12.23.07

Well, today I took babygirl out to check out Wicked at the Pantages, and well, it was... wicked. I don't really go to things like that, but I figured she would be super into it, and she was. I'm sure most plays aren't crazy like that and I really lucked out deciding that it would be cool to go to that one. Another thing I have to give big props for is for Nick over at Torsion and Mitch from Endovenera, for hooking up my clothes for that, I don't really have alot of dressy kind of stuff and, those guys always come through for me when ever I need any thing

12.19.07

Well, I'm out here in Ventura shooting the next product catalog for Neff Headwear and I must say this sucks. Not the hat, not the clothing, not the people, just the situation. I love Neff, he's a cool guy, and I think in his cool, pseudo homie/snow bro way, he loves me to, even when I am being difficult. It's just all part of our process. All of his latest stuff looks really really good. I admit I was surprised and excited. He definitely stepped up his game and he named a cap after me, which automatically makes him cool and my book and strokes my already inflated ego. But, I will admit that this shoot is extremely hard and demanding. I've never had working conditions like this, and I think I have eaten more junk food than I ever have in my life. I'm really lucky that I brought out my friend Lucie on this one, because she is a really hard worker and she really helped me out on this one, I think with out her, there is no way I could have gotten this one done.

One thing that has reinvigorated my will to live after this shoot, is that my buddy KRK Ryden got some paintings to me while I was here, so that made me really happy. KRK is an awesome guy, and always hooks me up with some great stuff. Xmas for sure came early for me this year, this is one of the two that he sent over to me.

12.18.07

So this is something pretty cool that came out a while ago, but didn't realize. A month ago or so, The Gym Class Heroes did a CD/DVD rerelease of thier album As Cruel As School Children and as one of the Bonus features, Atlantic Records included a photogallery of some photos that I have taken of them while on the road. I had forgotten all about till recently and Anthony from Atlantic was kind enough to send one out to me. It's pretty weird to look back at some of these photos and remember stuff from that particular day or that tour. I'm really happy that I got this, sometimes doing what I do, you spend so much time working on something, and you are never sure how it will all work out in the end, but to actually see it all come together like this, is really amazing. I feel really fortunate to be able to blend work and friendship quite seamlessly. I really can't wait to see what next year brings for the all of us.

12.17.07

So most of my friends and cohorts know that I have been in a terrible mood lately and rather unpleasant to be around. But this little creation that Mr. Andrew Jeffery Wright came up with a few years ago never ceases to put a smile on my face. I love this print he came up with called MR. ET with a soda can is so funny, I see it everyday, and everyday I almost pee my pants with glee. Thanks Andrew.

12.16.07

Go to this! Klever is so awesome, I'm pretty excited about this one

12.15.07

I just got back from a much needed trip to Utah. I finally got a chance to visit the new Skullcandy offices and It is really amazing how much they have grown since my last visit. I also got to take a peep at some of the new ads that they are using some of my work for featuring DGK's Stevie Williams. The portraits are by me, and the action photos are by Matt Daughters. I'm pretty excited, and I think I am actually going to be shooting quite a bit more for these guys which makes me pretty happy. I have to admit that I actually really like it in Utah, well at least Park City and Salt Lake, I'm not so sure about everywhere else, but I've never really had a bad time there. I'm definetely going to be back out for Sundance.

12.05.06

I am going to try really hard to make this the last time I talk about feeling bad, at least for a while. I had a pretty awesome shoot today with Kid Sister for Luxirie for their new ad campaign. She was so fun to shoot with and really nice. To be honest, I was pretty nervous and excited to shoot with her. I have to admit, I'm a fan. Control and Pro Nails are pretty amazing songs. Hopefully we'll be doing some more work together in the future
, and yes, she did have some pretty amazing nails.

12.01.07

Despite me not really being in the mood to be outside at the moment, I really couldn't stand being inside either, so I was able to make it over to Matt Gordon's art show over at RVCA. I have been really having a terrible week, and this really was something that managed to make me feel okay for at least a few hours, and I really appreciate everyone for showing me a good time over there. Matt's art work was outstanding. This was the first solo show he has had in six years, I was so glad I didn't miss it. For being in a terrible mood for the evening I think I managed to get some pretty good photos, and I was also pretty stoked to see Fatlip who use to be part of Pharcyde preform. I really have to thank everyone again for being so good to me, things are really rough for me right now, and I know everyone really did a pretty amazing job of making me feel good at least for a moment.

11.30.07

Well, this has been one of the worst weeks of my life and unfortunately it has to fall upon the same week as Matt Gordan's first solo art show in 6 years. I'm not sure if I'm going to make it, but I'm sure his work will be amazing.

11.24.07

I don't even know how to begin
a post like this. Today I lost a friend of mine. Casey Calvert of Hawthorne Heights passed away.

When I heard this today I was completely floored, actually paralyzed. I thought it was some sort of really sick joke. But unfortunately a started getting a barrage of phone calls about it, and it was confirmed.

I've always loved all the boys in Hawthorne, always kind, always going out of their way for people. I've never known a band to do so much to help people out. I don't know how to really express all that I feel for the guys, but I really owe them quite a bit. Not alot of people know this, but Hawthorne really was one of the first really large bands that I was asked to shoot for. They were amazingly kind, and from that day stayed in touch with me and gave me numerous opportunities to shoot for them all around the country. When any other band in a position like theres would have probably gone off to use a more popular or seasoned photographer, they took a chance on a new young up and comer. I'll never forget all the times hanging out with the guys and shooting them. I owe them all so much, and I don't even know how to express what I am feeling right now about this loss. He was an amazing guy.

11.19.07

I just got wind of the new Triumvir X 530 Media Lab collabo, that looks pretty promising. Next year with this two is already looking pretty crazy. The next slew are defiantly going to be the kind that are going to be really something that will be enduring, but worth it in the end.

A bunch of ads that I worked on just dropped this month. I think I have some in Alternative Press, Vapors, BPM, and Antenna. I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones that come to mind.

11.11.07

Here are some photos that I shot while I was at Barry Mcgee's show at the Red Cat Gallery, I would have posted them earlier, but I left this camera in Joe from Franco Shade's car. I think I went to this show early October or something like that, it was right after I wrapped the Eastpack shoot I know that. This show pretty much ruled, and if you can go, you should, because it's really great. Barry's work is always really impressive, and I come away inspired every time.

11.09.07

Today I just got back from my San Fran trip which was alot longer than expected, but really had fun. I got to spend alot of time with some of my family that lives up there as well as with a bunch of friends. The RVCA SF store was beautiful, I'll put up some pics in a bit, I'm still working on some of those. One thing I did see today was an ad that I did for SJC drums with Matt McGinley of the Gym Class Heroes that I didn't know was running yet. Right after my plane landed from SF, I hooked up with my buddy Adrian from Revolt Marketing who is currently touring around with the band Paramore and took me to meet everyone in the band. Everyone was extremely cool, and had a great time hanging out with them, it was kind of nice to not be the only sober one for once. Anyway they had a copy of the latest AP on the bus, and I happen to stumble upon the ad while flipping through it and was pretty excited about it.

11.06.07

I kind of want to punch in the face anyone who says that I have it easy, sometimes this job really sucks. I haven't been home in quite sometime, and I don't really get posh accommodations when I'm out most of the time. I was thumbing through one of my point and shoot cameras, and I found some of these photos of a crappy hotel room I had a while back, I remember being terrified that I was going to get carried off in my sleep by cockroaches or crack whores or something like that. It was pretty sweet, I found a nice little needle under my bed, lucky me! I mean I still wouldn't have any other job, I just like to rant sometimes.

11.05.07

Well, I've been in up north in the bay area for the last couple of days and have had a really great time seeing alot of family and friends. I wasn't originally going to come up here till Thursday for the RVCA SF store opening party, but the guys from Skullcandy convinced me to come up for the Icer Air event in the the Giants stadium. I've been waiting all year for this event. I'm really really excited.

Before Icer Air, I have never been to a Ski or Snowboarding contest. I have to admit it was actually alot cooler than I thought it was going to be. I got to meet a bunch of people that are on the Skullcandy Ski team as well as thier team manager who was a extremely cool guy, and I really look forward with working with him again in the future. I also got to chill a bit with Andreas Wiig who I shot last month and had no idea who he was until after the shoot and was super cool. I really think he is an awesome guy and I was actually really sad when he didn't win. I normally don't get bummed at sporting events, because I am really not interested in sports, but Andreas is an amazingly nice person, I think even the guy that came in first was bummed he did, because Andreas Wigg is that awesome. I am honestly excited that I am going to be spending alot of this winter on the snow.

11.02.07

Joe from Franco Shade needs to pay me by the 15th of this month for all the stuff I've been shooting for him or else I get to keep his dog Bronx (my contract with him says so), so to help raise the funds to save his dog and pay my highly inflated fees Joe decided to have a warehouse to generate some quick funds.

11.01.07

Well, today is kind of weird for me, because it's one of my friend's birthdays, and well this normally wouldn't make it on the site nor would it be weird, but this site wouldn't really exist if it wasn't for her. So I wanted to give her a shout out. You see one of the few reasons why I became a photographer (aside from the fact that it's one of the few things I can do right) was to impress her. Before we became friends I had an enormously huge, I mean retardedly huge crush on her. When I say retardedly huge, I mean like almost embarrassingly huge. Like everyone knew at our school knew, but I didn't know they knew, so I looked really dumb when I would follow her around campus. I actually took and extra semester of school just to hang out with her ( sorry mom, I promise tuition for that semester wasn't that high) , as well as a bunch of photo classes that I didn't really need, hence the fact that I got a bunch of extra photo experience and decided that I could actually do this for a living. I normally use to make some sort of ordeal out of her bday, and well things would be kind of weird because I would, and she would say things to me like it's only weird because I make it weird so I decided to do it differently this year. I'm kind of sad that things arn't like they use to be where it was kind of like Screech blindly chasing after Lisa Turtle around the Campus of Bayside high trying to woo her in Saved by the Bell , there was a strange sweetness to it all that I miss, but things change and I'm kind of older now and have to think that their are repercussions for my actions, but anyway today is her Bday, and I wanted to let her know that I didn't forget about her and shes made sure I never will, Fruit Bat, I still love you lots and lots , happy birthday.

p.s. I know she thinks I forgot and I know she never comes to my site, so I think it would be funny when one day she happens to come here and sees this. It's only weird because I make it that way.

10.31.01

So lately i have been kind of obsessed with facebook thanks to Brad from Skullcandy and his consistent badgering of trying to turn me on to this thing. I never joined Friendster, and it was hard enough for me to finally get into myspace. Even worse, they have this thing where you can add a bunch of applications to your profile, and one was to become a Zomble. So I did and now I spend a good portion of my time in the morning fighting other Zombies, Werewolves and Vampires, sounds like I am being pretty productive right? Here is a shot of my little guy as a Zombie Lefttenit I don't know why I get so addicted to such things. This is exactly why I don't play too many video games any more.
While I was in Vegas with Derek of the Bum Squad Dj's and Brad from Skullcandy, I was emailed about a new David Choe print that was out and I went online and purchased it right away, and today, I've finally got it! I've really been into David's art for a really long time, but have never really had the chance to get anything, so I was really really excited about the opportunity to pick this guy up. I don't really buy too much art any more, because I get really caught up in work, but I felt like I needed to spoil my self a bit, and well I figured this way would actually be the least expensive, and the least self destructive thing I could do. Although I am going to have a pretty big art week coming up with the Vans Sky Gallery event coming up, as well as Kelsey's Lab 101 show and the RVCA SF event coming up as well. I think I am going to be broke...

10.30.07

Today I had a photo shoot with DGK and Reebok Skater Stevie Williams for Skullcandy. Stevie was ridiculously nice and his dad who was at the shoot as well as really cool. I was really happy about the turn out, and I was really happy that it was on the street as opposed to the studio. I have been shooting a ton of in studio catalog stuff and it has really been bumming me out. So it was nice to be outside for the afternoon. It was cool to find out the Stevie was a fan of the show NBC Heroes, because my buddy James is on the show, I would have never thought he would be into it, but I thought that was pretty cool.

My pals over at Franco Shade and Dj's GMO and Dan Sena are putting on a pretty sweet Halloween Party over at the Detroit bar in Costa Mesa. I usually don't make it out to alot of stuff, but there are too many good things happening at this one, and I know way too many people working on this one to miss out. GMO and Dan have a regular night over at the Detroit called Busy Work, which is actually a pretty good night, tons of rad people go, and they have some pretty awesome bands come through and play. Earlier this month it was their night that Datarock came to play, and I also saw Har Mar Superstar and Modrocket play there after a RVCA party that they played.

10.29.07

So I've spent this last weekend recovering not only from my trip from NYC, but also from My buddy Jonas and Kev. D's birthday party and it was pretty great. The party was hosted by Bee Nguyen and presented by Kevion over at One Sunset and all the the usual suspects were there, Ben Baller, Lucky I Am, Mick Boogie, and Rob G from the LRG skate team. It was pretty crazy and defiantly a night to remember check out the photos here.

10.28.07

So I have officially been back from NYC for a week, and I still haven't recovered, I really have to thank Britney Revolver for not only taking care of me during my stay and showing me all of NY's hot spots like Queens, Bed-Sty, and of course the world famous Nathan's hot dogs! She went ever further by making sure that I wouldn't get lost while trekking through the city by coordinating outfits with me each day so that we would be easy to spot if we ever got lost in a crowd. You can see her elegantly photographed here by NYC's own Nicky Digital. As you can see we are both dress here in coordinateing grey and black stripes, except she of course being the thoughtful damsel she is decided to sew sequins into her top so that she would be a beacon of light if we were ever to be seperated. So thoughtful!

10.27.06

this event is going to be pretty sweet, and its for a good cause, I'll be there, so you should to

10.26.07

Today my friend Jonas from LRG turns 30. This party is going to be insane! We're got tons of projects lined up and I just completed two huge photoshoots for them for LRG and for Luxirie that should be out first quarter next year.

10.24.07

Well, I'm back from NYC and I've pretty much recovered from a week's worth of antics and shenanigans. I went out there pretty exhausted, and a came back even more. I have no idea what I was thinking when I told everyone that I was going to get some rest while I was out there. What I did happen to take care of was a bunch of business that I had to do while I was out there. The first thing I took care of out there was a bunch of paper work for Atlantic records so that my photos can be apart of the Gym Class Heroes rerelease of their album As Cruel As School Children. I was also asked to shoot Director/Art Curator and friend Aaron Rose for Huck Magazine. This is a snap shot of one of the locations we used. I recently had some photos published in most recent issue of their magazine of Kelsey Brookes.
The Heist Party was pretty crazy. It was a good chance for me to catch up with a ton of friends, Adrian (pictured here) was a gracious and lovely host as usual. I look forward to seeing him on his up and coming tour with Paramore. Ellie from the Shadowscene.com was out and about shooting away. Along with Bronx from lastnightsparties.com and Jac Vanek. I think most of them have photos up online for people to see some of the tomfoolery.

10.18.07

tonite tonite tonite

10.12.07

So, today I have a huge amount of stuff to do. First off, I have my first photoshoot with Luxirie the women's line from LRG. Which should be pretty fun. Shooting with everyone over at LRG is always really fun.

After that I've got to head over to Safari Sam's in Los Angeles to catch the KRK Ryden art show over there with Nu-tra preforming. I haven't seen KRK since his brother's tree show earlier this year. I think I haven't seen Vahe from Nu-tra since the KRK show at RVCA. KRK and I are working on some stuff for an upcoming issue if High Fructose magazine.

After all of this Pete is having another party over at the Fall Out Boy house, that I'm gonna head over to. So I've got a pretty large amount of stuff on my place today. I seriously don't know how I am able to get as much stuff done in a day as I do, and it really does feel overwhelming sometimes, it's pretty scary because this doesn't seem like it will ever let up.

10.09.07

So, with this ad marks my return to photographing for my homies at Franco Shade, I was on a hiatus from them for a few seasons, but now I am back and pretty excited to be. Joe pretty much gave Arlo and myself control over a bunch of the new shoots and well, its our job to make sure he regrets this decision. Look for this ad in the next issue of Antenna mag. This ad features the film director Paul Coy Allen who has worked with tons or Hollywood heavies in the music industry like Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. I shot with Paul last month, and I enjoyed the opportunity to work with him again this month. The conversation is always interesting when you take someone that is was to beinging behind then camera and putting them in front of it.

I've gotta thank Joe and everyone at Franco again for hooking it up for me and babygirl the other nite and getting me into Universal Studios for their Halloween bash. I feel bad that they weren't that into it, but I had a pretty awesome time. I still think Knotts is scarier, but it's still pretty cool.

10.08.07

So, they are at it again. Adrian and the Heist crew are throwing another gig, this time in NYC and they have asked me to be part of the event, which is pretty cool of them. I am going to be out there from the 16th to the 20th, chill'in and meeting up with alot of friends and things. It's weird, New York was a place that I rarely have ever been to, maybe once or twice my whole life, and then this year comes around, and I find myself out there almost every other month. It's always exciting, and I've been finding myself having a better and better time with each trip.

10.07.07

you find the weirdest things online when you do Google searches on yourself. I have found that there are tons of people with the same name as I, and that alot of them take pictures as well. I never really thought of my name as being anywhere remotely popular, considering I only know one other person with the same name as I. I also found that I share the same name with an Asian pop star. What I guess is kind of cool is that when you just type in " Quang " I am actually the first thing that pops up in the search. That is pretty cool I think, although it is pretty egotistical of me to be googling myself, and then write about it on my own website. I dunno, but I think everyone at some point in their life ends up googling themselves at some point in their life. One thing that that I found that was helpful during the search was a link to some photos that I shot of a Matt Costa event hosted by RVCA I shot a while back. Here is the link.