Week 10

Week 8 Weekly Photo: Controversy

I took this image when I was living in china. This image of a terra-cotta soldier holding hands with a small girl was strangely disturbing. At the end of the tour, in a sort of regrouping area, there is a giant warrior marionette puppet holding the hand of a girl puppet. The warrior is giving the little girl serious side eye. For those who never heard of the terracotta soldiers before. Over the past 35 years, archaeologists have located some 600 pits, a complex of underground vaults as yet largely excavated across a 22-square-mile area. Some are hard to get to, but three major pits are easily accessible, enclosed inside the four-acre Museum of the Terracotta Army, constructed around the discovery site and opened in 1979. In one pit, long columns of warriors, reassembled from broken pieces, stand in formation.With their topknots or caps, their tunics or armored vests, their goatees or close-cropped beards, the soldiers exhibit an astonishing individuality. A second pit inside the museum demonstrates how they appeared when they were found: some stand upright, buried to their shoulders in soil, while others lie toppled on their backs, alongside fallen and cracked clay horses. The site ranks with the Great Wall and Beijing's Forbidden City as one of the premier tourist attractions within China. This image i felt as if the statue of the soldier was looking down left at the little girl but secretly looking not a full head turn but only the eyes. This wouldn't be an issue if the soldier looked to the left with his head turned but the fact that only his eyes are looking at the girl kind makes it creepy. The girls eyes are hollowed out and nothing but blackness is seen in her eyes. Either this was intentional or this was a just something that the creator missed. 

Week 7 Weekly Photo: Adult Content

This weeks challenge was to recreate a vintage adult photography. I decided to use one of my photos I took recently of a model posing on a couch. My goal was to be able apply a cool effects that would make this image look like an old vintage photo. The issue I ran into was that the style of the photo that I took was a bit too modern. The lighting and quality of the image was very high and I spent most of my time trying to downgrade the image and make it look old. Which was surprisingly more difficult than I thought. I first added a film grain look to the image. With the film grain look I had to adjust it from size, intensity, and spread. Using other image references I found that the old films that they use to take these photos weren't necessarily bad it was very uniques and organic and varies between every shot and film stock. The common issue I found with the old vintage images where the lens and quality of the look. This was the downfall of the old cameras. Some vintage images had a great lens which made the image look sharp and clear while other where a bit faded. I believe this had to do with the decomposition of the film itself. It could be very possible that when the photo was originally shot and processed the image must of have been pretty clear and beautiful. Although I don't expect that some person was able to time travel back then and get there hands on a freshly process photo and was able to digital scan it then came back to post it online. Although there are a number of photographers that attempted to recreate the the old vintage look and some where very accurate and believable and the others where just to modern and didnt fit it.

Week 6 Weekly Photo: Collage

A collage is a work of art composed of numerous materials, such as paper, newsprint, photographs, ribbons or other objects attached to background support, such as plain paper. A collage can even be made with physical materials or electronic images, attaching them to a digital background. Originating from the French word "coller", meaning "to glue", the collage allows you to experiment with a wide range of materials to achieve amazing end results. This article provides a sample of the many possibilities limited only by your creativity and imagination. By definition, a collage should be made up of several different pieces. Those pieces can be made of all sorts of items, such as paper, yarn, fabric, stamps, magazine cut-outs, plastic, raffia, foil, labels, lids, matchsticks, corks, natural items (bark, leaves, seeds, eggshells, seashells, twigs, etc.), buttons, and so forth. You can either choose one medium such as paper or fabric, or you can make an eclectic mix, such as paper, buttons and foil. My Collage was compiled through photoshop. And instead of using a variety of images I used the same image but split up the different sections with different effects. The original image was taken at Hyde Bellagio during one of their nightclub events. The DJ is locally known as DJ Loczi a local resident DJ that often plays at Bellagio. This Night I was a photographer and I brought one of my lenses with the intent to create a cool image. The lens I used was a 15mm Fisheye from Canon. My settings set to shutter speed 1/100s and the F-stop was set to F4 and the ISO was set to 2000.  The goal was to be able to capture a symmetrically composed shot behind his DJ  boards. I was able to time out the shot perfectly where he was raising his hands up and the background was lit by a wall of LEDs. 

Week 6 EOC: How has art changed you?

As for how it has changed me, first I have to admit it has always been with me just as it is with every child. Every child is an artist. But unfortunately we lose it mostly because of the disciplinarian trend in education we are subjected too. So it would be fair to say art actually shapes us to start with. Later in life some of re-discover it and I think they are enormously richer for having done so.
As for me, I realized I was artistically inclined after high school when I shot my first short film. Everything that I did prior made me realize how creative I was and thus the dots where connected. Even though I would say Im artistic as in I can draw, paint, ect. Im artistic in a way that I can see things a bit differently and present them to other with very little miscommunication. Thus that lead me doing photography and video work as a career. 
At the moment I am still taking the first hard steps into developing a reliable career but at the age that I am and the respect and good reputation that the film and photo community has for me it is only a matter of time till I am able to be in a position to hire others just as young, talented, and hungry for experience and guide them into the their right directions.
An advice that I remember all the time is that "If your not good at what you do them you must be funny but if your not funny you better be good at what you do."

EOC - Photography Store

This weeks assignment is to take a photo of yourself in a photography store. This image was taken at a bestbuy store located in the SW side of town and in this store location there is small photo department that has a limited amount of gear for consumers. The disappointing thing about this store is that is doesn't have the top of the line cameras such as D750, 1DC, D800,  1DX from Canon and so forth. The good thing about shopping at bestbuy is that they offer a great credit card awards program which if I where to purchase a camera from them as long as it over $1000 you can have 6 month no interest. I did this with a camera I bought from them last year. At this store I was there to see if they have the new apple watch that I wanted to buy. That watch would help me out when shooting nightlife because of the constant messaging and email checking during the event that I am working at.

Paparazzi image

This image is suppose to represent a paparazzi image of me working on a set. A lot of filmmakers have their image taken while filming out on location. Some examples are JJ abram on the set of the new starwars film. In this image you can see a film crew and couple of actors in chairs. I am located in the middle wearing blue and operating the camera. A similar post that is famous at the moment is a image captured on an iphone similar to this of  ryan reynold on set with a film crew working on the new deadpool movie. How I set up this shot was simple since I was actually filming a short film scene I asked my buddy brylle gaviola to take a paparazzi type shot of me working on his iPhone. The positioning of the people one the set was all arrange by me from the actor to the placement of camera gear and crew members. Even though thi shot isnt the best quality but for the most part some of the most famous paparazzii images are taking on iphone cameras anyways.

You Incredible!

This photos is called "You Incredible" the image is part of a weekly assignment for my business of photography course.The goal is to capture yourself in an amazing location. In this photograph I am out taking a break from a long hike up a mountain located at redrock. This hike at Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas, Nevada is a study in contrast. You are always in the Mojave Desert, but it looks markedly different depending on your elevation and the amount of precipitation the area gets. With the White Rock Loop, you see typical desert plants. On the west side of the mountain, hidden from the Scenic Drive. My friends an I decided to start the hike early in the morning and a couple hours in we where at a location which strangely had a lot of grass. I normally dont take hike but this little journey was a uniques experience. Im not a very out door type of person so prepping for the trip I wasnt sure what exactly to bring. For the most part my camera was one of the essential items in my bag followed by some snack and water. It was cold that day so I decided to where my long sleeve shirt which by the time the sun came up it was extremely hot. This image was taken with my 24-70 mm L series canon lense. My buddy william not to familiar with how to use the camera had a bit of a learning curve. But after a short period of trying to figure out the camera I just took the camera and set it up for him so all he needed to do was to press the shutter button. I would definetly go back to this location because there is a large amount of green plants which is rare to see in nevada. Next time maybe Ill bring a umbrella because there was littlery no shade the whole hike.

Constructed self portrait

This self portrait was shot on a late night out in the middle of Red Rock mountain area. The image was created by using different colored lighting gels and using a technique called long exposure. To be able to achieve this you must be able to manually control a flash and have a secondary assistant flash it at your subjects face. For this image we modified the shutter speed to 3 seconds. During these 3 seconds the camera would be constantly collecting light information from the nearby environment. This include the mountains which are lit by the ery dim moon light and any lights illuminating the scene with the cars driving by. We set the subject, which was myself, in one constant spot and had the camera mounted on a stationary tripod. We then initiated the shutter and took the image. During the first second we flash myself with a normal warm color light. Then we changed the gel to with a red one and i moved my head and flashed again. Finally we did the same but changed the gel to a blue one. When the shot is finished in camera you will see a transparent type image of yourself in three different positions? I did this because I feel like it showed the different side of my emotions. They specific types of emotion are entirely up to your own opinion. I feel that this image even though it might not be the most breathtaking. My goal was to make you feel a bit uncomfortable and think about your own emotions.

EOC Week 1 - Voice

My name is Andrew Dang. I am a freelance filmmaker and photographer based out of Las Vegas. A large majority of my work has been independent contracting for a variety of media companies. I specialize in cinematography, video editing, and motion graphics. I am currently in my senior year in college studying for my Bachelors of Science in Visual Effects and Motion Graphics. My goal is to be able to develop skills in a variety of areas with the intent of being a versatile individual.

My skills and experience lies in Video Production and Post Production. I am knowledgeable on a variety of cameras such as Red, Canon C100, Canon 5D Mark iii, Nikon D800 and many more. In the post production area I have extensive experience using softwares dealing with photo manipulation, video editing and effects, and 3d modeling.

My portfolio consist of Weddings, Documentaries, Music Videos, Promotional Videos, and Photography. I have work for companies and corporations such as Showtime Sports, Hakkasan Nightclub, Surrender Nightclub, Encore Beach Club, Samsung, Salt TV London, Healthcare Partners of Nevada, Fremont East Studio, Superstar Studio and What’s Trending LA. Through working with these companies I have gained a deep understanding of the dependence film and business have on one another in order to succeed and thrive in a competitive environment.

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DangLasVegas