Danny’s been around for a while and his photos have consistently been selected as some of the greatest of Self Portrait Challenge. There’s a lot more to the surface though, for example, it turns out that Danny is an animator in his home town and that he avoids using digital for most of his images, which is pretty unusual these days.
Danny’s blog is:
And more of his photos can be found at:
http://photography.dannyngan.com
1 How Long have you been a member of SPC?
I’ve been a member since November of 2005, back when SPC was Self Portrait Tuesday. :)
2 What is the most difficult self portrait that you have taken of yourself?
I’d have to say that my “self portrait as a fragrance ad” (http://blog.dannyngan.com/2006/07/04/spc-self-portrait-as-a-fragrance-ad/) was the most difficult one to shoot. Conceptually, it was easy to figure out what I wanted, but the actual execution of the shot and subsequent post-processing took far longer than what I’m used to. I was shooting with my new 50mm/f1.8, so I was trying to get used to the tight framing as well as the incredibly shallow depth of field of f/1.8. I was also doing this as a hand-held shot, so I had to take several shots before I could get both the framing and the focus correct. The post-processing to get the high-key look took a while to figure out as well, since I had never done any sort of high-key work before. I tried several iterations to find just the right balance of white area versus black area, and I probably could’ve kept on tweaking if there wasn’t the deadline of SPC keeping me on schedule.
3 Why do you take part in SPC? Has your photography altered from your participation?
I spend so much time photographing the people and things around me that it’s a nice change of pace to turn the camera on myself. Well, doing self-portraits used to be a change of pace, but, ever since I started participating in SPC, it’s become pretty normal. I think doing self-portraits adds a lot of personal touch to my overall work. You can look at my regular photos (http://photography.dannyngan.com) and see something that could be taken by anyone else. However, seeing my self-portraits mixed in there really makes the work feel like it’s from me. You see my facial expressions, and you really get a much better sense of who is behind the camera and why some of the shots were taken as they were.
4 Craziest pose you’ve stood in to get a photo?
The craziest pose has be the one I did this weekend for this month’s challenge of “enclosed space”. I contorted my upper body inside my laundry hamper – with dirty laundry – and I somehow twisted my arms around enough to point my camera at my face and fire off a shot. I’m not sure what the photo looks like yet (the film is undeveloped as I type this up), but it sure was fun trying to get inside my hamper.
5 How would you describe your style of portraiture?
Playful. Whimsical. Spontaneous. Random. Fun!
The BONUS QUESTION
6 If we saw you walking down the street, what thoughts would be in our heads and what thoughts would you want to replace them with?
Thoughts in your head: “Hey! It’s that crazy Asian guy who takes funny pictures of himself! Wonder if I should go say hi!”
Replace with: “Hey! It’s that crazy Asian guy who takes funny pictures of himself! Let’s go say hi and maybe he’ll take a picture of me!”
He’s infectious and bubbly, like I said, who could resist?
