An Rong

It’s been a while, sorry, i’ve just been lazy.  I haven’t really worked on anything real for a while.  I’ve just been roaming the streets with a point and shoot and just doing the normal.

It’s odd, being out of school and not really having access to the facilities.  Then their making me pay for the month of August where there is no classes going on but I am paying for the month of August, well I’m going to find out if i can get access to the facilities cause i’m paying for it shiet.  I’m thinking i’ll get a response along the lines of YOU WISH!

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their summer break and see that it really gets dull after a while haha.  But here’s some photos that i’ve taken recently.  Enjoy, I am going to start up the, make up a story with the photos and win a prize!!

Best STORY WINS!

On 5 Islands a little more than 300 miles in area, millions of people come and go.  I could be sitting next to someone on the train, and i am pretty sure, i won’t ever see them again, unless its the same time everyday train person, then yes, i might see them again, but other than that i am pretty sure i won’t see that person again.  So when a person who has lived his whole life in the city, experiences one of those moments where you wonder, is this the gods of new york city, giving me a sign.

In a city with more than 8 million people, it shouldn’t be hard to  find love, should it?  We’ve all had our run ins and our moments.  But i swore i had a moment, one of those, this is going to have some signifigance on who i am moments.  Yes, one of those.  It was quite serendipitous.  She was on my mind for a while.  A few calls and text later, it seems serendipity has pulled a prank on me, so thanks.  It funny how things will work themselves out.  We don’t always know what to expect from the next day.

I’ve watched enough New York Love story movies, and each one just makes it seem possible to find love in this city that at times can be so cold.  The idea of being able to meet a complete stranger and in those brief hours, minutes, or even seconds we can get this sense that this person may be the one.  That moment where you accidentally got off at the wrong stop on the train, but you end up meeting someone, or when your feeling down, and your going to your emo spot, but then your best friend calls you to hang out, and you meet someone that night.  Or in recent news, the guy who swore he found the love of his life on the 4 or 5 train, and made a video and sent it all over the internet, just so he can find this girl, that he feels might be the one.

In this day and age, its hard to see things last forever, but for this one New Yorker who’s watched Serendipity, Enchanted(4 times), When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, and many other chick flicks that can provide the cheese, i believe in serendipity, and it’s going to happen, and hopefully this time, she won’t be playing me.

So I saw the Documentary, How Bruce Lee Changed the World

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HazC1Vy_Z9U[/youtube]

It reminded me, of the simple, basic, movement, water, and such things.

So I shot a roll of black and white that i finally got to scanning, soo please, enjoy the back to basics of it.

Feed back is welcome, make your own captions and shit.  And i guess Bruce Lee did change me too!

I am currently suffering from withdrawal.  The drug, School.  I miss using all the school’s facilities and equipment.  Also, i’m not really too happy, i don’t really have anything to do after work or before work.  So now, I fill it in with lunches and dinners with friends, and then go home and realize i didn’t tell my folks that they aint need to cook my meal, so i gotta eat 2 meals, haha.

I recently purchased a camera off the internetz, it is a Leica C1, its a point and shoot camera, meaning everything is auto, i just figure the composition and shoot, and its a film point and shoot.  I am enjoying it so far, 1) cause its a Leica, 2) cause its a Leica, and 3) cause its a Leica.  Here is some machine prints that i paid for at ELIZ PHOTO CO. this chinese photo place in chinatown on Elizabeth street.  Enjoy

This is an uber cool kid i work with.

Kingston and Nick are trying to make my model face, which idk it’s not working for me haha

This was a creepy looking barbie portrait at Dylans Candy Bar. Funny thing about a restaurant near Dylan’s Candy Bar Serendipity 3, every couple that i know who has gone to Serendipity has ended up breaking up, soo if you want to keep your relationship, i’d recomend you not go for their oxymoronical frozen hot chocolate.

I was going to visit my grandfather, and happenly, the roof door in his building was open, soo i went up and saw how he has such a great view of the heart of chinatown.

I’ll probably shoot with this camera as a walk around camera, so more to come!

Feedback always welcome!

Recently, they’ve been shooting an Asianphile movie, The Socerer’s apprentice down in the LES, and it looks like their stereotyping the shit out of the Chinese, thanks a lot America, all were good for (sarcasm). But Anyway, i took advantage of the movie set, and the look. I’m posting one up, and then when i scan the negatives for the other’s i’ll load those up. but for now, enjoy this panorama.

I shot this at like 8 A.M., and then had to post produce it for class by 9 A.M. and have it done by noon. enjoy.

More to Come!

As i promised

You may notice, i haven’t updated in a while.  So what’s been up?

My project photographing immigrant families in America has gotten some changes to it.  I haven’t really posted the photographs on the net because I feel its not ready yet.  I spent a lot of time printing in the darkroom, but as of late, just been too tired to do anything.  I feel like i’ve run out of material, but this is what happens when you invest yourself in a project.  You have to be able to accept the setbacks, the failures, and the strength and determination to continue through with the project, and remember why you started it in the first place.

Anyway, I’ve been walking around with my film SLR lately, and i’ve been shooting in black and white, so here’s some of my new stuff.

These shots on the Williamsburg Bridge were shot while i was riding on my bike, and shooting at 1/1000th of a second at f/5.6, soo if you didn’t understand that, i was taking the picture with one hand and camera to my eye while the other hand controlled my bike and hoping to avoid dieing.

These following 2 were shot on my Hasselblad, with spot metering, because that week, Allen broke the tripod i took out from school and so I had to just focus on where the light was, i think it was pretty cool results.

So if you guys have any inspiring ideas, please throw it at me, and leave feedback, because it’s always welcome.

Love, An Rong

Last week I headed to Maryland with my friend to pick up some stuff we won in an auction from NASA. Got some good stuff, if you’d like some camera equipment that had been used by NASA, meaning it might have been up in Space, get at me. Anyway, funny thing bout the trip… I learned a lot from my friend Jimmy, who i met at school, and saw D.C. for the first time, but didn’t take any pictures around Maryland, and nothing good out in the other states. But I did get pictures of the BQE around Sunrise and Sunset, so enjoy!

Sunset-ish

Many of these pictures were taken, while Jimmy, my friend, was driving, and i was standing up and looking thru the moonroof of his SUV. So as we were moving on the BQE, i was out the moonroof trying to take pictures. Also, with the really long shots, such as the one with the Willamsburg Bridge, i really like them, especially with the little tiny details. For example a bird flying through the sky that might look like a dust speck, also the city skyline. I enjoy how minuscule they look, but in reality, their enormous. Enjoy!

Comments are always welcome!

Beauty,

I don’t know who or what you are, but when I see you, I know it’s you. You take the forms of many different things. I find you most in human form, you have hidden yourself well in some and it is apparent you are in others. There really isn’t anything that is truly ugly. You just hide well in them till someone actually takes time to understand that persons beauty. Ugly is just what we find displeasing, and we use ugly to give it a name. You, beauty, will always be around and will aways be amazing even when least apparent. Unlike your very hot sister, lust, you stay, and I don’t regret you the next morning. I’ve learned from her that she just gives and goes, and that if your happy with her it won’t be for long. Beauty I can’t describe you because you are too vast, wider than the world’s oceans, and beyond this world, something i will never truly grasp. I’ll never truly understand you, but each time you appear, I’ll try to say hi.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZCzaFWf94[/youtube]

So this weekend, was pretty hectic. Went to Boston with Taiyo Na and Magnetic North to photograph their tour of Beantown. It was pretty cool, these guys are really passionate about what they do, and what their doing is ground breaking for other Asian Americans. Well I followed them around and documented their tour. So here are some of the photos from the tour.

Go View the rest at http://flickr.com/photos/anrizzy/sets/72157614235955063/.

crazy weekend though. On Saturday the first show was at BU. I had gone to the Marc Jacobs store before and bought some stuff. Right after the performance by Taiyo and Magnetic North ended at BU, we rushed out because we needed to get to Northeastern in time for the show. When we get to Northeastern, i realized i had left my bag at BU, but i said whatever, its just material goods, i got work to do here. So i photographed the whole show and such, i gave my homegirl Lucy a call to see if she could find it, but she couldn’t so i was like SHIET. Then after the show, i remember Kevin So had been sitting in our area, called Kevin So, he gave us the number of one of the coordinators who was still there, got in touch with her, and then she said if she gets word, she’d let me know.
The Northeastern show was really good, the crowd was very good, wish they wouldve gotten up instead of sitting down though. But we did go out with some of the crowd to eat after the show, at this spot Peach Farm, the food was good, barely tasted the MSG.
I decided that i’d go to BU this morning and try to see if i can check for myself. I get there the front door of the building was closed. So i being determined, said “F that!” found a back door that was open and found the auditorium it was in, but my bag was gone! So i decided the stuff wasn’t too expensive, so i went back to the MJ store to re-buy.
The store wasn’t going to open till 12, but i was able to talk one of the employees into letting me in to get the stuff, cause of what happened, and he was really cool about it, his name is Van, tall Aussie, and he’s a pilot! So i had some time before i had to meet up with Taiyo and T Vu and D Kan, soo i decided to walk from Newbury Street all the way to South station. It was a good walk, i was using my brand spanking new 50 mm lens. I finally got to walk thru Chinatown, it was pretty cool, nothing compared to NYC, but hey we are the city that was so nice they had to name it twice. I get there, i’m still using the 50mm lens. But i see a shot of the Chinatown sign that i would need my 18-200mm , soo i went inside the station sat down and then changed lens, and took some of the shots. Barely made it onto the bus back to NYC. I swore i had the 50 mm lens in the camera pouch with 3 memory cards in my bag. It might have been me moving shit around in my bag often, cause i kept switch books and rearranging shit, the camera pouch might have fallen out. So when i got home, i couldn’t find the pouch and the memory cards =(, i was soo pissed, but its my fault i guess. I called MegaBus, they said the driver didnt find anything, but they also told me to call again tomorrow. So im crossing my fingers, and going to pray to whoever, can help bring my baby and babies back! The MJ bag of stuff i lost at BU, it was found btw, home girl carrie is going to pick it up for me <3. UGH yea, soo crazy weekend.

BUT!!! it was fun, it was an experience, taught me, i need to stop being a cheap wad and buy a camera bag, if i dont get the lens back, ima need to start saving for a new one. UGH DAMN RECESSION!

But keeping my head up! hope this wasnt too much to read haha.

Hey all, I’ve been uber busy with school and such. I got home at like 1 last night cause i was in the color dark room printing till like 12 ish hahah. I’m still working on my project involving immigrant families in America. So far I’ve only worked with 4 families, and they’ve been turning out pretty well. I think i need to spend more time with each family in order to really get to the essence of each. Anyway here’s some new photos.

This photo was inspired by the amazing clouds i saw that night. I was coming out my school building, and all of sudden i see these awesome cloud formations, and inspired, i stood on 3rd Avenue, just trying to capture these clouds.

I took this at the Comic Con last saturday. It was inspired by a shot that I saw from Allen’s portfolio. This is inside the Javitz center.

Shot this on lafeyette and spring, right next to John Mayer’s apartment building haha. Just something bout lights on columns that really draw my attention.

Inside my grandfather’s apartment building on Mott. I’ve walked down this hall hundreds of times, and this was the first time i really noticed something bout the lighting of it.

While waiting for the 7 train, i saw the cloud formations, along with the Citi Building, the clouds were calling me, and i could not deny them. It was hard to shoot with the train station thing over head, but it gave me a weird effect i kind of like.

Well i hope all is well with everybody, enjoy! As always feedback is welcome!