The DK Meatball

My bestest friends Tee and Nan over at Little Beast named their new Chicken Parm Meatball (it was my brainchild) after me!!!!

I am SOOOOO EXCITED to try it in just over a month!!!!

SQUEALLLLLLLLLL

KarmaBuying

So I SO badly want to book this Lacoste job.

But before I drafted my response to the dude, I felt like I needed to go out there and get myself some good karma.

And what's the easiest way to get good karma? Buy it!

Over the past several years I've been very fortunate to be able to constantly expand my business and book some really amazing gigs. And I've consistently found that you get back what you put out there.

If you go out there and do nice things for people. Nice things end up happening to you.

It's happened over and over and over again.

When I was in the middle of planning my 30th birthday, I decided to get a Party Bus for everyone. Within hours of booking it...I booked a wedding.

When I bought a bunch of Spice Girls tickets for my friends, I booked one or two headshot shoots which basically covered the cost AND THEN (no AND THEN!) when we got to the arena we got upgraded to the front row!
  
I mean, these aren't even TRULY good deeds I've been doing. I'm just making already-happy people happier. It's not like I'm donating money to Africa or helping the homeless. I'm doing ridiculous frivolous things like buying unfathomably expensive concert tickets or $400 in taco costumes for already well-off friends. It's totally selfish and self-serving, and most of things usually benefit me in one way or another...but it feels great just the same.

I guess if I were a truly good and giving person and just wanted to do good things for the sake of doing them,  I'd donate money to places and do it anonymously and never tell anyone.  I certainly wouldn't blog or facebook about it...

But alas, I have my flaws...

...........................................................................

So ANYWAY...

Karma-buying.

I went downstairs to my neighborhood coffeeshop Flowers Cafe and saw Tricia, the amazing waitress who appears to spend every waking moment there working.

I doubt it's an awesome job, especially dealing with Lower East Side/Chinatown crazies on a daily basis. But she always has smile on her face and is always more than happy to make me my iced coffee with milk and three Splendas.

I was actually kind of nervous doing what I was planning to do. Not sure why. My heart started racing. I tipped her $100 for iced coffee (and a hug).

She took it well though. She kept saying, "Are you serious??!? Are you SERIOUS?!??!"

It was nice to make someone's day. It made mine too.

Then I went to the Apple Store to pick up a MacBook for someone else very special. (You'll find out who in a month or two.)



Oh and get this...as I was paying for the MacBook, the AppleGirl paused and was like..."wait...are you a student?" 

And I was like, "haha not for a while now....." (but then realizing I was wearing my backpack which happens to have my old Brown ID in it) "but wait!!!... I have my old student ID.... can I use it?"

She quickly looked left and right and mumbled, "...sure I don't care..."

I mean...this thing was JACKED UP...there is NO WAY anyone would believe it was still valid. Plus it says "issued 8/21/00."

But she accepted it and it saved me almost $200!!!!

See?

It comes back! Almost instantly!

Get out there and Pay It Forward!

(And please send some positive thoughts my way because I would love to book that Lacoste job.)

HOLY SH*T!!!!!

Biggest quote request I've ever gotten.



I normally charge $250/head for a corporate gig like this.

They're a big company with a lot of money (I assume).

Think I can charge full-rate?

I mean...I'm happy to go down to $200/head... or even $100/head... but that's a difference of making either $32,500 or $13,000!!!

What can I quote them and still get the job????

Eeeeeeek. Filled with anxiety and excitement.

What is my life this week!?!?!??!?!??!

Two weeks of pain and down-time have really been worth this payoff!!!!

Gabriel's response was the best.

P.S. He took the rainy picture below.

BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't want to jump the gun... but what the heck.

Pretty sure I just booked my first 10K wedding!!!!!!!!

(I'm not sure I mentioned it on here, but I raised my rates this month. By A LOT.)

They said they're booking me and I sent over the contracts to be signed and for them to submit a deposit.

YAYYYYYYY

BEST DAY EVERRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Year, New Raise

Today my rate jumps from $4,800 to $8,800. Eeeeeeeeek!!!!

A little bit scared I'm going to scare away a lot of brides... (friends, remember I'll still give you a friend discount. HUGE friend discount.)

But I mean...I already have 20 or so weddings for the year...so I guess now is as good a time as any to try this out.

Engage13 really inspired me.

The people there told me I needed to raise my rates if I wanted to move into the super high-end luxury wedding market.

So here goes nothing...

VOGUE!!!!! (india)

Never ever had my photos published in a major national publication before...

...but today my photos of Zameer are in VOGUE! (India)

We did the photos of him and his stunningly gorgeous client/friend Susheila several months ago and then I completely forgot about it. So to have it pop up again suddenly. Well... it is soyyyy exciting!!!

I feel unstoppable.

New York effing City

I left my apartment this morning to someone yelling, "ROLLING!!!...wait...Cut! CUTTT!!!!" Because I had literally walked right onto a movie set - in between Adam Sandler and a camera crew filming his upcoming movie "The Cobbler" outside my front door.



And that was the LEAST exciting thing that happened today.

From there I was on my way to SoHo House to pick up my brand new membership card and get my orientation.



Literally I was handed my card and I thought, "The rest of my life begins today."

For those of you who keep asking what SoHo House is and why it's such a big deal, watch the Sex and the City clip where it's featured...



After my orientation I ended up staying there all morning doing work on my computer and having breakfast and coffee and being generally fabulous.

It was amazing. I love it. My new home.

At 1pm I went uptown to do a corporate headshot shoot for this fabulous tech marketing company that I've been doing lots of shoots for.

This is my 3rd time shooting their people, so now we have our routine down and it's a breeze and I just basically hang out with my awesome contact person there, Samantha, and we chat and giggle and gossip.

Today I taught them Asian Poses. My job is the best job. I know it.



After shooting 9 people over the course of 2 hours (9 corporate shots x $250 = $2250 woo!) I ran home to drop off my cameras.

I was also informed the company will be flying me to SF in two weeks to shoot their SF and European teams. (30 people or something, triple-woo!)

I got home, dropped of my cameras, and then headed up to Lincoln Square IMAX where Megoon had invited me to an advance screening of Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire.

(Goon's friend's step-daddy is the prez of IMAX, what.ever.)



The movie was AMAZING. Stressful, but amazing.

Also, Liam Hemsworth is too beautiful for words.



After THAT we went downtown to Olive's by Todd English at the W Hotel Union Square where my dear friend and headshot client (and Penelope Cruz clone) Merly was bartending.



She hooked us up with drinks and delicious food.

Including rabbit pasta...



(SOFA. KING. DELICIOUS.)



Crab toast...



And the MOST DELICIOUS SOUFFLE I've ever had in my life.



After wayyyy to many beers and vodka sodas I shouted across the bar, "MERLY! Does Todd English ever come in here?"

She gestured over to the corner and was like, "Dude! He's right over there!"

It was such a only-in-New-York(or LA) moment.

Turns out Merly and Todd are besties and so she brought him over and we got to chat him up and take a photo.



No big deal. Just Todd English. One big-time-iest chefs in America.

You may recall our very first outing to Olive's Las Vegas during our epic Celine Dion Adventure.

Not only an amazing chef/restauranteur but a total hunk as well.

I love this frickin' city.

I WAS JUST ACCEPTED TO SOHO HOUSE!!!!!!!

This is literally the best f*cking day ever. And off to Hawaii in the morning. I am actually kind of terrified my plane is going to crash because life cannot be this good.

ALEC BALDWIN

Fine. Maybe I will start blogging again. MAYBE.

Something exciting happened today. Very exciting. Like epicly exciting. So exciting that I have to return from my monthlong blogging hiatus to brag about it post it here so I will remember it forever.

I had two photoshoots.

The first shoot was for my friend/repeat client Ms. Carolyn.

Carolyn is a beautiful fabulous high-powered lawyer. She comes to me for photo shoots like once every three months sometimes. She is just the best. Today I went to her law firm to take a group shot of her and her partners for an advertisement they are putting in some law magazine.

It was an easy gig. I was in and out in 20 minutes. (Parking uptown is NOT cheap. I paid $23 for 18 minutes of parking. crazy city)

Then I hurried back to my home to meet up with my 1 o' clock client. A young actor named Daniel.

As Daniel was getting his clothes prepped and fixing his hair in my bathroom etc I started my typical getting-to-know-you chit-chat. "How long have you been acting? Who is your agent? Etc. Etc..."

Then I asked him, "sooo....how did you hear about me?"

Usually people respond saying Backstage (I was voted "Favorite Photog" in 2012 brag brag brag) or their agent refers them or they find me on Google or Yelp.

Daniel's answer really caught me off guard.

"Alec Baldwin told me about you."

I laughed. "Haha very funny."

He didn't laugh back... I paused. I was like, "Wait...Alec Baldwin ALEC BALDWIN?"

And he was like, "yeah". LIKE THAT'S A TOTALLY NORMAL THING TO SAY.

I tried to play it cool, as if Sir Alec Baldwin sends me peeps all the time, whatever.

This is the information I got out of him over the next half hour or so:

Apparently Alec Baldwin, out of the goodness of his big beautiful heart, gives back once a year or so by teaching young actors in an intensive 2 or 3-day acting class at some school or acting camp or something somewhere.

So this kid was one of the lucky few to take his class and Alec actually sat him down and SHOWED HIM MY WEBSITE. And told him to come to me for headshots.

"...because he thought you were the best."

WHAT. THE. F!?!?!??!?!??!?!?

I have no idea how I came onto Alec Baldwin's radar. But however it happened. This made my day. This made my YEAR. Several years.

I literally had to stop my shoot and say, "I'm so sorry. I have to take a second to update my Facebook status to tell people what you just told me."

He laughed.

Alec Baldwin. If you're out there and somehow reading this. I love you. I love you so much. I loved you since Prelude to a Kiss. And The Juror. And I'm sure there's stuff older than that but you are a little older than me. I don't believe a thing I hear about you in the press and I know you're a good guy and I don't watch 30 Rock but I hear you are amazing in it. And I hear you are good at Words With Friends and I haven't played in a while but if you want to challenge me I would totally start playing again. Anyway. THANK YOU for taking time out of your busy important A-List celebrity schedule creating entertainment for BILLIONS of people to recommend someone to my stupid little headshot business. It is an honor for my name to exist in your brain. (insert squeal)

If you ever need a photograph of yourself...anytime...ever...I would HAPPILY take it.

Obviously. Sir.

----------------------------

OK I'm off to Hawaii tomorrow, maybe I will blog again soon! MAYBE

Joy Luck Club 20th Anniversary!

Reunion Time!!!!

This was a wonderful wonderful wonderful day in my life and career and it is the culmination of a number of events and seeds I've planted over the years.

See, when I was first starting out as a photographer...back in like 2005...I was scrounging around trying to get whatever work I could. And I happened to watch the very first season of America's Got Talent and there was an all-Asian boyband on there, At Last, who ended up finishing in second place. I did a little research on them and came to find out they were managed by Ming-Na and her husband Eric.

Well, through some really amazing googlemania, I got Eric's contact info and asked him if the band was in need of photos, as I would loooove to take their pictures, thinking it'd be great publicity for me if the photos got used anywhere. (When you're just starting out, you really have nowhere to go but up.)

Well turns out they did like the pictures. But nothing really came of it... everyone's busy....Blah blah blah. 

Then three years later, in 2008, I was semi-established in the LA headshot scene. And Ming's husband Eric needed headshots since he was getting back into acting. So he hired me to take his headshots. And he loved them. I think he loved them. I mean, we're still friends, so he must've liked them.

So now we have a semi-working relationship together. And he, knowing what a die-hard Joy Luck Fan I am, invited me to attend the Joy Luck Club 15 Year Reunion in San Francisco as their honored guest. (Fine, just regular guest, but I FELT like an honored guest.) So that's where I finally met Ming for the first time. And she was sooo nice. And soooo beautiful.

Fast forward another two years to 2010. And FINALLY Ming needed updated pictures (although she does. not. age.) so she finally asked me to do her headshots.

So now we're all like Best Friends. (In my mind anyway.) But I haven't heard from them in a while.

And then out of the blue a couple of weeks ago, Eric called to ask if I was free to photograph the 20-Year Joy Luck Club Cast Reunion. And it just so happened to coincide with my already-happening LA trip!

FATE!!!!!!!

So a few weekends ago, while I was in LA. (This is the morning after Perez Hilton's B'day Party and I was NOT feeling 100%.) I cruised up to Ming and Eric's palatial home in Calabasas (I think they live down the street from The Kardashians) where they were hosting the cast and crew of the movie over for an afternoon eatparty. 

Waverly (aka TamlynTomita) was the first to arrive. Of course she is 47-years-old and as beautiful and young-looking as the day she starred opposite Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid Part II.

Then came Kieu, who played Ming's mom in the movie and rolled up in a Rolls-Royce, and LaurenTom, also known as Julie, Ross's girlfriend, from Season Two of Friends.

It was all super casual. We chilled and chatted and munched in the kitchen while Ming and her real mommy finished cooking all the foods.

People kept arriving. Many hadn't seen each other in 20 years!

It was a lovely lovely time.

Real mommy!

Movie mommy!

The spread of wines and foods for the occasion was amaaaazing.

Of course no Joy Luck Feast would be complete without DUMPLINGS!

And moonpies.

And little baos.

Joy Luck YUM!

Everyone brought their families as well. Ming's son Cooper is adorbs.

And her daughter Michaela looks like a mini-version of her and already has a very successful voiceover career. (She probably makes more than you and me combined.)

It was her first time meeting a lot of the members of the Joy Luck Club family!

Everyone was amazed by how beautiful and well-spoken she is.

The last to arrive, of course, was Auntie Lindo (aka Tsai Chin). She is a little curmudgeon-y and pretty much exactly like her JLC character. It was like she had stepped right off the screen and into real-life!

There were lots of other crew members and actors on-hand but I'm sure you don't care about those people.

It was a very surreal experience!

Here are all the cast members (moms and daughters) who were on hand for the reunion. (Some of the others were filming elsewhere and couldn't make it. Sad sad.)

Waverly and Auntie Lindo were adorable though. (Fun fact: Tsai, AKA Auntie Lindo, is the sister of MichaelChow (AKA Mr. Chow) and Aunt of China Chow.)

Joy Luck ladies LOVE a giant!

Here's a group shot of everyone!

THESE LADIES DO NOT AGE. They are all almost 50 or above!

Ming's mom had laid out a collection of old photos from their Joy Luck days. The movie is super meaningful to all of them because it pretty much launched all of their careers!

Everyone kept snapping and tweeting pictures and I couldn't help but think, "Stars. They're just like us!"

And then we had a delicious cake.

Another fun fact. When I was growing up, the only movie I was allowed to watch (other than "Winnie The Pooh Says 'No' To Drugs" was this TV-movie called "The Girl Who Spelled Freedom".

It was a movie about a Cambodian refugee who is adopted by an American family and becomes a spelling-bee champion. I'm not even joking. I've seen this movie at least 100 times. And it is the SOLE reason for my life-long obsession with good spelling.

Anyway, Kieu (pronounced "Q"), who plays Ming's mom in JLC, was one of the stars of this movie. So basically in my mind she is like the Asian Meryl Streep. Basically I told her all this and she thought it was hilaaaaaarious and gave me a hug.

Anyway. It was a lovely lovely afternoon. I made many new friends. Everyone added me to their twitters. (I still kind of hate twitter, but it IS slightly more fun when you have semi-famous friends.)

Oh and they did on-camera interviews, which I hope will be on the 25th Anniversary DVD of Joy Luck Club, if they make one!

And they had the movie playing in the background because some of the kids had never seen it! So cute!

I LOVE watching DVD Director's Commentaries...so you can imagine how much fun it is to get a cast and crew commentary as you watch it LIVE!

In closing, if you've never seen this movie before, ADD IT TO YOUR FRICKING NETFLIX QUEUE.

It is one of the greatest movies of all time, and by far the greatest Asian-American movie EVER. (If there was an Oscar for Best Asian Movie, it would have won it long ago and nothing since has ever come close.)

But truly it is a story that transcends race and time. Which is why all these people still feel so connected to it, even after 20 years.

I love you Ming-Na and Eric and all you Joy Luck Ladies.

Thank you so much for inviting me to capture and share in this special day!

"Everyone say 'Best Quality'!!!!!"

WAVERLY!!!!!!!!!!!!