The Munchkin's Notebook

On February 28th, I attended the  Costume & Camera  (previously DC Cosplay Photoshoots) event at the National Portrait Gallery in DC.  I have a love/hate relationship with shooting at the National Portrait Gallery; it is a beautiful location due to its architecture, especially on the third floor, and I’m thankful that you are allowed to do portrait photography there as long as you don’t use flash.  What I get frustrated with is the varying colors of light throughout the building and the need to use natural or continuous light.  (I’m a flash girly.)  For this event, I used: Canon R6 24 - 105mm lens Neewer 12-inch LED light Assistant Camera Settings: This shoot was inside the Portrait Gallery, which has a no flash policy, thus I was using a mix of natural and continuous lighting, which affects settings. My ISO ranged from 100 ISO to 3200 ISO with the most common ISO being ISO 1000.  My aperture stayed between F4 and F5, with the most c...

On January 24 th , I did a double session with Natalie inspired by her red 18 th century gown, Venice Carnival, and red roses.    Second dress was also an 18 th century gown, but in white with little red flowers.   I used the same set for both but created two different moods. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 3 c-stands 1 Backdrop stand 1 blue wall backdrop Sandbags 2 rectangular soft boxes Mini-boom arm 6x6 silver reflector Clamps Spyder color checker Laptop Teather cable Snoot 4 Gold flower stands 3-tier flower stand Table Black and white cloth 2 gold flower holders red flowers (lots of roses) fake candles chair candle holders The set up I wanted the set to remind me of room you would find in the historic villas and manors in Venice....

On January 10 th , I did six studio session during Magfest, at the blackout studio located inside Plus Ultra Entertainment in National Harbor, Maryland.   These were the only sessions I did during Magfest, because I didn’t get a Magfest ticket, didn’t feel like playing in the hotel lottery, and honestly, I’m tired of photographing the Gaylord. I billed these sessions as an alternative to chaos of a convention session and allowed for a more relaxed and private experience. Additionally, with doing the sessions in studio I could use more creative lighting techniques, go at a slower pace, and not have to worry about random people in the background or fighting for a location.   For the cosplayer, they got to step away from the noise of the con for a little bit and chill during the session. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Manfrotto light ...

This year was a bit interesting especially since during the day, I’m a government employee, which resulted in a lot of stress and a 42-day furlough.  I didn’t attend as many cosplay events with the D.C Cosplay group, now Costume and Camera, as I normally would have, due to schedule conflicts.  However, I traveled up to Poughkeepsie, New York for two photo events, one of which I was a featured photographer.  I attended two conventions, one of which didn’t turn out as expected and the other just confirmed my decision to take a break from it.  Though happily I did a lot of studio work this year, which I enjoyed.  But on the other hand, I lost my dear “studio supervisor”, my dog Teddy.  He liked to great clients and then “supervise” while lying/sleeping in his bed. I also started to work on the business side of my photography work, by investing in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) site to manage bookings, schedules, and payments. No more trying to juggle...

On December 14th, I did a very cute and pink studio session with Maid Adelynn from Heart Strings Café .   This session was also my last session of the year and was a great way to wrap up the year. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 1 Octabox 1 bell reflector 2 c-stands Backdrop stand 1 white background 1 Pink canvas background Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Flowers Styrofoam blocks Dowl rods Paper cherry blossoms Pink Tulle Fake food cushion   The setup I wanted to go simple and high key for this session, because it was supposed too bright, cheery, cute, and playful. So, I started with the background which was a fuzzy white backdrop, which covered the floor, over which I hung a hand-painted pink canvas backdrop.  I then dra...