Friday, 06 June 2008

  • Magnetic North photoshoot :. slideshow

    NYC, New York


    About five years ago...
    I was walking by the student union of my college campus when some music catches my ear. We often had random things happening on stage during lunch time, from politicians to mariachi bands to spoken word artists, so this wasn't out of the ordinary. Normally I wouldn't bother to stop, but these two on stage ... well, I was really digging what I heard and I couldn't help but pause. Apparently the guy was part of some other hip hop group, and he and the girl were just doing this one song together. After their performance, I grabbed their sampler cd, headed off to the cafeteria ... and completely forgot about the whole thing.




    Two years ago...
    My friend Jeanny had a link on her Xanga about some new Asian American hip hop duo called Magnetic North. When I heard their songs, my first thought was, Damnnn these guys are good. I'm so getting their cd! My second thought was... waitaminute, I've heard them before. I Googled around a bit, and to my amazement, it turned out to be the same two who gave that performance all those years back, except now they had now been writing and performing songs together. More of my friends started talking about Magnetic North on their blogs, and I had at least three emails come in from various people spreading the word. Then came the music video from Wong Fu Productions ... I told myself I had to do a photoshoot with these guys.



    A few months later, I managed to secure a shoot with Magnetic North, with my new photog buddy Andre coming along. It was all good, except ... I didn't know what the heck I was doing. Sure, I now had my first DSLR ever--a spankin new 20D, baby!--and the Scott Robert was training me up to be a pro-fes-sion-al photographer, but really, I didn't know jack about lighting or posing or composition or camera technique or uh ... all those things that go into making a great photograph. ;) After the shoot, I don't think I ended up with a single image I was happy with--which is also why even my long-time readers have probably never seen anything from that gig!

    Soon after that, Derek and Theresa quit their jobs in the Bay Area, packed their bags, and headed off to NYC to seek fame and fortune--well, or at least a chance to break into the music industry.






    Two months ago...
    New York City was the first stop of my three-week tour. Who knew that two years could bring such massive change in our lives. Just like Derek and T had put everything on the line to pursue their dream, I too had left a job in the biotech industry to chase this passion of mine. They both have gotten a lot better at what they do, and for me, there is now rarely a photoshoot at which I do not feel like I am in my element. And it's only been two years for the three of us ...

    While in the city, I had a couple openings left in my schedule. We set up a time. We shoot. We have a blast. And so now we give you ... the Magnetic North photoshoot.

    (Oh, and we also had an entourage. heh. You can check out some Behind the Scenes pictures here. Photos by Andrew. Smartass captions by Derek.)

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    --> Click here to view slideshow <--

    Btw if you ever get a chance to see a Magnetic North performance, you'll soon realize that they are even better live than on the cd.  =D

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