Monthly Archives: January 2009


TET FESTIVAL IN BLACK AND WHITE

Last night, I went to my first ever “Tet Festival” in Garden Grove. The “Tet Festival” is essentially the Lunar New Year Festival or most know it as Chinese New Year, but the word “Tet” is Vietnamese. Confused? Since I was able to get back stage access thanks to Vivian Tran of “All Made Up”, I decided to document the behind the scenes of the pageant as much as I could. I’ll save all of the regular pageant photos for another day. Speaking of Vivian Tran, that girl is such a sweet heart and super talented at hair and makeup, so if you’re looking for someone that will do an awesome job, you’ve found her.
 

Anyhow, what kind of shocked me when I was walking up to the festival, was that it was setup like a Carnival? They had not only fried dough, but fried eggrolls too! And a ferris wheel? It made for a very interesting night.

 

This is all in good fun, but when I shoot black and white photos, I have this urge to name the photos with something dramatic and can relate to the photo well. Of course I never write about it or say it, but I think I will this time.  Here’s my version and they might not be the coolest or most interesting names, but feel free to name them also in the comment box.  

 

“The Crowd”  

“Anticipation”

“Searching For The Best Seat”

“Reflecting”

“Hmmmm…”

PHOTO OF THE WEEK : NEWPORT BEACH HDR

Let me begin by saying that of course I love photographing people. It’s what I do, I love being social and capturing raw emotion is my thing, but from time to time, I need, me time. Just yesterday I headed down to New Port Beach at sunset with some friends to sit, reflect and listen to my iPod while shooting nature or anything that was interesting to me. If you’re not familiar with HDR, checkout this link. Basically, it’s trying to get the photo to look like what we are seeing with our eyes. In other words, balancing all the lights and darks of the photo and not loosing any detail. HDR is certainly fun, but it’s time consuming to say the least. Here is an HDR photo from yesterday that makes me think about how much there is in the world, that we haven’t seen yet.

Newport Beach HDR

“THE BIG PICTURE”

Last week, I meet up with my good friend Aaron Dieppa and we sat down for a little one on one interview for his daily project “The Big Picture”. I have to give Aaron a lot of credit for committing to a project that involves, doing a video blog post every single day this year. So if you haven’t checked it out yet or subscribed, you really need to.

[B]RIAN KHANG HEADSHOTS BY [B]ECKER

There’s probably a million reason why I’m a photographer and not a professional male model. Yes I don’t have an 8 pack, it’s more like a 3.5 pack and I don’t have a perfect jawline, dimples, a perfect nose, nice hair and the list can go on and on. But what I do have, is that I’m 100% myself all the time and I don’t ever fake the funk! What you see is what you get with me and I’m perfectly fine with that. I realized today too, that I have 1 look. You can call me Zoolander from now on.

 

Today [B]ecker took some headshots for me down in San Juan Capistrano. In literally 15 minutes of shooting, I now have 1000 photos to go through. Not like it’s a bad thing for sure. One of these photos will be going to WPPI for some promo material. [B]ecker is so awesome at getting you to feel natural in front of the camera and it’s why so many people love his photos including myself. Without any further delays, here is me, me and me.

 

Deadly combo of “Blue Steel” and “Magnum” poses.

Why am I petting the Cracker Jack dog?

PHOTO OF THE WEEK : SKY ON FIRE

There’s nothing better that I love than shooting nature and skies. When I drove home yesterday, I noticed the amazing clouds and sunset that made it look like the sky was on fire! It was truly awesome!

PROUD TO BE A TOURIST

While most will agree, my camera is like my 3rd arm. Let me clear the rumors and say that yes, I bring a camera everywhere I go and yes, I’m proud to be a tourist, neck strap and all. It’s funny that on days when I forget my camera which is rare, people ask where is my camera? I guess being a photographer does that to you. I never know when something will happen or if I spot something really cool, that I’ll want to shoot. It’s even better now that we are able to record video too. Now I truly feel like a paparazzi. I think the whole neck strap thing makes it worst, but nothing is worst than dropping your camera, better safe than sorry. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I have a huge passion for photography and art and I don’t mind rockin’ a neck strap point and shoot. And if you see me and want your picture taken, just ask. Know that I’ll always have my camera and wouldn’t mind being your personal paparazzi.

 

 

Also, Happy Martin Luther King Day everyone! While on your day off today, let’s not forget the importance of this day and what it means.

 

 

 

POLL : FLASH MODIFIERS

Today while cleaning out my closet, I found a bunch of flash modifiers that I used in the past. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has tried a few different kinds, but I’m curious on what everyone is using now? So to help answer that question, I created a little poll below. Go ahead and vote, it’s anonymous and I’m just trying to find out what other pros and non-pros are using. I’m currently using the FLIP-IT. This will be interesting! Oh and you can vote more than once, since I know some people like to do multiple things.

FAQ : ENGAGEMENT SESSION

I often get asked by my clients, what is an engagement session and more importantly what is my approach to it. And that is why I have made a short clip about the engagement session, to help answer some of those questions.

 

What I want to add also which I didn’t mention in the short clip, is that it’s a great chance for us to get to know each other better. And that’s really important because come day of your wedding, you’ll know what to expect and not to mention you’ll be more comfortable in front of the camera. What I want to give my clients, is a sense that a friend is shooting photos for them. Just a day to cut loose, have fun and be your selfs. At the same time finding that great lighting and making some beautiful photos.

 

I want to give a special thanks to Vinh & Janet for being such a fun loving couple! Click HERE if you would like to see more photos from their session. Feel free also to leave me comments or questions.

 


Vinh and Janet from Brian Khang on Vimeo