I backed up about a decade's worth of cds recently. I lost a lot of music when a lot of the cds became unreadable either through scratches or just plain ol' disc rot. I didn't realize that burned cds can lose their data over the years, so I've lost a lot of songs that I'll never be able to find these days (trust me, I have pretty strange taste in music).

It felt like such a waste if I threw them all out. I figured I should try to at least do something with them, maybe not give them a quick death with a trip to the garbage can.

I ended up gluing them together and thought about hanging it up on my wall.

But then realized that is a bit too college-y. I'm only just starting to hang up pictures I've taken of all my friends anyway.

So now I've got this "art" (if you can even call it that) that has no home. I put them under my piano bench. Maybe when I move, I'll have more wall space- maybe stick it in my bathroom or something.

This one's my favorite one. Except working with glue is really tough and the final work doesn't look as good as this piece- in the light, you can see streaks of glue when the cds shifted slightly. I should probably just stick to photography.

Here's an idea.

1) Copy this photo onto your facebook wall.
2) Tag someone you like.
3) ?????
4) PROFIT.

And if you don't like that one, here's an alternative I made. Writing in yarn is much easier than writing with power cords.

Alice invited me to her family's 4th of July bbq since my brothers were out of town for the weekend and my family had no plans. Her parents' house happens to be 10 minutes away from my parents' house in North Houston and situated in the neighborhood right behind Sam Houston Race Park. I had worked at the horse track one summer with Melissa during college because Melissa had insisted we find a job together, though once we were hired, we rarely worked the same shift.

Anyway, there were tons of people parked in the neighborhood before the fireworks came on at 10.

One of the fireworks probably a few milliseconds after explosion.

This one looks vaguely organic and tendrilly.

This one reminds me of a hamburger. I could really go for one right now.

In any case, I was shooting on my tripod and just snapping away and when I sat down to edit photos, I realized I could piece together a crude time lapse of the rather lengthy fireworks spectacle. Took me a while to figure out how to do one- probably need to refine it a bit more later, but at least I know I can make one.

4th of July Timelapse from Andrew Nguyen on Vimeo.

I had this concept of "love" in my head for a while. I finally got around to trying to make it into something tangible.

I was actually quite pleased with how it came out. In fact, it came out more than okay- this was perfect, given the nature of the uncooperative material.

Through the opening of my ring flash unit.

I ended up liking this one the best.

But then I thought, what if I plugged in the light? Unfortunately, I had blown out my red light unit months ago during a photoshoot and so I switched the head units. But the extension cord wasn't long enough and I had to move my idea of love over. Turning the light unit on itself seemed to ruin the careful placement, and then the subsequent moving of the entire word to the right to reach the extension outlet seemed to ruin its perfectness- the "v" seemed more "u"-like now, the "l" not as grand in stature. I was disappointed with the reality of what happens when you plug it in to make it work. I didn't think anything could match what I had previously done, which I originally did not think could match what was the concept in my head.

I shut off the lights in the room and turned on the light unit. And there it was. An illuminating concept.

I shot these photos a few weeks ago. At the time, it seemed like the more I tried to make the concept into a functional reality, the more I ruined it. But now that I'm here looking at it again, I liked how they came out after all. Each angle, each viewpoint had its own strengths. Such is love. Such is life.

Woke up early one Saturday morning to shoot Victoria and John's wedding. Every wedding is different, and for a daytime reception in May in Houston, it was sweltering hot outside. Fortunately, the lighting shining in from outside was pretty flattering for the indoor shots and I liked how the pictures came out.

By 10:30 AM, the sun was blindingly angry but I was able to keep the highlights from getting completely blown out.

Probably the easiest couple to shoot pictures of- Samantha and Sam were pretty friendly, talkative, and openly affectionate. I suppose it's easier to be affectionate in front of a complete stranger, because my friends are pretty much NO PDA every time I've shot them. I pretty much don't even ask them anymore.

Tramanh's aunt invited us over for some grillin', a little bit of wine, and swimming.

Uno looks like he knows something but ain't sayin'.

Dogs look pretty gross from the bottom.

The adventures of Uno, the Seabound Hound.

Uno and his first mate Tu

ACTION SHOT!

ACTION SHOT!

CANNON BALL!

When you're nearly neck deep in the pool with your camera, it's a bit frightening when you see this coming at you.

Around 9 PM, well past sunset, I pumped up the ISO to 3200 and was able to shoot this handheld in the pool.

99% of the time, it's pretty unnecessary to have a camera like the D300 for features like high ISO, but that 1% of the time, you can still pull off a shot and have it come out reasonably well.

Tramanh's aunt was nice enough to invite me to Tramanh's cousin's birthday party, so we drove off for the trek to Missouri City for their big backyard party.

As usual, I bring along my camera in the car because the dogs get excited about car trips.

Pepper looking particularly insane.

This thermometer is probably not that accurate, but this is what a Houston summer feels like. We came back the next day and the needle was pointing unmistakably at 120 degrees.

I hate when people call Maggi "soy sauce". It's a seasoning- that'd be like if people called Worcestershire sauce "soy sauce". There is no soy in it. Maggi also happens to hold a soft spot in my culinary palate because it reminds me of comfort foods growing up. Anyway, they had this special edition Maggi which I never knew existed.

Tramanh's uncle, the grill master for the party.

Quinn and Zoe

They even had birthday flan.

If you didn't know those were computers in the middle, it'd look like they were gazing at each other for hours at a time.

I fell asleep while gutting another magazine on the couch, my exposed x-acto knife precariously close to an artery in my arm. Tramanh picked up my camera and snapped away.

I like how her shots of Pepper turned out. Good lighting.

Uno looks regal in this photo. Good composition.

I firmly believe anyone could become a good photographer- it's just a matter of picking up the camera and shooting when no one is looking.

Jeannie wanted to take some portrait shots with her mom. I obliged.