Customer Spotlight: Anthony Ngu
Anthony is an engineer in Seattle who has a strong love of photography and video; he uses the Sony a7RII as his primary camera. We met Anthony through StreetMeetWA events.
StreetMeetWA was founded by Joshua Flynn (@FlynnPNW) and is co-hosted with Anthony and Amit Moolani (@memoirsmoolani). These events are flooded with creatives of all ages, giving individuals, who create everything from portraits to street photography to landscapes. Not only are they leading dynamic events for the creative community, they have a great desire to give back to the Seattle community and have done so with donations to non-profits like Pike Market Food Bank.
Introduction
I’m Anthony Ngu, a photographer, videographer, and engineer in Seattle who goes by @angulife on Instagram. I’m one of the organizers for StreetMeetWA and as StreetMeetWA we host a meet every month for photographers, models, and other creatives to meet, get to know each other, and create content together!
How did you get your start in photography?
I started dabbling in photography in high school with a couple of friends and continued to photograph, mainly just documenting events throughout college, where I took some introductory photography courses and learned to develop images in a dark room. My engineering career took off and I ended up only recently falling back in love with photography. I was photographing and making videos about projects I was building in my spare time like electric longboards and LED props when I decided to use my skills and gear for more than just documentation purposes.
At the start of this year I started taking photography more seriously and began building out my portfolio and taking on clients. A couple months into the year I found out about the first StreetMeetWA event and I went with one of my friends. I loved the idea so much that I helped out with a couple of the next ones and ended up joining the team officially a couple months later.
What is your favorite genre of photography?
Adventure/Lifestyle and Street photography are some of my favorites because in addition to creating gorgeous images of daily life, they inspire others to go out, explore, and enjoy the world around them.
What’s in your gear bag?
So my go-to bag is the Peak Design 30L backpack because it can hold everything I need for my adventures.
I use a Sony A7RII with 3 prime lenses. My Zeiss 18mm f/2.8 for landscape or context shots, 35mm f/2.8 for more street shooting, and an 85mm f/1.8 for portraits
I usually have the Peak Design Capture / Capture Lens on my Peak Design 30L bag to make attaching prime lenses or my camera super easy when I walk around.
My go-to accessories are my gorilla-pod or travel tripod in case I want to take photos or videos of myself or landscapes, a little pelican case for my spare SD cards because I always seem to leave my SD card at home when I need it the most, and a lume cube with some warm gels for fill lighting. I also, always bring a portable charger just in case I need to charge up my camera, or my phone on my adventures.
Aside from that I bring a little camera sensor cleaner blower and lens cleaning pens with me in my bag for when my lens or body gets dirty (which it does when I’m changing prime lenses so often).
Share your favourite holiday memory, what helps keep that memory with you?
My favorite holiday memories are from traveling with my family. A couple years ago, we flew to Europe for a couple of weeks and traversed around to Germany, Budapest, Prague, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Vienna. It was the perfect time to visit because we got the chance to experience all of the different winter markets and festivals and some great snowy days/nights. I remember waking up early for sunrise with my family and hiking up to a gorgeous view of Budapest from an old castle wall. Creating unique memories in new places with people whom you’re close to, That’s the whole reason why I love traveling and photography helps to capture those moments.
Do you have any special holiday traditions?
In the past couple of years we’ve begun to travel during the holidays and I really enjoy that time together, getting to explore new places.
Tell us about your experiences with Glazer’s, have we been able to help in any of your creative goals?
I love coming into the shop to chat and to check out / admire new gear, but I love the community that Glazer’s fosters with their photo walks and local events! A special shout-out to Glazer’s Rentals as well because they give me a chance to check out potential new additions to my lens collection or even lenses that I couldn’t justify purchasing (the Sony 100-400mm f4 paired with a 2x teleconverter was amazing for the total solar eclipse this year – and for viewing into the space needle from Kerry Park haha).
