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 dear friend Ms. Carolyn.

Carolyn is a fabulous high-powered lawyer who loves having DKHeadshots of herself taken. She comes to me for photo shoots like once every three months. 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 magazine.

It was an easy gig. Whatever. 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 made my typical boring getting-to-know-you conversation. "How long have you been acting? Who is your agent? Etc. Etc.?"

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

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

So his answer really caught me off guard.

"Alec Baldwin referred you."

I laughed. Haha very funny.

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

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

I tried to play it cool, like 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*CK!?!?!??!?!??!?!?

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. 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. (insert squeal)

If you ever need a photograph of yourself, I will hook you up.
Obviously.

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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. (With the thought in my mind that, if they liked the pictures, maybe Ming-Na would let me take her pictures too.)

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. And they've gotten him lots and lots of work.

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 new pictures (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 the20-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 even more 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 stuff 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 still be winning it today.)

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!!!!!!!!!!!!

My life changes forever today. / David LaChapelle

There are moments in life when you know that you'll never ever be the same.

This happened for me last night.

It was going to be a great night either way, but around 3pm I got a Facebook message from roommate Kayvon that David LaChapelle was going to be speaking at the event space in his office building in Soho.



I was SO excited.

I've never stated this publicly, probably because I don't have that many artist/creative friends, but I WORSHIP David LaChapelle.

He is the most brilliant photographer IN THE WORLD. Not an exaggeration.

You may not know him by name, but unless you live in a hole, you have seen his work. He's taken some of the most provocative, incredible, ICONIC pictures of the most famous people ever. No body of work will ever compare to his.

Michael...



Becks...



Angie...



Britney...




Madonna...



Lady Gaga...



Mariah...



Kanye...



Hot Dog...



Pam...



Paris....



Jesus...



Even Whitney...





In my mind, he is even more famous than the celebrities he photographs. You aren't a celebrity UNTIL you've had your picture taken by David LaChapelle. THAT is when you know you've made it.

You may remember that he sued Rihanna last year for ripping off his images to make her video for S&M.




Yup. He is THE BEST. Incomparable.

I WORSHIP him.

So he gave an incredible talk to a packed gallery. He showed some of his work. Talked about how he got his start (working for Andy Warhol), his struggles as a young artist, his struggles as a super famous artist. He talked about his process, his life, living in the East Village, how friends dying of AIDS in the 80's and 90's really influenced his work.... he shared his views on religion and celebrity and life and it was just really really captivating and candid.



One of his early and funniest anecdotes was about a shoot he did for Tupac.

Basically Tupac had arrived early for his shoot, "rappers are NEVER early", and he was still naked in bed with his boyfriend at the hotel but Tupac just came into his room sat on his bed and was completely unfazed and was like, "So what are we doing today?"

David explained how he'd read about rap originating in the fields, etc etc etc and Tupac interrupted him and was like "You want to shoot me....as a SLAVE?"

And David's like "Yeah, basically."

And Tupac's like, "I'm cool with that."



Anyway the takeaway from that was that Tupac was at his core just an amazing artist and that over his years as a celebrity photographer he's learned never to judge a person by their public image or whatever because everyone is different, everyone is human, everyone's an artist, and people can surprise you. Or they can be awful bitches.

Anyway...it was SUCH an inspiring talk.

And I've never told anyone this, but during Q&A after his presentation, I asked him two questions.

A: Would he sign my book?

and B:, well B: isn't really a question, but I was worried that I might not have time to talk to him after so I just wanted to make sure he heard what I had to say. Which is that back when I was a "starving artist"...back when I charged like $100 for a headshot and was collecting unemployment and didn't buy clothes for a year and a half and ate exclusively off the Dollar Menu at McDonald's and questioned almost daily whether or not I should be looking for a "real job"... I bought my first photography book.

It was his book "Heaven To Hell".



It was $120. Which in my mind was SO MUCH MONEY back then. It was like a week's worth of photography income. But the book has always sat on my shelf. It's a monstrosity...it weighs like 20 pounds. And it has always inspired me to keep doing what I'm doing.

Anyway. He was so nice. And he had actually planned to speak about the cover image of the book for a good half hour and even showed a behind-the-scenes video of Courtney Love being a superpsychobitch. It was a definite sign. And for the rest of Q&A he looked directly at me when he was answering questions about photography as a career and stuff.

I was the ONLY person in the audience who had brought one of his books with me. (I think in NYC people are way too cool to bring a book or ask for a person's autograph or photo, but I'm not!)

I was giddy. I almost wanted to cry. I felt like a silly teenage fanboy.

Literally I was so nervous attending the event. I had even written a letter to him (in case I didn't get the courage to speak) which I gave to him afterwards anyway.

Nervous because he is SO FAMOUS and successful and I was scared he might be cocky and mean (he did sue Rihanna, after all) and look down on me because all I do is take stupid headshots and stupid weddings (which when you compare it to his ART, is just...well silly). But he was the exact opposite. He was so kind. And he talked about how he used to shoot weddings as well. And it was like...he just understood.

And in that moment I realized duh....he's been through it all too. And all superfamous super successful people start somewhere. And they understand the struggle.

And in my letter to David I told him some really nice things and asked him to think of me if he should ever need an extra hand on any set, or to take behind-the-scenes photos, or party pictures, or whatever. I'd fly anywhere and do anything to work with him. For free.

Anyway. One thing I've learned in life is to never underestimate the power of a really nicely-worded letter. I got my life-changing job with Bjoern due to an unsolicited letter. And if there's anything I took away from going to Brown, it's how to craft a really good letter...or apology email.

So regardless of whether or not Mr. LaChapelle does ever contact me, he has changed my life.

Forever.




Oh, Marky is staying with me this weekend and he took a picture too and then gave him a kiss on the cheek and turned bright red. (Mark did, not David)



Marky then proceeded to make friends with some of David's friends. Other super successful jetsetting artists.



Wanna see what David wrote in my book?????



The crown on my growing collection of beautiful photo books!



Phew. Very therapeutic. Thanks for reading. Have not stopped thinking about how awesome it was and it's nice to get it written down and out there.

SO happy right now. Literally I've been on the giddy verge of tears for the past 18 hours. I will look back on this day fondly forever.

Maybe I'll go buy a lottery ticket.

I love New York!