cameron hughes

© van ditthavong

Cameron Hughes lives his dream. He gets paid for being a fan. Whether it's in an NBA or NHL arena... his job is to get the crowd going - by clapping, dancing, yelling, and more dancing. Actually the truth is... he simply just has to be himself. The week before it was Cleveland and Lebron James - this day we are in Oklahoma City - right before the "bottom of the standings" OKC Thunder team take on the Memphis Grizzlies. Like a good athlete - Cameron stretches, mentally prepares, and tapes up body parts before he walks through the tunnel and takes on 15 thousand people.

gray

© van ditthavong

Understandably he was a little hesitant at first. Meeting someone new isn't the easiest of things but Gray was very comfortable in front of the camera. In an attempt to draw out a different reaction I asked him, "What do you do when you score a touchdown?" ... hoping he would demonstrate. But with a slight furrow of the brow, he answered, "I don't know... I haven't scored one yet."

the suburbs

© van ditthavong

Our subject ended up having a broken leg so the art director slightly switched the shoot agenda - capture the feel of the community. The Verandah is a new development in Royce City, Texas. It was eerily quiet that day - all you can hear were the winds swirling around. Most of the houses were yet to be occupied and tons were in the midst of being built - so it had that feeling like we were in a movie set. Actually, it reminded of the town in Edward Scissorhands... very cookie-cutterish, very suburbia.

remembering shoots

© van ditthavong

I was combing through some old files and ran into this photo. There have been pivotal moments where I can kinda pin point where my photography career/education takes a turn. This shoot happens to be one of them... here I started to really enjoy using props in my shots and I focused more in creating scenes and using the environment. It was very liberating.

alpha mc

© van ditthavong

Alpha MC finishes his set. We head into the back room, where the light is falling perfectly. "Oh, don't forget your CD," I said. He answers, "That's right."

u-god

© van ditthavong

U-God of Wu-Tang Clan fame and a glass of wine.

SxSW

© van ditthavong

We packed the car up with gear and left Dallas - headed to Austin for some work down at South by Southwest. It's only been four days but feels like 4 months. It's great to always get away... but sometimes it's even better to get back. So after some intense shoots, the road back home tomorrow couldn't happen at a better time.