|
Gata Galáctica recently came down from Portland this past weekend & I was stoked to see them play live at Gold Diggers in East Hollywood! If you've never heard their music, definitely check them out. They're the grooviest contemporary Latin-influenced psychedelic band out right now, whose music is very reminiscent of some of my fav chicha sounds out of 1960s South America. Bandcamp Friday is coming up this week, so consider supporting them directly & buying their music! Or, at least give them a follow on their Bandcamp or Instagram! It's FREE. 😉 I also got to grab a copy of a 7" they recently pressed — ON COLORED VINYL! 😻 Do you get their art reference below? 😎  I'm also feeling incredibly lucky that they let me photograph their set! I know they had so many photographers hit them up, so I'm glad that they let me of all people. Considering that they're a psychedelic band, I didn't want to make just any regular photos of them. So, I got a little experimental with the compositions & tried some things I'd never done outside of a studio setting. I used a new speedlight (flash) I just bought recently, a slow shutter speed & incorporated rigorous movement into the photos, like shaking the camera & zooming the lens in & out while the flash froze the colored lights during the longer exposure time. Not all the photos came out perfect, but that wasn't the goal. I wanted to let go of control a bit & see what the light was capable of painting into the compositions themselves. It was fun getting to play, & what better time to get experimental than with photos for a psychedelic band, I guess? 😅 Photos below were created with a Nikon ZF, a 24-120mm lens, a fractal filter, & a Godox Ving V860III. Click to enlarge & view from a computer for the full experience!   
  
 
 
   
 
If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
0 Comments
Last week I got to see Dark Chisme with a very dear friend. This night was so fun & every band gave such an energetic performance. They were all so good & matched each others' energy very well. I think the best part of this gig in particular was how very POC-forward, especially WOC-led, the line-up was. In a music subgenre that has historically been overwhelmingly white, it was awesome to experience such a diverse group. This is honestly one of my favorite things about living in Los Angeles. Shoutout to the organisers who put the night together, the homegirl Selene for inviting me, & huge thanks for Christine & E of Dark Chisme for approving me for a photo pass to do photography at the show. I'm looking foward to doing more events like this in the future! Here's some of my favorite compositions from Dark Chisme's set! Since the performance was so energetic, I had fun playing with a slow shutter speed in some comps. Photos were created with a Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. For the whole set of photos from the night (including Spike Hellis & Meldamore), visit the tag: Lastly, I am trying to hustle my photo work full-time. If you are in need of photography services, please visit my commercial photo website & book a consultation for events, portraiture or lifestyle photography!
Two of my absolute fav compositions from the whole set. The way the light was hitting Christine was perfection. 🤌🏽 
   
  
 If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. This was my first time seeing Spike Hellis & their set was part music performance & part art installation. I appreciated the extra bells & whistles, like the old CRT TVs playing misc video footage, as well as the surveillance camera, netting & other sculptural elements around the DJ booth. The lighting was sometimes too dark or a bit intense at times, but it allowed me to do more than just documentation. I was also able to create very artsy-looking compositions that I feel pair well with the overall aesthetic & vibe conveyed in their performance. Photos were created with a Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. For the whole set of photos from the night (including Dark Chisme & Meldamor), visit the tag: Lastly, I am trying to hustle my photo work full-time. If you are in need of photography services, please visit my commercial photo website & book a consultation for events, portraiture or lifestyle photography!
These two are some of my fav compositions from the set. I know it's not very clear what's happening or visible, but but I love the shapes & lines the lights are making.
More of my favs!
 
  
    This one is probably my fav out of the whole set. Even tho the figure may not exactly be clear, there's something truly celestial about the way the light is hitting, with a light in the back drawing attention to the surveillance camera & this idea of being watched from a greater being from above.
The last two weren't sharp, LOL. But I still wanted to include them! There's something painterly about the image on the left & the way the light is creating various layers of colors. And I converted the one of the right to B&W to create a very Xerox-style looking image that looks like it came out of a DIY zine. If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. We arrived a little later & just caught Pride Month Barbie at the end of the set. So, I didn't get any photos of them, unfortunately! But we got to enjoy a full set by Meldamor. It was my first time hearing them & the whole time I kept thinking "The dummer looks like Dave Parley" — it turns out it was! 😅 I had no idea he'd left Prayers & started a music project with his wife. Her towering figure paired with commanding stage presence made a very memorable performance & was a great introduction to the band. I'm obsessed! Below are a few of my fav compositions from the show. I created a mix of both B&W and color versions. I was really trying to go for an oldschool aesthetic edit, reminiscent of old DIY band photography. Let me know in the comments if you prefer the color or B&W photos! Photos were created with a Nikon ZF & 24-70mm lens. No flash in these, because I didn't want to ruin the ambience. I really loved a lot of the shapes & color palettes the lighting was creating, too! For the whole set of photos from the night (including Dark Chisme & Spike Hellis), visit the tag: Lastly, I am trying to hustle my photo work full-time. If you are in need of photography services, please visit my commercial photo website & book a consultation for events, portraiture or lifestyle photography!   
  
If you made it this far, thank you for checking out my blog! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts.
Over a year later, I am FINALLY concluding work from my ARROZidency artist-in-residence at OM France Viana Studio at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco.
As a last reminder, if you are just starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom of this series & starting from the beginning! View from a computer for the full experience. A full round-up of my residency work, starting from my research in Cebu in 2024 up until this post, is available under the tag:
To view my main residency project only, which consists of my Cebu research & main photo documentary essay, that work is tagged under:
I am really excited to finally finish this project, because it's taken me over a year to do so! After reviewing all of the work, I hadn't realised how busy I actually was. It was a struggle to finish sooner due to more unexpected, drawn-out health issues last year after I came home from the Philippines. But now that I've finally had time to sit with the work, it felt like the right time to revisit & push myself to finish.
I haven't got much else to say other thank how thankful I am for this experience — a truly educational, healing, spiritual & transcendental experience in so many ways. And I am so, so thankful for all the people who supported me along the way, whether it was making a direct investment into the work itself, helping me secure housing, or even just meeting up to connect, spend time together, talk art & life. Altogether, it made for a deeply insightful experience. These last few photos aren't really related to the work at all — yes & no. They were just a few misc photos I found on my camera roll from misc excursions. I recommend clicking on them to enlarge! At the end of every day, even though I could have stayed late & gone on all night like I used to at my studio during my college days, I always made a point to leave the studio before dark. Every day, I left the studio in the Dogpatch district around sunset for a bike ride along the bay into Union Square. While it wasn't part of the art-making, per se, it was a way for me to clear my mind, unwind from the day & mentally prepare for the next day. The top-left photo was just from one of those days when I happened to stop & take a photo. The right & bottom left photos are from misc walks from Union Square to my sublet in Nob Hill. Every day, I tried to take a different route to see if I saw something cool along the way. Revisiting the neon signage of the "Love These Flowers" was like visually giving flowers to myself for finally finishing this project. And the bottom right photo was something that just quickly caught my eye on a walk home one day. Hendrix's Axis: Bold as Love, a skate deck & misc tagging. Thinking of the last song on the album as I finish this series. Thanks for reading this far. :) Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. Sharing more of the extended research & photography of my month long ARROZidency artist-in-residence. If you are just starting here, I recommend scrolling to the bottom to start at the beginning. View from a computer for the full experience! As another reminder, I've split up the work from my residency into 2 separate tags: For my main residency project only, visit: For the full extended roundup of my research during my residency, visit: It was Sunday, February 2, 2025. The rain was making its way through San Francisco & I had a ticket to the Asian Art Museum's free admission day. The rain was coming down & I remember being on the phone with my partner in the morning, asking him if I should still go, because it was raining & I wanted to be cozy. 😅 He encouraged me to go, because I may never get another chance to experience this again. I got dressed & had a short bike ride over to the museum from my sublet in Nob Hill. I was hoping that even though it was the free admission day, that not many people would be there because it was raining. I was sadly mistaken, haha! It was a bit too crowded for my taste, too noisy, I had a hard time navigating the galleries, some of the galleries were closed for installation, & from what I did get to see, I wasn't really impressed with the exhibitions. However, the main thing I wanted to experience at the museum was the lion dance performance. Having experienced my first lion dance performance just the year prior, I wanted to relive that electrifying feeling again. While the program was sadly so unorganized, the performance itself was so much fun to experience. At this time, having just left LA for this residency as the fires were erupting, I wanted to bring back some good fortune and cast off any lingering bad energy before returning to LA. 🐍 I hope everyone is feeling the energy of rebirth and renewal as we all finish shedding our skin from the year of the wood snake. Now, as we enter the year of the fire horse, I wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year, Tết, and Seollal! Fun fact: I was born in the year of the horse (in the 1900s)! The horse is known for being strong, independent & anti-authoritarian by nature. May we all channel our big fire horse energy this year as we dream of a future where authority & hierarchies no longer exist. ❤️🔥🐎 Shout out LionDanceME for their high-energy performance! Here's some photos of their performance from last year. Photographs were created with my Nikon ZF & a 24-70mm lens. Click any image below to enlarge.
  
  
    
     
 Additional photos & research from the rest of my residency are forthcoming & will be tagged under ARROZidency.
Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, or subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my blog posts, projects, or upcoming programs. If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. Back at the beginning of November, I got to check out one of Artronika's shows again. As some of you know, I've attended a couple of their events already & have had the opportunity to do some photography for them last year. This time, I got to check them out at the DS Night Market! I went to the night market once before, back when they were still located at Lax-C. Now they've relocated to the Chinatown Plaza & it seems like a great location for them. More foot traffic, more visibility, space, & also helps bring a little more life back to Chinatown. LA's Chinatown has seemed dead these days, among other underlying issues of gentrification that exist in Chinatown as well. With the cost of housing skyrocketing across LA County, we have vacant "luxury" apartments in Chinatown adjacent to small 1-bedroom apartments cramped with low-income Chinese seniors struggling to get by & survive — especially in Chinatown, where there are no grocery stores within walking distance. I often find myself riding the bus among Chinatown seniors on their way to Super King by our house, which is already nearly 4 miles away from Chinatown. That aside, it's nice to see community coming together in Chinatown again, united by art, music & the mouth-watering aromas of Thai street food — arguably some of the best I've had in ages, because the Thai food in Northeast LA sucks. 💀 Anyways, I'm not a food critic. I'm here to share some photography! I published a few videos on my YouTube channel as well. Check out my Artronika playlist. Unless otherwise stated, photos were created with my Nikon ZF, a 24-70mm lens & Lightpix Labs Flashq Q20ii. If interested in event photography, please send me an email! Click any image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.
 A few misc photos to start, haha. The top 4 were made using a Pocket Dispo lens. Below, we have Artronika’s Executive Director, Ireesh Lal, playing jazz trumpet over his DJ mixes of world music, with a focus on South Asian sounds. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion, while artist Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Flyght Club also joined the lineup, performing a few of his original tracks.
 Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments.
I can't embed videos into a post if there's too many photos. Here's some videos I took at the show that I posted on my YouTube channel. In case you missed the photos from the show, keep scrolling down, or you can view them here. Videos were also filmed with my Nikon ZF & Pocket Dispo.
Last Saturday, December 13, I got to check out a photo zine pop-up & punk show at our local library in Cypress Park, Northeast Los Angeles. I grew up in LA, but we've lived in CP for 10 years now, & despite the rapid gentrification happening in our neighborhoods, we love NELA for its unique offerings like these. I got to reconnect with my friend Valerie J. Bower, whom I haven't seen since before the pandemic. Her photography is not only an inspiration to me, but her hard-working ethic truly shines through, & it's just cool to know another Filipina-American artist with similar interests as me (photography & underground music). She even gifted me a signed copy of one of her zines! Such an honor to add to my collection. I've been wanting to make another photo zine for years, but I struggle with getting myself organised. 🥴 After the show, we got some free zines from Razorcake & some printed media from the UCLA Library Punk Collective. Then I went into the library to check out some DVDs. With the way streaming has been going (both video & music), I've been trying to beef up my record collection, have started getting into collecting cassettes (more affordable), & we started buying DVDs. On occasion, we'll walk to the library to see what DVDs they currently have on rotation, too. Support your local library! And I hope one day the library will respond to me when I've asked them about doing programming there, too. 😅 Anyways, here are a few photos I made with my Nikon ZF & Pocket Dispo lens. These are not intended to be artistic, per se, or professionally packaged, just made for fun. :) Click any image below to enlarge. I recommend viewing from a computer for the full experience.                                                 Happy AAPI Heritage Month! I am finally back in the states after spending a total of 4.5 months traveling. I think it's safe to say I will be here again for a while, as I finish some outstanding projects & look for new work. Throwing it back to last year, I had a wonderful opportunity to work with Artronika & the South Asian creative community doing photography for their Chakras events at the Siesta Day Club near Chinatown, Los Angeles. The events included a 7-course food experience by Bombay Beach restaurant — each course corresponding with one of the 7 chakras & their colors — as well as cultural music, dance & visual art by a number of artists from various parts of the South Asian diaspora & adjacent. It was a pleasure to work with the South Asian community, whom I feel is often forgotten from the AAPI experience. Definitely make sure to follow Artronika on Instagram & catch their next event around LA County! Artronika is a non-profit arts organization that produces immersive arts programming showcasing South Asian talent collaborating with visual artists in non-traditional performance spaces. Executive Director, Ireesh Lal, is a trumpet player and Recording Artist that has been producing events throughout Southern California for several decades. Last year I'd just gotten my Nikon ZF, & I also took out some new fractal filters for a spin for the first time. Here's a selection of photos below made using a 24-70mm lens. Click any image to enlarge. View from a computer for the full experience. May 2025This was my first Chakras event. I didn't know what to expect, other than what I'd seen in YouTube videos from prior research. I remember it being very hot that day & I was boiling alongside the artists (haha), whom were all very welcoming & seemed to be having a great time regardless. The food & music were phenomenal. It was also my first time seeing a contortionist in-person. Paired with the food & music, my mind was a bit blown. 😅 Ireesh Lal DJ'd a mix of electronic and world music while playing jazz trumpet and synths. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion. Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Choreography and dance by Lena Fumi. Body painting by Sig Aberin and Rio Sirah. Amita Batra hosted the afternoon and additional vocal performances by Arzeen Kamal & Ashwin Sriram. Several additional guest musicians were also featured throughout the event.                                                 August 2025This day was a lot cooler (in temps)! No fractal filter this time, but I came strapped with a flash unit after seeing how varied the lighting was at the last event. Plus, with the event starting later in the day this time around (after how hot the last one was!) & the sun going down, it really came in handy with the later performances. Saw some familiar faces from the last event as well as met some new artists. Also got to hang with some friends who came out, too! No food pics this time, but just understand that the food was of course remarkable once again. Ireesh Lal DJ'd a mix of electronic and world music while playing jazz trumpet and synths. Neel Agrawal joined on tabla and Indian percussion. Norton Wisdom painted live on a fiberglass canvas. Choreography and dance by Lena Fumi. Body painting by Rio Sirah. Comedian Dhruv Singh hosted the afternoon. Local underground South Asian songwriters performed a mix of original and covers throughout the event, including Vaishali Sanas, Flyght Club & Arzeen Kamal.                                                             Make sure to keep checking this space, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates on my blog posts. If you are interested in hiring me for event photography, shoot me an email.
If you've read this far, thank you! Please feel free to share your thoughts or any questions in the comments. |
NICA AQUINOIn this space I'll share digital photography, digital previews of my film photography, updates on new artworks in progress, upcoming programs, inspiration & my other misc interests. Archives
August 2026
Categories
All
|
- Home
-
About
- Bio
- Full CV
- Connect >
-
Press
>
- Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association
- Asian Journal
- Asian Voices TV, Ep. 10
- Art & Cake Contemporary Art Magazine
- Artillery Magazine
- Corridor8
- Diversions LA >
- Do LA >
- FilAm Arts
- Inquirer
- Itaú Cultural Encyclopedia of Brazilian Art and Culture
- LA City Dept. of Cultural Affairs
- LA Weekly
- Los Angeles Contemporary Archive
- Mutual Art
- Occidental News >
- Oregon Arts Watch >
- Philippine Star Life
- Portland Mercury
- Positively Filipino
- Random Lengths News
- Salo-SALA
- San Antonio Current
- Street Roots
- University of Southern California Center for Religion and Civic Culture
- V13 Media
- Voyage LA
- Donate >
- ART PROJECTS
- COMMERCIAL
-
BLOG
RSS Feed
