Commercial Photographer and Director
Introducing Abigail S. with a local agency here in North Carolina.
I really enjoyed working with her. She was quiet and demure but very responsive to direction despite only being 14. She has a vulnerable look but her features convey strength, especially her eyes.
We shot 3 looks and I can’t wait to share the rest!
A pure driving machine. I’ve always wanted one of these and found a bare bones no option 2003 model with only 85,000 miles on the clock. One requirement though, it had to be a stick shift. This thing costs 1/8 the price of a brand new Honda Civic so it fits the bill for a struggling photographer that also needs a safe and reliable ride.
The E46 chassis of the 3-series is by far and will always be my favorite iteration of the famed sports sedan. One doesn’t need a ton of power to how fun in a 3er. The engine, despite only being a 2.5 liter putting out 185 horsepower and 176 lb ft of torque, sings as it screams towards red line in each gear. Making trips to the gas station more frequent unfortunately.
Compared to the 4 cylinder turbocharged models of today, which sounds like listening to Taylor Swift on a pair of shitty Jawbone bluetooth speakers, the snarl of the M54 inline 6 sounds like a tube amp producing the warm, thick but raucous guitar notes of a Rolling Stones anthem. Sure the 4 cylinders produce power, but it’s not all about power. Sure you might get to the next stop light or on ramp 1 second faster than me, but it’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey.
It’s 1am in the morning as I write this, but I think I’ll go take it for a spin one more time before having to think about all the preventative maintenance I’ll have to do on it to keep in tip top shape.
Been eyeballing one of these for a while…
I think the quality of my work has really picked up after I met Andi who is my go to and incredibly talented make up artist. She understands make up, she understands fashion make up and she understands texture, highlight and dew and how it reacts with the light. There is a huge difference in her technique compared to every other make up artist I’ve worked with. I’m glad she and I connected
Harkening back to the film days. I bought this a few months ago on a whim because I made a lot of money and I thought, eeeehhhh I always wanted a $1500 film camera that I will most likely rarely use.
The camera club did an activity where we were able to develop our own film so I ran this through all its abilities and came up with some really great prints of my friends. I’m glad I was able to lens them with this camera.
Made an incredible push with 2 huge agencies and a very well known model scout in New York City. We shot a total of 4 models, 1 from Ford, 2 from Supreme and 1 from Red.
It was a CRAZY trip and my make up artist was driving me fucking crazy because she was not a trooper, but I had to being the photographer means you are also the leader of the team and I pulled our asses out of the hole and got shit done at the expense of my own sanity and money. Because really…it isn’t THAT HARD to learn how to take the subway.
I’m too tired to even rant about this trip…I’ll do that in a later post.
This shirt says it all really.
I remember this girl was way above my pay grade. She was signed with Ford and yes she was legal, Jesus Christ. This was back in 2009 when I started dabbling in photography.
We were in her apartment and I was just casually taking some polaroids for her portfolio before she was even formally signed by Ford. She couldn’t pay me because she was broke at the time so she made me some shitty Campbell’s chicken soup which I pretended to like because, well she was gorgeous. We talked for a while on the couch looking over the photos, casually joking and jostling with each other to the point where we did have a slight moment that lasted about a minute. I was sitting on the couch and she was behind me. She bent down and leaned her head against my shoulder, her cheek touching mine. I turned and looked at her, our lips were practically almost touching, and my god, her lips were perfect.
Then I remembered I had to go away for a while and the feeling of dread kicked in and that really really fucking sucked.
So I just stopped, packed my things and left.
She’s married now with a kid and I couldn’t be anymore happy for her.
Whenever there’s an uncomfortable situation that I can put myself in, I try my best to put myself there. It builds strength and adaptability.
Usually I would not do a shoot like this because it’s just too grudgy low key art with almost no production budget at all. I mean, I only used one Profoto Magnum reflector throughout the entire project.
But I liked it, it allowed me to hang out with people who I normally wouldn’t have a chance to be with. Beatnik artists, grudgy artist that have completely different taste than I, but we all came together and made it work because creating art unites. And once we’ve settled on a vision, nothing else matters. We put aside our differences in taste and culture, to create and that’s a wonderful thing because we stop judging each other.
I’ve lost so many friends over the course of my life due to pride, fear, failure and all sorts of other mistakes on my part. I want to keep some around. Although I’m still not the type that can see them every single week, (i’m a very high functional introverted extrovert if that makes any damn sense at all.) I make every effort that I can to hang out because they keep me sane despite being almost 8 years younger than me. I guess I get along with the old souls.
Audley Yung 