the mail from my friends over at L-R-G with one of my photos I shot of Rob G over in Yosemite earlier this year. It made me happy to see this, I almost forgot I even did this shoot earlier this year, time really flew by. Anyway, speaking of

L-R-G I just saw this ad that I shot

feature modern day crooner Mayer Hawthorne in Complex Magazine. It was pretty cool I was chilling in a

7-11 waiting for some friends to buy their beers, and just stumbled upon this ad in the magazine. It makes me wonder about all the photos I have shot out there that people run that I don't know about.

12.20.09

I recently was able to collide with the Serial Wax Killer himself Mix Master Mike to shoot some photos of a pretty exciting collaborative project that has been in the works for some time now. I haven't been this excited for a project for a while now and I am so glad to have someone like MMM to work with. if anything he's been able to push me further than anticipated for this project which is always a great feeling! More to come on this one soon!

12.19.09

Despite the fact that I am terrible at it skateboarding and I are two things that are never too far away from one and other, and today was one of those days that I am glad it isn't. I was pretty fortunate enough to be able to work today with Mr. Theotis Beasley. Theo is really one of the nicest skaters I have ever met, and we were able to jam out some pretty good stuff today even though we had a really short window of time to work with. We've got a couple of things coming up and probably in a months time some of that stuff should be hitting the news stands.

12.16.09

Here are some of my recent photos for the Triumvir Psycho Brigade project. Brandon in one interesting guy to work with, I'm glad we both respect each other, otherwise we'd probably kill each other he actually wrote some pretty funny stuff in reguards this shoot, here it is , and for sure check out the site, the 530 media lab guys did a really great job. "WEEK03 of the Shadaloo Psycho Brigade features a small storyboard we’ve put together with the help of my photographer friend Quang Le. I don’t have to imagine at all how hard it can be working with me on something

creative, but Quang can fluster my creative emotions at times… its a bit frustrating at times but a good photographer will do this to translate your imagination into imagery. Behind every concept or collection I create there’s always a deeper story line to either the character or the piece of clothing. The Psycho Brigade project is still in its early concept stage, I see nothing set in stone yet about it… I don’t want it to be. Let’s just say the Shadaloo Psycho Brigade unit, the character, the story, is still going through beta testing… its “Phase I.”"

12.13.09

I recently hooked up with the crew from Hypercrush, to shoot this pic of Holly Valentine that appeared in the most recent issue of Nylon Magazine. To be honest with you all I wasn't too familiar with Hypercrush and their music, in initially and I have to thank my buddy Shaun Neff, of Neff Headware for educating me. I have to say that the shoot went amazingly, and that I think there is definitely going to be future projects between myself and the crew. Super nice people, fun to work with, and on top of that, they are pretty big movie buffs, and rather knowledgeable, all things that make it alot more fun for me to work with. Here's a little video that the Skullcandy crew put together for them, a behind the scenes video should be coming up soon from this shoot.

12.11.09

So the guys over at Triumvir are having a contest to promote the new Psycho Brigade project that we are all working on, I dunno all the details, but here's a link for it here i'm sure you'll get some pretty sweet loot.

12.10.09

Here are some images that I did for the L-R-G a little bit ago as part of their Fall/Holiday campaign you can actually check out the look book here
if you care to see more. I shot a ton of guys for this, what I have here is just a small sample of the stuff, with

Rob G, Mayer Hawthorne, Skotch Davis, and Chico Brenes.

12.08.09

Here's a video that the Triumvir guys put together with Third Estate Media for their Triumvir/Capcom/Street Fighter project, entitled Psycho Brigade. I actually have something coming up with this project very soon, so keep your peepers peeled for it.

11.29.09

Here are some behind the scenes photos from my Cleobella photoshoot I did recently, courtesy of their facebook site. This was actually one of the more fun shoots I have had this year, and I can't wait till they revamp their site with all the new photos I shot for them.

11.28.09

Watches, hats, backpacks, belts, and other accessories via L-R-G all shot by moi can be found here.

11.25.09

Here is Del The Funky Homosapien and I preping for our next gig over a none other than Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles over in Long Beach. It was kinda crazy, because I wanted to meet him up in LA, but he drove all the way down because he wanted to eat at this particular one. I'm not complaning at all, I love Roscoe's I just thought it was really funny considering that. There are two spots up in LA!

11.21.09

Kelsey Brookes in a genius, there is really no doubt in that, his show was pretty amazing! The only thing that can really eclipse his genius is the sheer brilliance of Lion Cut the band that played at his opening. You have gotta check them out, pretty amazing.

11.20.09

Here is my first teaser photo from my Cleobella shoot I did earlier this year.

11.19.09

My buddy Kelsey is having an art show tomorrow at the Quint Art Gallery, its going to be a great one. I've been watching him put this show together for a while and its going to be fantastic. I'll be there tomorrow for sure and you should be too,

11.18.09

Here is another LRG look book for your viewing pleasure that I shot for them.

11.05.09

think for the better, the internet is terrible out here. Which means I get no email, no business stuff, and no headaches from the outside world.





I

11.03.09

Greetings from Kenya! I've been posting up at the Mara Safari Club for the last couple of days and I must say it has been a blast! Kenya is really a photographers dream for sure. I never imagined how great it is out here. The wildlife here is pretty amazing. So among my many tasks as a photographer out here in the brush, I was also commissioned by non-other than Todd of Toddland to test a pair of his infamous "greatest pants in the universe" . You see, before a product gets out in the market one must go through rigorous tests to prove that it is safe for the environment and now we can safely say that The Greatest Pants in the Universe are rhino friendly. We were a bit concerned because a customer had reported to us that he had worn the pants while meeting up with some creature known as a "Spearmint Rhino" and his encounter did not seem to go that well. So we took it upon our selves to see what the problem was. I am unfortunately Todd and I are no zoologist so there was no real quick answer for this one, so I took it upon myself to see this Spearmint Rhino for myself. Searching every Zoo in the vicinity I turned up with nothing. So off to Kenya I went to discover that they did not have rhinos of spearmint either, so I took this as a sign to throw in the towel on this one, because the rhinos I did encounter didn't just seem the like the "greatest pants in the universe", they loved them!

10.21.09

I pretty much was just booked for a gig in South Africa, just booked as in I was confirmed today and I'll be on a plane in a week.

With any travel like this you'll need to make sure to pack all the right gear (camera, batteries, and plenty of clean under wear and socks)make sure your passport and visa is in order, and you of course need to get your shots, and in this case, I was off to get my yellow fever vaccine. I'll

admit shots and things like that don't really bother me. Another thing was, that the doctor that administered it was not only confronting to me, but was kind of a babe as well, so

that totally made things a bit easier for me as well. What made the whole process a little crazy was that I was slammed in a bunch of meetings on this day, but it was the ONLY day I could go for the shots, since I was leaving in exactly a week for the job and that I was actually scheduled to be on a flight to Miami to work with my favorite Nappy Boy recording artist for a couple of days, doing some big things! I was fortunate enough to have the assistance of a pretty awesome production crew on this one, that was able to find me a doctor in Los Angeles willing to stay open a little longer and take me in as an immediate walk in, because I had meetings to be off to. Then on top of that I had to reschedule everything to be a little closer to me just so that I could make everything on time, because I had so much going on. I was a pretty fortunate guy that day, everything seemed to fall into place.

Being that this gig was quite and unexpected surprise, I decided to celebrate a little and pick up a something for myself from L.A.'s very own piece of hipster heaven on earth, Opening Ceremony. Even though I sound like I'm mocking it, stop by it believe it's a pretty accurate description of the place and I honestly love alot of the stuff there. I've actually been eyeing this pair of Timberland boots for and while and OC recently did a collab with Timberland and this particular model, so I figured why not just nab them for the trip, a totally justifiable expense if you ask me.

10.19.09

So earlier this morning I had to hop on a plane to make it out to pretty much my home away from home, Park City, Utah. Most photographers are pretty much LA/NY, or if you are of the smuttier breed, they Miami for sure (which I'll actually be heading off to in a few days for some work). But no, not me, I'm LA/PC ... kind of a strange combo, but I like it. Utah is a strange strange place is sort of an Eerie Indiana sort of way, and It'll probably be the birth place of the Apocalypse, so I'll probably have a front row seat!

Anyway, this lovely Impala, was one of the reasons why I flew out for the shoot, the other is a surprise, and should be ready in a moth or so. I have to thank Chris alot for being awesome guy and driving up a crazy mountain in this car and loaning it to me for the day!

10.15.09

Recently LA/NY/NV/Gublerland resident MGG, or Matthew Gray Gubler, or The Gube, or what I prefer to call him Matthew put up this photo that I shot recently called "something wicked wobbles this way". How this photo came to be is quite a tale, one that I won't bore you with now. Its from this photo that he, and the other higher powers that be have granted me the title that I now don of "celebrated photographer" being bequeathed such an honor and a surprise, one thing I must say is that the nectar is so so sweet on this side.

10.13.09

Here's a pic of me at work while doing a couple of gigs with long time cohorts The Gym Class Heroes, I have some pretty big surprises that I am working on with Travie, more on that really soon.

10.11.09

So the second most horrid of all holidays is almost upon us. The first going to of course the most wicked... Valentines day, no other holiday I know of makes most people feel like crap, most being of the single variety. But doomsday isn't upon us for another 4 months. So I am of course talking about All Hallows Eve that is coming our way. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to be doing for this holiday, but I'm sure it'll be rather interesting. I have alot of prospects out there, but I'm not really the kind of person that likes to limit ones self.

I've participated in a slew of pre All Hallows Eve events in preparation for all of the dark festivities to come and things just keep getting better and better. I just wish October was a longer month, there are way too many things I wanna do.

10.09.09

Its official... I'm addicted, I just recently got an Iphone so that I would be able to make my business more efficient with all the social media marketing nonsense, which worked really great for a while, until of course I found out about all of the other lovely apps out there... Especially the games.

Anyone that really knows me knows how geeky I am especially when it comes to role playing games. Unfortunately for me, I discovered Dungeon Hunter, I think I am in love. this game is awesome and yes I am addicted I serious can't stop playing it and I have already beat it once... I need to get a life

10.08.09

Favors from time to time are good things to have in your back pocket and well I think my buddy Jimbo Morgan was happy he had one to spare that I owed him. Jimbo recently asked me to shoot some of his Ski team for Skullcandy and well the way favors work, is regardless of if I want to I gotta do what I gotta do. Jimbo being the guy he is though never really makes me do anything I don't want to, and I know he know that I get along with his team just fine.

Anyway, here is Sammy Carlson in a pair of skullcrushers, showing off his love for fireworks and Skullcandy. Fortunately for everyone involved with this one I actually keep a fairly well stocked armory of firearms and fireworks, for you know... "just in case situations".

10.05.09

We spent this weekend shooting the commercial for the new LRG Iphone app that should be released later this week it should be as sweet as the birds we had on set.

09.28.09

I'm not sure what to call it, maybe insomnia, I just say I can't sleep. When people say they have insomnia it think it sounds like one of the cries for attention, like you want people to ask you questions about it and prob you and all that. So thats why I've just decided to say I just can't sleep. I know its my own doing as well. I have all sorts or random ideas, then I start looking into them so see if they are doable, then it just cases me to get more ideas. I dunno if you are one of those people that have all sorts of wilds thoughts, but when you do

happen to be one of those people but you tend to not sleep.

This photoshoot that I just did was one of those. It's part of Triumvir's Hell is For Heroes campaign. I can't really show off the actual images that I shot just yet, because its for this upcoming season, and I don't want to spoil anything, but its going to be pretty cool, We've been amassing props for sometime, and well this I think will be on of Triumvir's finest seasons that they have designed. I know that for me personally, I haven't

wanted more gear from then any other season than this one. These photos are a couple I behind the scenes ones that I lifted off of their blog, so I know that this stuff is okay for me to show off and for all of her fans out there Julia comes back as a model, and she looks fantastic! So I'll post them as soon as I can and maybe after about ten more posts I can manage to actually fall asleep.

09.27.09

One can never be too careful, or too prepared. No zombies are getting in here!

09.22.09

The story of the chance meeting and remeeting of Steve Damstra II and I is a long and crazy one, but in a way one that I think is worth hearing. Now, it's not really one that I will put you through right now, but sometime, in person, go ahead and plop yourself next to me me at the bar and ask me, more than likely I'll even buy you a drink, I like to tell the story that much. Someone I would like thank very much really forcing us into meeting each other, is actually The Dim Mak's Collection's very own Steve Aoki. Gave us the first chance meeting, our later remeeting is a whole other story.

My reasoning for really bringing up Steve isn't only just to show off this photo of him that I shot over a year ago that hasn't surface till now. Its only partially to plug the recent music video that his band Folded Light made with Waverly Films, it doesn't in fact have anything to do with the fact that he's also from the groups Whirlwind Heat, or Dueling Lugers, ( although both of which are really worth checking out), but it really more to thank him for hooking me up with some songs he was working on that I really enjoy.

Its really a great record that he is working on, so great in fact that if I were to write a review of this one, It would read like this " Steve Damstra and Jaffe Zinn have really stumbled across something with this sophomore release, if they were starving for pussy in their last release, upon this one they'll be swimming in it and gasping for air" and thats all I really have to say about that.

09.20.09

I can't think of any Australian's that I don't like, I am a bit terrified by their women I must admit, but thats because they can party like none other, but aside from that I like them all, and Insight pro surfer Kai Otton is no different. I was shooting Kai for an upcoming Skullcandy ad for the new Agent Headphone. I have learned quite a bit about the land down under by those fine fine culturalists Jermaine and Brett of the Flight of the concords such as "Australians like to name their women after men, revel in their convect past, and don't mind a cup a tea brewed in hot tap water". but I won't hold that against Kai.

09.18.09

I consider myself a pretty hip dude, but every once in a while a little gem slips through the cracks and thats how I really feel about Stones Throw recording artist Mayer Hawthorne. I guess soul is the best way to describe his music, but you should really check it out, I'm pretty into it. I feel really fortunate to have been able to work with him for a recent shoot and hopefully we'll be working together in the future. Although to be honest with you, I really like his album photography. Much respect for whom ever shot it and please, if you know who it is, for sure email and inform me. Anyway look for more Mayer Hawthorne photos, very very soon.

09.16.09

I was recently able to get up with Photos ala Quang contributer, Wu-Tang Clan, and culinary wiz kid (he he he), The Chef Raekwon ! He recently dropped his new record Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II and I was lucky enough to be able to provide some album photography for him as well as go over some stuff that will hopefully become our next shoot.

A while back Raekwon was able to drop by the studio shoot the pics and christen our new DJ booth that was installed by giving us a sample of his new record. It was quite a glorious day over here at Photos ala Quang. Our resident DJ here Y.o.o.k.s was able to provide the jams while the shoot commenced. All and all it was a pretty great day!

09.15.09

This is kinda strange and funny, I wasn't aware of this, but recently streetwear juggernaughts, The Hundreds, took a visit over to the set of Yo Gabba Gabba! This building is pretty much the only thing that you can really shoot while you are there, considering they are shooting a TV show there. So they shot it as well! Rather than being redundant and posting a bunch of other stuff that they already posted, go ahead and head over to thier site and read what they wrote, especially about Ben Clarke who's a good friend and great photographer. Yes, I am rather lazy today.

09.14.09

As pretty much everyone know photography is about capturing a moment and light and all that blah blah blah. Well anyway on my travels I always stumble upon things that I am into or objects that I just want to capture. I was recently on a location scout for Cleobella Bags . When I stumble upon a little house with ALOT of character. I can't really give too much away right now, but here are a few images of some little things that I found around the home. I also found these little dolls that totally creeped me out. I should be hammering out this shoot really soon, so I can get more random pics out there for you all to see of this great little spot, it was pretty sweet.

09.13.09

So I have to admit that I've been missing Pretty Boy Paul, he's been out oh his oriental adventures finding out what the wide open road has to offer. I know he'll be back soon, but for someone like me thats really never soon enough, I'm pretty impatient, and there is always things to do. Here is our little pretty boy and myself over at Comic Con this year posing next to our little Transformers come up thanks to his pretty boy charms. Anyway, if you miss him as much as I do, you can peep his blog. He's always got something interesting going on over there. Here is also a recent video he put together from one of our recent excursions

09.12.09

I went down to hang out in San Diego last night to meet up with friend and recent photo subject Mike Relm as well as the lovely ladies of Rich Soil. The party itself was so so, but really the trip was more for the company. The trip all and all was pretty random and kind of weird, being that it was ASR, a weekend where the action sports industry converges on little San Diego. So the streets were quite booming. The combination of downtown, all the college kids, and a bunch of extreme yahoos, really makes for a pretty entertaining time. This is my second time to San Diego this month, unfortunately I dunno if I can handle it much much more, San Diego I love you, but not that much.

09.11.09

Today via the worlds latest new channel twitter, I learned of a little video my buddy Matthew directed that features the musical stylings of those Las Vegas natives The Killers. Matthew himself is also from Vegas, but from what I can see this wasn't his first foray with those musical marvels, Matthew also helped produce the video for this little Xmas ditty, from the strip to the screen this kid is onto some big things!

09.07.09

Recently did a quick little shoot for my buddy Steve Aoki and his Dim Mak Collection featuring the talents of one of the Cinespace resident Dj's and all around great guy DJ Dan Oh! and of course one of my favorite gals Jillian Kate. I think this is the second time I've actually shot Dan, and to be honest with you, I don't even know how many times I've worked with Jillian. We took a little break for a bit, but its time for some new beginnings and as usual, I always have something new I'm cooking up in this noggin of mine. These are some random takes from the shoot. The actual images should be up over at Dim Mak sometime soon.

09.06.09

Here are one of the images that I shot for DJ Class a while back that they used for the Zune Click it with Class promotion. The shoot took place a while ago, I just totally spaced (like I usually do) and never put this up here. So here it is. I remember rushing to put the DJ booth in the studio so that we could have some real live entertainment while shooting, and that particular day we had DJ Y.O.O.K.s take the helm. I dug the tunes, but I was really hoping to get Class on the tables, maybe preform his little ditty "i'm the ish" , I tried... but unfortunately it didn't happen, maybe next time.

09.05.09

Here's a video that Pretty Boy Paul cooked up for the Shoot It! X 944 release party in Scottsdale, AZ the hometown of both companies. It was awesome of the Shoot It! crew to be so hospitable to us, and honestly we had a great time, but really you'll be able to see that in the video. Ladies of Scottsdale, don't fret, we will be back soon!

09.03.09

I was fourtunate enough to be able to catch my friends Datarock in the legendary SIR studios, rehearsing for their upcoming US tour promoting their latest record "Red". I feel some what privileged because I've been able to hear numerous versions of "Red" over the last two years while running into the boys here and their. I'm hoping that on this tour I'll actually be able to catch up with them and actually go on a few tour dates with them a photograph from the road a bit.

Another great come up that I found during this visit was a guitar that I have to buy, not for myself, I realized that I am one of those few poor souls that suffers from not only a lack of musical talent, but I actually have negative musical talent. Which means less than zero. On some days, when musicians of weak spirit are around me, I actually absorb some of their talent, thats how little I have. No, I've got to nab this one for Miss Stephanie Quayle , a singer songwriter that resides in Venice that I met recently that truly believes needs such a guitar. If country music is your thing, or if you are one of those on the fence kind of characters about it, I suggest you check it out, more than likely you'll find me in a corner somewhere posted up.

09.02.09

I'm in Vegas right now peeping all of the new goods for the up and coming season and while I was over at the project tradeshow, I ran across the ladies of Miss Wax Jewelry. Generally I worked on alot of stuff that I don't really get to see for months and months. During that, I tend to forget about the project till it actually comes out, so its kind of a pleasant surprise when I actually see stuff out and thats what kind of happened with Miss Wax. Kylee and all the lovely gals over at Miss Wax have a nice collab dropping soon with Hellz Bellz that should be dropping rather soon, I was pretty excited to be working on this project for her. I really like the images that we were able to come up with. It makes me kind of happy to work so up close to product sometimes, its quite a change for me, since I never really do stuff like that. So its nice for me to switch it up a little every now and then.

08.31.09

This probably isn't the best picture for me to be posting in regards to my trip to AZ with Pretty Boy Paul, but screw it, I don't think my mom reads this anyway. Scottsdale I must admit is filled with some pretty attractive women and being that the pool at the W Hotel is open 24 Hours a day, makes things even better. I had a real great time at the party, probably due to the fact that there was some sort of screw up and I wasn't allowed to bring my camera in the Shoot It! X 944 event, so I wasn't really shooting the event, and was just posting up and gabbing away and believe it or not, I think it was all for the better. It's pretty rare that I go to an event and can actually wander and not be tethered to a job or anything like that. Paul is going to have a video up in a couple of days so you all will be able to see the maddness!

08.29.09

I'm not actually sure if I have ever put any pictures of Lorde Byrone up on here, so I am going to assume that this is my first time... Please don't correct me if I am wrong. Anyway, Byrone is pretty much all I could ever want as an assistant, Here he is standing in for DJ virtuoso Mike Relm for some upcoming photos that'll be released of him soon. This night was long and kinda sucked because of how long it was, but I will say, that the photos turned out to be outstanding, and well, Mike is a really cool guy. I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I found that we had a bunch of stuff in common as including a bunch of mutual friends and a love for pho. I'm actually pretty excited about this one, so hopefully it'll be wrapped up soon so I can post it up!

This other photo of Byrone is another test for something else that we are cooking up. I'm just putting it up here, because I think its kinda funny and embarrassing for him, although alot of ladies have commented on how dashing he looks here.

08.28.09

A hero to asian's everywhere and creator of the Christ Air, the guy who had outfits that would make the Ultimate Warrior jealous, I present to the grand finale of my skate photo tour de force, Christian Hosoi! Its been about a year since I last saw Christian so it was really good to catch up and show him around the new studio. Always and inspiration, and always a good guy, I'm always happy to work with him.

08.27.08

So I am I a rather insane deadline schedule right now shooting a bunch of pro skaters right now earlier this week I shot with Greg Ludzka, yesterday with PLG, and today with Christian Hosoi. This is actually kind of normal for me, the crazy party is, that I am shooting all of these in the middle of the night, like I think this off take of the PLG holding up his demon possessed skate deck, I believe was shot at like 3am. what makes all this even nuttier, is that I'm also shooting during the day as well. All in all, I'm pretty tired, but I'm rather glad I'm working ALOT!

08.25.09

This is kinda crazy, but I've been home or only 1 hour and I am off for my next shoot, with new

DCMA/K Swiss rider Greg Ludzka, Greg is off first thing in the morning, for some gig in NYC, and I have been in Hawaii for the last week, so the only option was to shoot him as soon as my plane landed. Its during instances like these having a good crew really paid off. I was so tired from the flight it was so crazy to get booked like this, but we did what we had to do, and we banged out some really good stuff. Greg and I have some pretty good stuff in the works, the kind of stuff that only that late night delirium can concocted. Nonetheless it'll be brilliant!

08.23.09

Its my last day in Hawaii, and I have to admit that I'm kinda sad. I really love this place. I've got to meet some really great people and see some pretty unbelievable scenery. I've never been here before, and its a real treat to be able to experience it the way that I did. Every thing aside from the mosquito bites that I got in the forest was really fantastic here, and even the bites weren't really that bad. I've been to alot of places, and I really have to admit that I am a little smitten by this place. I know that if I can under different circumstances my thoughts would have been different, but to have this be my first experience, unbelievable! I'll post pics of the shoot as soon as I can!

08.21.09

Mike Posner's a singer, songwriter, and producer. He's collaborated with such artists as Kid Cudi, Wale, Big Sean, Jackie Chain, Donnis, One Be Lo, Eric Holljes, and 3OH!3. He worked with Don Cannon and DJ Benzi on his first mixtape, "A Matter of Time," and now he's collaborated with me for this crazy photo we did for complex and LRG. I know I have video of this somewhere, so hopefully we'll be able to put that up soon, because I really really liked working on that shoot.

08.20.09

I have tons to write about my trip to the Islands with Pretty Boy Paul, but I'll get to that later... For now here is a post from home by my friends over at Gost Brand about a little field trip we took over to the Toddland offices. Trips with Arlo and the crew are always interesting and fun and I really wish I was able to hang out with them much more. Anyway I'm too tired to write anymore, so just head over to the Gost blog and read it, Arlo is way funnier and a better writer anyway.

08.18.09

Believe it or not, I've never been to Hawaii. Over the years I've made a few attempts, but never made it. I have no idea what to really expect, in my mind I suppose it appears like a blend of Hawaii 5-0, Magnum P.I., Dog the Bounty Hunter, with just a dash of Gilligan's Island.

What also makes this trip even more awesome, is that I actually get to go for work! I feel pretty blessed that

this is my job. This shoot is going to be pretty interesting. I have no doubt that its going to be awesome, but I really have no idea what to expect. Being that I really don't really know what to prepare for since I've never been in an area quite like this. Kinda funny huh. Out of every where I've been, tropical is something I haven't really done. So in preperation of this, I'm pretty much bringing pretty much every combination of gear I can think of, I can only image what the baggage fees are going to be for this one.

08.16.09

So my buddy Seth is pretty good about letting me know what the latest and greatest is when it comes to technology, web, social networking and all that. Recently Seth was cool enough to hook me up with this whole new thing called Shoot it! I'm pretty skeptical about most things that are related to all this, mainly because I'm still a pretty hands on kind of guy. The real unique thing, and what really attracted me to it, was then fact that it really blends old world and new world technology and makes a whole new thing. What Shoot It! is, is an application for your phone where you are able to take a picture with your phone and basically upload it where ever you are through your phone and they print out your image with a message on the back and send it to whom ever you want for about a dollar. Here are my first examples of shoot it cards, which I'm sure I'll get better at taking once I get a hang of it. I'm pretty excited about this, because it will surely help me start being a much better son, because now I have no excuse not to mail postcards to my Mom. I'll be posting a bunch more cards here soon!

08.14.09

I really forget sometimes that there are people that really care what I do, or read this thing, because when I heard this went up today I was totally shocked. Juggernaught superstore to the hipster elite Metropark, gave myself and Pretty boy Paul a pretty good write up on thier blog. It was about our work for Villains and Vagabonds they also posted this behind the scenes video that Paul did while I was shooting. I was totally surprised to see it up and pretty stoked that they were so cool to write those nice things about me. hopefully we can get more features and things up there. My ma would be so proud.

08.13.09

Here's a little video that Pretty boy Paul made of a little trip we took recently to visit BPMW and Best showroom in Downtown LA. It also shows off a little footage of my trip to the Box 8 art gallery in preparation for one of the group shows that Ray and I were a part of as Chule.

08.12.09

This was a project that Ray and I finished recently as Chule. We have been toying around with the idea of self portraits for a while, and when given the opportunity to do it we kinda jumped at it. They were pretty fun to work on, and to be honest I was a bit skeptical on if they would be done in time, but Ray really pulled through in the last stretch. I hope you like them, I can't wait for out next show.

08.11.09

I have to thank Mr. Adrian Santos for providing me with some photos of just a few of the bad decisions that I made over the course of this lollapalooza. So many cra
zy stories. maybe if I get the balls I'll write one out and post it here. But honestly if you wanna get the real scoop, you'll probably just have to ask me. They sound much better that way anyway.

08.07.09

Of Montreal! Jonelle Monae! Lollapalooza preforming together! unbelievable! Not a bad first day if I say so myself, tomorrow, Santigold, GZA, and Passion Pit! bananas!

08.06.09

We stopped off the other day to visit with some of our friends over at Ludwig clothing in their compound over in the old Kim Sun theatre in LA. We shot this little video there, because we were pretty blown away by their space, they have these really large windows that let in all this great light, that on top of being really spacious makes it such a good place to show case I really don't know why Pretty Boy Paul cut it to this track from The Dream featuring Kanye West and everyone knows that around these parts Kanye can do no wrong. Here is a pic that I actually shot a little while back of The Dream for the Gym Class Heroes cookie jar music video.

LUDWIG from PAUL NGUYEN on

07.31.09

they are coming.... very very soon

07.27.09

Comic con rules! I'll have another post with some random photos and some of the loot I picked up, we had a great time. check out the video of some of the comic con goodness.

COMIC-CON 2009 from PAUL NGUYEN on Vimeo.

07.22.09

lets see how long this stays up before they take is down.... enjoy!

07.22.09

Here is a little video that the guys over at Lrg cooked up from the photoshoot that we did a little while back with Raekwon its pretty awesome to say that we had him in studio with us. Images coming soon.

LRG VISUALLY HEARD / Raekwon from LRG on Vimeo.

07.20.09

Today's shoot really couldn't have been better, quick, easy, great results, and on top of doing a good shoot, I managed to get myself a fresh pair of new sneakers as well. Today in studio, we had Rockstar energy drink, Nike 6.0, Skullcandy, and Oakley, ski athlete Sammy Carlson. This gig was set up by my old pal Jimbo Morgan who has been a huge advocate and it was about time that I could return the favor for him and shoot one of his athletes. There isn't too many people that are better on the slopes than Sammy, and he's got his new movie "Can't Stop" coming out soon to prove it. I'll post up the finished picks up here as soon as I can.

07.16.09

Since the revival of "The Crucible" I decided to bring out some early pics that I shot with the first version of this contraption. This was a shoot that my buddy James Kyson Lee had set up for me with his friend, Erin Cahill. I won't go into detail about what Erin does and who she is and all that, thats what google and wikipedia is for, internet creeping is something I know we all participate in.
Erin was a really good sport to come down all the way to the OC for this. She really made my day, as well as the shoot! There is really too much of this hurry up and wait stuff going on with shoots. Being that I have some pretty fond memories of this one, I can't believe that I never did a post on it.... sheesh, I really need to get my act together. One of these days I'll get all caught up with all of this little gems that i've shot along the way. Erin if you are reading this, sorry I am so lame, we need to kick it sometime. One of these days my trigger finger is gonna be broke, and then I'll be able to take it easy for a while.

07.13.09

This is one of my most favorite pieces of gear we call it "The Crucible". This little baby was out of commission for a minute, but shes back now, and you'll be able to see images in some magazines next month, well that is if you live in Japan. I'll be able to talk about this more later, after I get something back from the printer. Anyway, this guy was inspired by the incredible music director Hype Williams. Its pretty much a modified ring light to give a bit of a different effect than what one may expect from a ring light. Anyway I missed this guy, and I'm glad he's back in the arsenal, new and improved. Special thanks to Igor and Byronski_Beat for making it happen.

07.12.09

Here is a video of my recent photoshoot with Shady recording artist Cashis for Cakedout. I had no idea that they were putting this together, I just happened to be on there site last night and saw it. One of these days I'll start being more aware of stuff like this.

07.10.09

Here's a little video that pretty boy paul shot of my villains and vagabonds shoot.

VILLAINS AND VAGABONDS from PAUL NGUYEN on Vimeo.

07.09.09

My buddies Devin and Mitch from Fremont and Endovenera just recently opened up a shop in Costa Mesa within the Lab. I would rant and rave about how much I like the shop and how you should check it out, but instead here is a list of a few of the brands they carry, fremont,chronicles of never, endovenera, corpus,erik hart,orthodox,eskell,kontorsion,morphine generation, and conference of birds. Also just to let you everything is pretty much 50 to 80 percent off. For your sake, you should come, because you'll for sure get some sweet stuff, for my sake I hope you don't because I'll for sure scoop up the gear you missed for myself. Make sure to come on Saturday, they are having a party with free booze and all that, so they can get you drunk so my make a ton of shopping decisions that you'll regret once you get your credit card statment.

07.08.09

Here's a little video of something that we'll hopefully be working on shortly, photos and more info soon!

THE STRONGHOLD from PAUL NGUYEN on Vimeo.

07.06.09

4TH OF JULY AT B'S from PAUL NGUYEN on Vimeo.

Here is a little video that Pretty Boy Paul of Analog Holiday put together. It was quite a night. I have to give it up to Alessia for making a pretty awesome pasta salad and getting me some circus animal cookies, shes pretty amazing!

07.05.09

Villains and Vagabonds is a brand that I have been working with for a while now and its good to see that they finally have a website up and running featuring photos shot by yours truly of course!. I've been shooting pics for them for the last few seasons, and its incredible to see how they have grown in the last year with no web presence at all.

Well, as of last weekend this has all changed. They now have a new full fledged website, for me this is actually kind of nice, considering I shoot all these photos for them and never get to see them anywhere aside from their showroom. They also have a webstore and a bunch of other cool little features. I personally would have loved to see more of the photos up, but this is really a good start for them, and I think that this is really going to be good. It was also super cool of them for putting up a little blog hit about me and the work that I have done. It good to hear it when people appreciate the work that I have put into their brands. Its also pretty cool to see all the spots that they are carried at. I mean they have some of the best accounts you can get for the kind of gear they make. Revolve, Metro Park, and Fred Segal, so good.

P.s. I also like how in the second photo, Nick from Villains put that nice little close up hit of the Hellz Bellz x Miss Wax collab ring that was given to us on loan from Miss Kylee Wax herself!

07.04.09

I love chicks, lots of new stuff to post come Monday involving all of these photos.

07.03.09

I took a quick ride out to vegas after the art show that Ray and I had the other night to pick up a few things for our coming independence celebration. Here's our little teaser video.

BOOM BOOM CHICKA-DEE from PAUL NGUYEN on Vimeo.

07.02.09

Here are some shots of Ray and I doing some of
our Chule work over at our show at Box Eight. They were pretty fun to work on and I hope everyone enjoys them.

07.01.08

So Ray and I are at it again with our art crew "chule" we are showing over at a group show over at box eight, this should be pretty cool. It'll be especially good if the let Ray and I have our way and do a little live art for you all. Show up, its going to be fun.

06.30.09

People ask me all the time what I am up to, I'm sure that they only ask me because they honestly are interested in what I am doing. I just can't help think that they are asking me because they think I'm lazy. Well anyway, here it is. My new ad and billboard with Mr. Trevor Ariza of The Lakers. It was a pretty crazy thing to throw together so fast after their championship victory. I really have to give it up to the crew over at LRG for pulling it all together.

06.28.09

This ad I did recently features one of my favorite actor's wearing a new Dim Mak hoodie's while he is djing. I'm talking about my favorite alien E.T. I believe he's pretty much everyone's favorite (although my brother will fight me to the death with his belief that the role is held by Alf), but he has a special place in my heart. I actually have a picture of him on my desk in my office, and when given the opportunity to work with him I really flipped out. It was really cool of DJ AM to make an appearance in this ad as well as Steve Aoki in the bike ride scene. Its pretty rare for me to beable to work with so many different talented people for one ad. AM was really nice, and he's so talented, it was cool to finally be able to work with him. I hope I'll get to be able to work with all these guys again soon. Look out for this ad in the most recent issues of BPM and possibly Vapors!

06.27.09

The boys at Caked Out, just launched thier new website and lookbook, that yours truly shot. It features Shady recording artist Cashis. I've actually worked with the brand in the past on graphics and things and I am looking forward to be able to work with them in a much greater way. This is the first time we're done a real shoot for the brand and I look forward to seeing much bigger things coming soon from these guys.

06.26.09

The death of Michael Jackson was such a suprise and a tragedy. When it happened, I thought it was like alot of things I hear about Michael Jackson and I thought to my self... more bad jokes. I don't really write about stuff like this here, because this is a place where I usually put stuff like where I am traveling, or what I am working on, but for some reason I just really felt like writing something here. After really thinking about it after I heard he passed away, I sat down with some friends and really thought about if we
could think of anyone that was more famous than he was. I decided that there wasn't anyone that I could think of, so with that, we decided to make the trek out to the house he was living in in los angeles. As we expected, it was a media circus. We were able to find a smaller memorial that wasn't completely swarmed by media and fans, but what I did notice was that on the banners that someone printed up had not only put Michael's face on the banner, but they put there own as well. I'm sure it was by mistake, luckily there was a good samaritan standing by that helped the poor man fix his mistake by cutting him off of the posters, Whew! Anyway, I am truly sadden by this, and I really hope the best for his children, then best quote I heard all evening when the media was filming people in regards to Michael and his death, a side from all the fake rap artists plugging thier records and thier myspace accounts was, "Michael Jackson, a man accused of many things, convicted of none!"

06.25.09

All I have to say is that they guys over at Joy Engine are pretty awesome. I was perusing around the interweb as I usually do every morning to stumble upon this tidbit of awesomeness! This hasn't been the first time Ray and myself as Chule has been put up on this site, but honestly its a fantastic feeling everytime we are. Todd Berger of the Joy Engine clan has been a massive supporter of us, and I really want to thank him for being an appreciater as well as an advocate of us!

06.24.09

Victory dinners have always been pretty funny to me, because I my mind somehow I figure that we are celebrating that was might have not been able to complete the task successfully, but then again, I've never not completed a job. My mind wanders. I love to eat, I love kitschy places, so I suppose I'll continue to celebrate my victories and with an umbrella in my drink.

06.17.09

Location scouting is one of the cooler things we
get to do as part of this job, but to be able to do it in style like this is pretty awesome. I really need to buy one of these. I can't wait for the day I can have a mobile studio like we did for this. This shoot promises to be an insane one and I really can't wait to get this out and done for everyone to see.

06.16.09

My friends over at Skullcandy just sent me this today! They are having some pretty rad events down in my hood. I can't believe they got Del Tha Funky Homosapien to do it, thats so nuts. He's pretty awesome. I remember when we all met up with him for the first time at SXSW a few years back. Anyway, the show is going to be pretty nuts, and on top of Del being there, my buddy DJ Slipmatt is going to be spinning as well, so that will be pretty dope.

06.03.09

So here begins E3 the big video game expo. I haven't been able to go yet, I'm actually going tomorrow, but last night's Xbox party was pretty cool. I was invited by my buddy and videographer to the latino stars Willy-T. Willy is pretty rad, I was introduced to him by OG Abel during one of our shoots and we really hit it off. The only negative thing I really have to say about the guy, is that he doesn't like BBQ sauce, its kind of wierd, I know. He orders his BBQ dry, its not like he gets the sauce on the side, he just doesn't get it. So strange right. Any, dispite Willy's tastebud problem, he's a pretty rad guy and great filmer.

The night was filled with some pretty good games, good food, good music and some pretty amazing cars. Dj Skee was spinning most of the night, which was pretty dope, the last time I spotted him we were out in austin for SXSW in march. Bruce Wanye's ride from the Dark Knight was in the house as well, I have to say, the matte black is pretty awesome. All in all it was a good, nite and to be honest with you, the parting gifts we left with that night, weren't too shabby either.

06.15.09

The other nite I was able to hook up with my buddies Chad Petree and Jeremy Dawson who are in this band called the Shiny Toy Guns. Chad's a pretty big fan of Skullcandy and actually recorded their latest record Season of Poison with the Sk Pros. So it was pretty cool to kick it with them and hear thier anecdotes and all that. As you can see, Chad's talents go beyond just his musical abilites, but he's got a pretty incredible sense of fasion as well.

06.14.09

My buddy Chris Josol has been a long time advocate of what I've been doing for the last few years. He's been telling me about the brand he works with, Ludwig for a while. Recently he invited me out to see what he and the Ludwig crew had going on over at thier launch event over at Fred Segal Santa Monica, anyway I felt that I was due for a brief break and finally left my cave. I really dug the garments that they had a pretty funny store installation. I saw alot of old friends lurking about, and some pretty sweet kid sized nike cortez's, kinda made me wanna go home and make myself a little cholo. One thing I totally forgot, was there was a basketball game that evening, and from that I learned two things, one what a hipster sports bar would look like, and two, its still not cool to make Kobe Bryant jokes in public... Especially in L.A.

06.13.09

I recently shot some new photos for Skullcandy featuring artist OG Abel for his new headphone coming out with those guys. I haven't seen the actual ad mockups yet, but I know they are going to be pretty awesome. This ad actually features his new skullcrusher headphone with his money rose design all over it. I was over at The Skullcandy launch party for their partnership with At&t over at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles and I saw this out in front with got me pretty excited. Seeing stuff printed big is always pretty awesome. I've done a number of billboards now and I never get over stuff like that and this wasn't even that big. Anyway i've got to now go hit up the guys at skullcandy to send me over the ad mockups, because they got me really excited!

06.12.09

Visiting Toddland is always pretty magical and lovely. The new line looks outrageous and they are just really getting started. I'm getting pretty anxious to get get this project really going, because the team behind it is pretty amazing and I feel pretty honored to be working with them all, Urban Outfitters has no idea what kind of monsters they unleashed!

06.11.09

I wish I read more magazines, so I would know when new photos that I worked on were out. I bunch of people recently called me to congratulate me on my new Snoop Dogg ads and I had no idea they were out. There are going to be a bunch of other athletes and artists that are in this campaign that I shot its going to be a pretty awesome once they are all out! I really need to subscribe to more magazines.

06.10.09

This post is pretty random, the only reason I posted is because I was over at my friends house today when he showed me the new Ken Block rally car video from DC shoes that you can only see on his website. I was a huge fan of his last video, and when I heard he was producing a new one I was pretty stoked. I actually heard about the new video a while ago from my buddy Nate Morley who is not only one of the most creative guys I know, but is also creative director over at DC shoes. I was over there a while ago catching up with him as well as my friend Ida that works down there seeing if they needed anything new shot and all that and they happened to mention it to me. Needless to say that was all the information I could get out of them about it. They were keeping pretty tight lipped about all the details. In the video there is a part where Rob Dyrdek, uses a paintball gun, which made me remember that I really should give a shout out and a thank you to my pals over at Tippman paintball, for really hooking it up the other day. Those guys are pretty rad, and really want me to get into alot of trouble. If they are reading this, I really need to get that sniper barrel from you all, I love sitting from afar picking people off. For some reason my crew loves firearms and can't get enough of them. I always thought we would grow out of it, but really, it just seems to have gotten worse.

06.06.09

Today my brother got his doctorate

05.30.09

I love it when people send me music. This at least will slow down my search for rare Smiths tracks and make people think I am at least a little current and hip... for at least a little while longer.

05.29.09

I'm not sure if you all know this, but I actually went to school for film, not photography and pretty much put that aside to really work on developing my photography career. I'm for sure not sad about this at all, I love what I do. But there has always been a yearning for me to go back and work on filming stuff. Many events over the last year and a half have brought me closer and closer to trying to integrate video and film work in what I do. The first thing I can recall that really invoked this feeling was the Triumvir Sping 08 video it really showed me there was a way to really integrate what I was creating with my photography in a video platform.

Anyway, The other event was meeting up with with Pretty boy Paul aka Angel Eyes He's a pretty liked minded guy thats down to deal with my insanity,what more could I want. Anyway, I just wanted at put up a new vid that he shot for fun over at my office with some toys provided my yours truly.

GABBA GABBA HEY!!! from PAUL NGUYEN on Vimeo.