End Of The Year Round Up

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I've pretty much retired the camera for the rest of the year so there isn't much for me to post as far as new photography stuff is concerned. However, I have added a few items in my Etsy shop for sale and I'd also like to put up an update for my UNICEF project as well. Here are the new prints I've added to my shop:



Delicate 8x10 Lambda print $50



Urban Growth 5x7 Machine print $8



Lone Honda 11x14 Machine print $30



The Steps 8x10 Ilford print $20



Urban Angel 11x14 Machine print $30



Two Pinks 5x7 Machine print $8

I've also got a promotion going on through the month of December. Use coupon code "Birthday" at checkout and take 10% off your final order. Also remember that 25% of the proceeds of each print sold will go towards a donation to UNICEF's US General Fund. With that said, let me update you on how that project is going...

Through the month of December, I've sold 1 print via a private sale which was:

Over The City Lies The City Of Angels: 16x20 print $40

UNICEF received $10 from that sale.

As it stands:

December: $10
YTD 2010: $15.75
Since project inception: $15.75

2010, you went by quickly...

Favorite shot of 2010

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The year is coming to a close and I don't think I'll be taking any more photos that would make my favorites list as far as can I see. I haven't really gone out to shoot on my own desire since just before Thanksgiving so my camera is currently collecting some dust. So I've pretty much retired for the year and waiting for 2011!

I think I had a pretty good year with my photography. Met a good number of great photographers. Did a lot of street work, went to a protest or two and clocked a number of shutter clicks since I purchased my camera. I picked up the camera right around March and to date, I've logged over 7500 clicks so I put my camera to work this year. I went through all the photos I took this year and went through the short list of favorite photos. It was quite difficult to pick out just one favorite from this year but after a number of hours late last night/ early this morning, I've come up with one.



May of 2010. Me and a couple of friends decided to head out to DTLA to check out and photograph the May Day rally. This was my first experience in attending a large scale protest event. I've been to other protests which numbered in the couple of hundreds to close to/over a thousand but I've never been, nor seen something that ranged in the couple of thousands. Not sure of how many actually attended but I'd say it easily broke 10k and I'm being conservative with that number.

When I snapped this photo, the march was already well under way. This photo was taken about 3/4 of the way to the end of the march which eventually stopped at city hall. There was a large number of people supporting the passing of the Dream Act so this contingent of people were mainly (high school) students. They had a small drum line leading the pack which I thought was cool. The stuff they were playing had a good rhythm so people in and around the immediate area were getting down. Not necessarily dancing all that much but the rhythm set the mood. Out of nowhere, this woman stepped out of nowhere and started dancing and getting down which amped everyone up, took over and eventually lead the group.

This photo ended up being my favorite because of two things. First, the photographic style of photojournalism is my favorite to shoot. Raw, and nothing set up or posed. A lot of my favorites are usually this kind of photography which is why I love to go out and shoot street photography more than anything else. Catching the essence of a moment like these are what I search for which leads to reason number two: the context of this photo. This was a protest. Everyone here was fighting and supporting a reason or cause. Although this particular event was big, there were many causes and fights that people were supporting but we were all like minded people (left of center). Not that many people were..."festive" with respect to the fights but this group of students fighting for the dream act were and this woman especially. Dance as a form of protest isn't anything new, weird or out of the blue. I've seen it before at many events and seeing it is always a refreshing sight. In a way, her raw and passionate dance was kind of a big "fuck you" to anyone working against the passing of the Dream Act. I really enjoyed watching that and lucky enough to snap this shot up. I took a short video shot of this that can be seen here.

2011 is going to be another great year for me. Got some ambitious plans. Looking to pick up some new gear. Maybe a new film camera by way of medium format. Maybe a new DSLR. A couple of lenses and some lighting maybe. Also looking to venture out of town more. No specific areas just yet but for the moment, my eyes are set north. More of central California and definitely northern California. San Francisco is in my crosshairs. Anyway, I hope all you shooters had a great year in photography. Here's to next year. I look forward to what I can push myself to create and look forward to seeing all the great photos from you and other photographers!

-Q

UNICEF Update / Etsy Update / Etc.

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Just an update about the UNICEF project:

Through the month of November I've sold two photographic prints via my Etsy store which were:

Say No To H8: $15
6th Street Bridge: $8

For a grand total of $23 to which UNICEF gets $5.75

As it stands:

November: $5.75
YTD: $5.75
Since project inception: $5.75

Not much really but it's going somewhere. I haven't made the donation to UNICEF yet as I don't think they'll accept such a small amount and I don't plan on doing the donation until the end of this year and every quarter.

As far as Etsy is concerned, I've just added a 10% discount on all my prints through the month of December since it's my birthday month. Etsy recently added the option for sellers to offer coupons which I think is very cool. Anyway, just enter the code "Birthday" in the coupon code box (actually, I don't know where exactly you enter the code but I'm sure it's somewhere near the end of checkout...) when you check out and that 10% discount is as good as yours.

Also, I've switched up and changed the songs playing on this blog. Decided to throw on some songs that I grew up on earlier (elementary/jrhs) years. Hope you digs!

Hola Gato!

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Back in my earlier years I used to love all things Sanrio. It wasn't so much the characters that initially made me a fan of the store but rather WHAT they sold at their stores. I was a pretty nerdy kid. Still am (a little bit). I used to love stationary products. Pens, pencils, erasers etc. Sanrio had some of the best stationary products around. There was never a time when I entered that store in my pre-teen years that I didn't walk away without a nifty looking pen or mechanical pencil. Thinking about this particular past now, I fondly remember their super cool pencil cases with various compartments and buttons that ejected either a pencil sharpener or eraser compartment!

I lost my interest in Sanrio sometime around my freshman year in high school but I pretty much grew up on Sanrio. At the very least, Sanrio resides in a special place in my heart. When I heard about Sanrio's 50th Anniversary festival that went down in Santa Monica Airport a week back, I just had to go to and check it out.

The event took place within the confines of a hanger and there was a massive amount of people there. Not surprised at all. What I found so special about this event were the many families that attended. I'd say that a good amount of the parents there were about my age and it's probably safe to say that these parents grew up on Sanrio just like I did and now being that Sanrio is still just as popular as it was when I was growing up, these parents are fondly remembering their past Sanrio experience, and sharing this festival experience with their kids!

As a kid, I never thought, nor did it ever occur to me that Sanrio was a massive thing. An influence if you will. It wasn't until I rekindled my past love for the company, being older, that I can see and acknowledge that Sanrio has had such a big impact and influence on a great deal of people. All the festival attendees, all the artists that contributed their Sanrio inspired art for the event...I found that realization to be quite striking.

I really hope Sanrio continues to be relevant in the years to come. It'd be a pretty cool thing to come back to a 75th anniversary festival and bring along my family and regale my kids about what Sanrio was to me when I was their age...

For more photos from the festival, visit my 17thletter Photography fan page on Facebook!

Off To A Good Start!

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Well today has gotten off to a good start! I woke up and checked my email and was greeted by a notification that I've sold a print! The sale itself wasn't what really made me happy (I'll admit though, whenever I do sell a print, it does bring a bit of joy). What really made me happy was that this is the first sale since I implemented my UNICEF donations for every print I sold! Even though the percentage from this sale equates to a little under $4, that's money to and for the kids and a cause I really care about! This little charity project is ever ongoing so there will be (hopefully) many more sales to go towards UNICEF. Here's the inaugural print:



I know in my previous entry I promised some photos from this past weekend's photoshoot on the set of filming but I just haven't had the chance to get around to looking at them. However, I just remembered that I had intended to post up some photos from the De Lacy Collection photoshoot that I did a month or two ago but forgot. I had to wait for the "ok" to post the photos so without further adieu, here are just some of my favorite photos from that shoot:






If you'd like to see more photos from the De Lacy shoot, visit my 17thletter Photography fan page on Facebook (and while you're at it, become a fan if you haven't already ;) )

Exhausted

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I am SO exhausted from this weekend. Had a very long shoot on Saturday shooting photos for a film project. The filming itself called for a night shoot but the call time was at noon so I figure I'd be punctual and do the BTS (behind the scene) thing but not everyone was there at call time and things didn't begin until about 5. Having had no sleep the night before didn't help with my energy levels but I was the trooper and held strong up until the later hours of the filming when I started to feel the effects of said lack of sleep. I'm not sure when filming ended since I left at midnight and from what I heard, they had two more scenes to film so I can only guess when filming did end. I have the photos already uploaded onto the computer but I'm not going to look at them until tomorrow. Documenting overload! I don't care to look at another photo, nor pick up another camera until the end of this week but I figure I'll start working on the photos and have them up sometime middle of the week.

With the little energy I have left (as I'm still rather tired at this very moment), I've managed to add two new photos for sale onto my Etsy store:



Classic Lean 5x7 Machine Print



Coin Operated 8x10 Machine Print


If you should feel so inclined to purchase, remember that 25% from each sale made will go towards a charitable donation to UNICEF's US general fund! Should you not feel so inclined, visit UNICEF's site!

Sleep!

DTLA Art Walk

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This is one of my saddest entries. For a long time, my friend Alex had been pushing me to hit up the monthly Downtown LA Art Walk and from the day he spilled the details to me on the event, I've always wanted to go but for everytime I wanted to go, something came up with work. See, I work nights on call so I don't have much flexibility to do anything I want to do outside of work, during my work schedule. Whenever I thought I had enough off time to check out the event, I get called in. Whenever I try to play it by ear, and when I say that, I mean if I don't get called in by 7pm, it ends up being too late to go and I end up not making the effort. Well last night was different.

Usually when I get called in for work around 5p-6p, I do what I need to do and have alot of time left over until I get called in again, if ever. Last night was one of those instances so I was sure I'll be in DTLA to take in all that is the art walk. I was SO excited because I've heard so many great things and it seemed like my type of scene! So I got everything ready. I sort of dressed for the occasion. I didn't dress all fancy but what I felt would fit in. Eh, consider it a half attempt but not half assed. Wore some comfortable gray denim, my newly purchased Beautiful Tears T-shirt, and my black Dickies jacket and winter cap to keep warm. Checked the battery level and memory card on my camera to make sure I capture the walk. Looked (somewhat) good? Check. Camera ready? Check. Did my work thing and off I went to the art walk!

It seemed like it was going to be a solo mission but I got word from a friend that she was going to be there so once I arrived Downtown, my first priority was to meet up. I walked the couple of blocks to meet my friend and I couldn't believe how many people were there at Gallery Row! All types of people were there, hanging outside of various galleries and eateries, having fun...a really festive environment. I loved it instantly! I managed to meet up with my friend around 8p and we all headed down to one of the lots where all the food trucks were parked to grab a bite to eat. I was told a lot of food trucks were in the area to serve the patrons of the walk but I was amazed at the amount of trucks there at the event. There were 3 lots dedicated to them! Instead of my idea of this being an all art event, it transformed into an art/food event! Who doesn't love great art and great food?

I have nothing but grand things to say about this event, had a great time with friends, so why is this my saddest entry? Well not long after having my bite to eat, I had to leave 30mins later for work. I didn't really mind that because I had a great time while I was there. Didn't enter any galleries. Wanted to. But from the moment I got there, met with the friends, grabbed a bite to eat then had to go unexpectedly, there was no time. Understandable in hindsight. I think what really disappointed me tonight was the fact that I took no photos. I REALLY wanted to take photos. I took a couple of shots here and there but nothing worthy of uploading and showing in this entry. My inaugural DTLA art walk and I have no photos to mark the occasion. Bad ninja.

There will be another art walk as it is a monthly event. I think for the next times, I'll dedicate the night solely for the art walk and ask for the night off so I can have a proper immersion for the event. Last night, I just got my feet wet. The next time/s, there will be photos. Oh, there will be photos!

***BTW***

I hope you guys like the new addition to ELYH. I added a music player with a 7 song playlist that'll be changed on a monthly basis.

Beautiful Tears

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When it comes to all things style, I'm a sucker for many things. Classic shoe styles such as Converse All Stars and Adidas Originals (to name two), Levi's denim (I swear by them) and beautifully designed T-shirts. OMG T-shirts! I used to go crazy with them. My collection is too big to fit into my closet so I have off season sets and a set of T's readily hung because they're just too cool to put away. Lately I've been a good boy in my T-shirt purchases. I bought only 3 this year and even though we are in the Fall season, I couldn't help myself in picking up this lovely little number by Beautiful Decay called Beautiful Tears!



Picked it up on sale and got the last one in my size. Meant to be!

Making Change

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Not too long ago, I was asked by a member on Etsy to join a collective of political and social artists/activists called Making Change. Being the progressive that I am, I was highly interested and eventually joined the collective. That said, I'm quite political. Not overtly in the sense that I'm preachy. I know of some people who are political to the point that their views come off as elitest and preachy. I'm no better than you and I'm just trying to find ways to make the world a better place.

As far as my work goes, I have done some political, progressive oriented works. Mostly photojournalist in style by documenting various political rallies and/or street photography but that's as far as my work goes politically. So far...

Even then, said work isn't much. I don't do much street work as I used to and I don't do as much street work as I would like to and even living in a lively city such as Los Angeles, political rallies and protests are few and far between.

A lingering yearning to make more of a difference has been on my mind as of late which is why I joined such a collective as Making Change but I still would like to do more. It dawned on me recently that one effective way I can start to make some semblance of a change is to utilize the sales of my photographic prints and separate a portion of the sales to go towards donations to a cause I'm interested in helping out. So I've decided that effective today, 25% of all sales I make from selling my prints, by way of my Etsy shop, any future online stores I open, and private dealings, will go towards UNICEF's US General Fund.

Why UNICEF? For one, it is a non-partisan group. Two, and most importantly, it goes towards helping children. It is my firm belief that the path to a better future for our species and civilization lies with children. I think it's fair to say that we're very fortunate to be living in modern, industrialized nations such as the US, England, France etc. Despite the problems within said countries respectively, our kids don't have to worry about whether or not the water they drink is clean, that is, if they are able to get water from the start. They don't have to worry about getting a good and proper education (the American education system is debatable and is rather on "par" but that whole subject is another story...). Millions of kids living in developing countries suffer from malnutrition, lack of clean water, lack of education and various other problems that need solving. As fortunate as we are, I think we need to do more to solve such issues for children less fortunate. As fortunate as I am, I feel I need to do my part.

Regardless of whether or not you or anyone ends up buying one of my prints, I ask that you visit UNICEF's site and make a contribution of your own if you can. It doesn't even have to be UNICEF. That's my cause. If you have a cause of your own that you wish to contribute to, please do so. Breast cancer research, HIV/AIDS research, world hunger, Red Cross disaster relief funds, whatever your choice may be, make that contribution.

I apologize for the last couple of sentences as they are rather preachy but I hope for it to be taken as the good kind of preachy. Obligatory...