The Munchkin's Notebook

This year I did a two portrait shoots using the cherry blossoms as a backdrop.  I did one shoot in the morning at the tidal basin and the other in the afternoon at a local park.  There were not as many cherry blossoms overall this year due to frost and cold temperatures near the peak bloom period.   I went down to the tidal basin early in the morning to meet LaReine Rousse Cosplay who was cosplaying Mikumo.  I did her shoot using my Canon 70D an 18 -200mm lens, a 430 EX-RT III flash mounted on my camera, and a bounce attachment for the flash.   It was a densely clouded early in the morning however; the clouds did break up later in the morning resulting in a sunny day.   We started near the Jefferson Memorial, worked our way around the tidal basin, and ended across the street in the offshoot of the main tidal basin area.  The challenge of shooting portraits at the tidal basin is being able to get clean pictures (limited to no distractio...

As usual I went down to the tidal basin to take photos of the cherry blossoms; however, this year there were not as many as normal.  Several of the cherry blossoms died due to frost and cold temperature due to the odd weather patter we had this spring.  In February we had a few days in the upper 60’s and low 70’s, which caused the cherry blossoms to start to wake up, and start the blooming process. Though, in March, we went back to winter weather temperatures in the 30’s with some snow and ice, which damaged many of the blooms.  This resulted in a slightly less fluffy pink tidal basin, and a shorter bloom period.  I went down to the tidal basin early in the morning of the first day of peak bloom with my Canon 70D a 18 -200mm lens, a 60mm macro (which I did not use), a Manfroto tripod, a 430 EX-RT III flash, and a bounce attachment for the flash.  It was a densely clouded morning and only a scant amount of light from the sunrise was breaking through the clou...

Tenth Moon Cosplay won a two-hour photo shoot with me, through a contest I ran on my Facebook page , back in January, and we did the shoot in March.  The two outfits she chose for the shoot were Lolita fashion dresses.  The first dress had prints of constellations on it, which inspired me to buy the moon backdrop used in the photos.  The other outfit was perfect for snow shots with its little fur edged cape.  However, I could no longer be guaranteed natural snow, so I made snow.  I used a product called “ SnoWonder InstantSnow ”.   One cup of the raw power when mixed with one gallon of water makes two gallons of snow.  The fake snow feels cold and acts like heavy snow, meaning it tends to clump.  However, it works wonderfully to coat a floor and toss in the air.  The only bad part is it is hard to clean up when it is wet because it tends to stick to everything, but once it dries it is easy to clean up with a broom. For this session...

It has been several months since Katsucon 2017 wrapped up, so I can review my work with fresh eyes.  This year I had 21 individual photo shoots book and still managed to do several hall shots. In total, I ended up editing 1,508 photos from two and half days of shooting this year. Before I get into some more statistics and talk about a few of my favorite shoots, let talk about what Katsucon is for those unfamiliar with the event.  Katsucon is a 72-hour Anime convention that focuses on anime, Japanese culture, art, music, and is a premier event for cosplayers in the National Capital Region.  The reason it is loved by cosplayers and photographers is the convention grounds; it held at the Gaylord National, which has a lovely atrium and the beloved gazebo.  (No, I do not know why the gazebo is loved.)  There are some rules for photographer at the convention. You must have a valid badge, everything must be hand held, and you cannot use light stands or any free s...