As you all know this isn’t really my cup of tea. I try to stay away from photographing parties as much as possible, but hey, I have bills to pay too!

Brea and Crystal was one of the cutest couples I have ever met. Being able to capture their moment was beyond amazing not only because I’m a sissy, but because it hit a little closer to home since these women were a gay and lesbian couple.

It brought back so many emotions and thought provoking feelings that I actually ended up enjoying the party and I didn’t even notice my time was ending until one of the brides mentioned it to me.

As I have said many times over and over again, LGBTs deserve the same rights as anyone else to get married in any state and in any country… after all, who can really define what love is?

Needless to say, I wish these two beautiful women the best of luck in their future and I look forward to hopefully working with them on their engagement and wedding photography in 2013.

So like everyone else, I’ve decided to declare a New Years resolution for my photography business… and that resolution is to rebrand, restructure, and rebuild my entire portfolio to be primarily beauty, fashion, and editorial-focused — and of course a wedding here and there to pay the bills.

Presentation is key: Your Photography and Professional Image 

Businesses rebrand all the time whether it’s because they are trying to meet modern trends in visibility or they are trying to fix something they screwed up by gaining a “new” start.

The whole reason for me wanting to rebrand is because I feel like I haven’t quite found my style or niche yet. Sure I shoot in a certain way and I definitely light in a certain way, but there’s a clear difference between beauty portraits and a dumb ol’ family portrait and that’s the style I am endlessly trying to build and perfect my technique on.

In my work I want to portray a sense of emotion, darkness, and still be able to deliver vivid, bright colors which in itself can tell a story. I want emo to look sexy! I want patterns and texture in my images to pop and make people scream!

As far as your photographic images go, your website speaks louder than you do — and since your website is technically the heart to your digital portfolio and the first thing a potential client looks at, it has to represent you and your professional image well and describe your character and personality by design.

My current website isn’t bad, but it isn’t me. I’m not gray, blocky, and completely boring and simple. If you ever meet me in person you’ll find that my hair is the most ridiculous thing about me and probably changes more often than my spring outfit.

I’m loud (Asian trait), full of energy, and I talk all the time — because of this, it’s very important that my attitude can be translated into my web presentation.  I want my web design to deliver that image of this loud, fun, and energetic Tracy Nanthavongsa that clients and agencies are dying to work with. You have to sell yourself and tell your story before your clients even meet you in person, regardless of how big or small a photographer you are, your website is your initial selling point.

Alongside a new website, I’m looking forward to the creation of a new logo, new business cards, and also a new fact sheet

For photographers, I really don’t think logos are that huge of a factor, though a distinctive logo will be easier to remember at first glance than the generic camera icon.

When it come to logos for photographers you obviously want something that describes your work and your style, all in one design. But remember not to overdo it. Your photographs are the centerpiece here and a little byline of “Photo by” goes much further than a crappy logo design would.

Anywho, that’s all folks. If you have any questions please leave them in a comment below and I’ll be glad to answer them.

Happy New Years!!!

When I picked up my first dSLR in 2007, a Canon Rebel xti, my family and friends were extremely skeptical. A lot of them didn’t understand why I spent so much money on a camera. Hell, at the time even I didn’t fully understand why I spent that much money on a camera… I just knew I wanted it.

It was something in the air — probably the smell of my neighbors smoking weed– that attracted me to photography. Though I have to note, I wasn’t completely new to photography at all. I was the typical Asian tourist with the point and shoot that snapped photos at every given moment.

“Picture picture!” became my lingo. It was a synonym for me.

I was the boyfriend that had a billion photos of my relationship while my partner had like one photo of us stored in a storage bin somewhere. It was only natural for me to take it a step further with a dSLR.

To this very day, a lot of clients and colleagues of mine have found it very surprising to see what I have done with the most basic of cameras and some simple lighting equipment. This just goes to show that it’s not your big expensive gadget that gets the photo… it’s everything else that you do to capture it that creates the winning shot.

On a different note, I’m not going to lie, I really hope the announcement of the Canon 5D Mark iii is a little delayed so that I can enjoy this camera for at least 6 months before I have to sell it. I’m extremely grateful that my mom actually see some sort of potential in me as a photographer. I was under the assumption that she still wanted me to become a lawyer or doctor, but this purchase fully made me see her appreciation for my work and years of sweat and tears for this field.

I seriously pushed my old camera to its limit and beyond, and this new camera will no doubt take me to a completely new playing field with limitations I can not wait to seek and explore.

Anyway, I wish you all the best for 2012. Have a safe holiday and I look forward to hearing from you all! Don’t drink and drive, bitches!

This is the first picture I took with the Canon 5D Mark ii

This is how the view would look like with a 24-70 @ 24mm on a 1.6 cropped sensor camera:

This is how the view would look like with a 24-70 @ 24mm on a Full Frame sensor camera:

I did this shoot pretty much pro-bono for my friend so hair and makeup was done before hand and we just met up with the models at this cool old beer brewery on the outskirts of Houston. The first thing the property owner said when we got there was:

“Beware of poop, raccoons, and possums”.

I started getting nauseated when I heard the word “poop”. Then he tells us there are raccoons and possums hiding in the abandoned building! Yea, that didn’t fly too well with me. That wasn’t the worst part — I kept getting dust and all this rusty material on my clothes while shooting… and stuff kept falling into my big beautiful Dallas hair. Nonetheless, it was such an amazing venue to use and I could not stop thinking about how the photos would turn out otherwise if my assistant had never scouted the area.

We literally spent like an hour and a half shooting and we were done! It was the quickest shoot I’ve ever did, but the photos looked pretty great straight off camera. Check out the behind the scenes video after the jump and behind the scenes photos of me with my models.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A little about Hearts & Things:
H&T was founded by my friend Jr. Luat of Los Angeles, California. It was created during the whole tsunami crisis in Japan in which Jr. started this really cool thing where he weaved together something in the shape of a heart and would sell them to raise money which he then relayed to charities to help with the disaster relief in Japan. The heart shape woven thing then eventually turned into a really cute tshirt and tank line.

http://www.heartsandthings.org/

Despite the slowdown, however, thankfully this month has been going a lot different than others. I recently got nominated to run in this local Dallas competition to claim bragging rights as Dallas’ A-List Best Wedding Photographer. The voting will end January 27th so please take a few second of your time to vote for me. It will definitely make my Christmas, Hanukkah, whatevs!

The most major development, as most of my facebook and twitter followers already know, a month or so ago I received an email from a casting director telling me about this new reality show based on fashion photography and asked if I was interested in applying.

Um, Tracy Nanthavongsa + TV = hell yea!

It has been a lengthy process with having to produce a pdf portfolio book overnight,  two video clips for submission and finally having to submit my last one yesterday detailing two photoshoot concepts and budget. Let me tell you now, it is a bitch to try and upload 2gb’s of video over a home DSL connection. It’s an even bigger pain when you have about 98% of your upload completed and then the internet dies on you.

I’m sure the talents that applied for this show are all amazing and I can’t wait to see who gets cast for this awesome show. Wish me the best of luck because I’m seriously dying to get this! I’m proud to at least have made the top 10 of finalist for consideration.

I started doing a little research on the time period of the 1800s, the time the musical was based around.

I noticed a common theme around portraits that existed during that era which mostly consisted of sad and depressing looking people dressed up and lit with usually a single source of light in a “spotlight” effect. I also noticed that most of these people were lit from the left side of their face (or as I like to say, camera right).

Following this theme, I setup the lighting for the photo as followed:

I setup a Canon 580exII with a simple silver umbrella on a light stand raised 6 foot and aimed at the subject. The flash was set to 1/4 power, zoomed at 105 so that the light is a little more focused and not scattered everywhere. Of course I can obviously have done this with a snoot as well, but I didn’t want that much concentration and harshness of light and my time with the actor was limited.

To the left of the camera was a white reflector to throw back whatever little light I could to the right side of the subject’s face, hair, and clothing.

Behind the subject, camera right, I setup another 580exII to use as a backlight. This was set at an extremely low setting as I wanted to just have a little pop of separation from the background curtain. The setting was 1/64 and had a Rosco CTO gel to give a little warmth.

The photo was shot using a Canon 24-70 2.8L at ISO200, F5.6, 1/50sec at 46mm. Why 46mm? I have no clue. I just liked it that way. Anywho, the final photo after the painting conversion is below and was done by Bob Lavallee.

‘The Christmas Carol‘ is currently playing in Dallas and runs till Dec 24th. If you happen to see my photo on the set please let me know!

They aren’t limited to just a thousand words because just by looking at these photos you can throw as many adjectives as you want at them and some will probably hold true, but one word that I learned that will probably describe what all these photos have in common is “love.”

It was so exciting to work with such optimistic individuals filled with so much energy.  Imagine being in a room with people filled with the same passion as you, for me that would be photography. Now imagine being in a room filled with people who just wish the world would learn to love each other. Well my imagination turned into reality for that one day as I felt no hatred for the few hours I was shooting.

I would like to thank all the participants of the Colors of Diversity shoot in Dallas for coming out to support such an amazing cause!

We definitely would also like to thank the guys from Load It Productions for making it out there to record some BTS videos for us to use a promos for future events. Our volunteers were amazing as always. All in all, it was definitely a great day.

Enjoy the teaser video below directed and produced by Topher Harrell.

Click here to view the embedded video.

SPONSORS AND WEB LINKS:
Colors of Diversity – Main Website | Colors of Diversity on Facebook
Tracy Nanthavongsa Photography – www.tracynphotography.com
Load it Productions – www.loaditproductions.com
JRs Bar & Grill – www.jrsdallas.com
Evoke MEdia – www.evoke-media.net

But right now, I want to plug a very important event and photo project of mine which will take place tomorrow at JR’s Bar and Grill in Dallas. The Colors of Diversity photo event is free to the entire community and will take place from 11am-2:30pm. Please show up early and be prepared to shoot!

For more information on Colors of Diversity and to find information on participation requirements, please visit www.colorsofdiversity.org

View Photos from Colors of Diversity Part 1


P.S. Thanks to Ginae at The Examiner for the blurb about our event!

I just saw the entire thing in print and it’s hella cool. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think! I want to give a special thank you to reporter TJ Griffin for writing the amazing piece and my publicist Gabriel Watson for her amazing work on the pr write-up and helping spread the news.

Hope to see all you Dallas folks at the photoshoot this Saturday. Remember, if you are attending please wear a disposable white tshirt/v-neck and be ready to create some beautiful images!

View article in which format:

“It is without a doubt that even in this decade, regardless of it being hate towards gender, race, gays, straights, it still exists and something has to be done to acknowledge it on a greater scale. What better way to show that we are all one and equal than to be in the same place, at the same time, promoting a just cause. At this event we’re not labeled by any definition… we’re all united as one in color,” said Nanthavongsa.

Inspired by “Holi”, the religious spring festival acknowledged by Hindus, “Colors of Diversity” is a creative effort to capture the harmony and beauty of all human beings on one accord.

Demonstrating the essence of the event’s title, the artists plan to create what they refer to as a “community united in color”. During the photoshoot waiting area, participants’ faces and clothing will first be sprayed with water and then a volunteer will completely covered the participant in a random pallet of colored powder as they wait to experience the highlight of the event.

This event is free to the public and open to anyone who would like to participate. Participants are allowed to do group or couple shoots, but will not be allowed to be in multiple photos due to time constraints. Everyone is asked to wear a white top and old shorts or jeans (clothing will be damaged by the colored powder).

For more information about the Colors of Diversity Photoshoot please contact Gabriel Watson at gabriel.watson6@gmail.com or visit the event’s facebook page: Colors of Diversity (https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=179699348764551).

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Tracy Nanthavongsa is a fashion photographer based in Dallas, Texas. His work has been published on various media outlets and websites with clients ranging from local modeling agencies to huge publishers such as Conde Nast. In 2010, Tracy’s photography of “The Bully Suicide Project” was featured throughout hundreds of news organizations during the bully-suicide crisis. In 2009 the Dallas Voice named Tracy among the top “Future Pioneers” of Dallas.

Melvin Varughese is a student at the University of Texas at Arlington with a developing background in the medical field. He has volunteered at a family practice for a few years and wants to make a difference in the world through medicine and awareness. He has been an active leader at the UT Arlington through student organization and community service involvement.

Official Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=179699348764551