2017 in Review
The year of 2017 was an interesting year for me, I felt as though
I did more photoshoots, however only ended up editing about 642 more photos
then last year. In 2016 I edited 5,851 images and in 2017 I edited 6,475 images,
noting this is the number of photos listed in Lightroom, not the actual number
of photos I took over the course of the year. This year I was only able to do
the Katsucon convention, because they moved Anime USA to December, which is a
hard month due to the holidays. However, I did do more cosplay work outside of conventions
due to meet-up events with the DC Cosplayer and Photographer* group and more
individual shoots. I also did three non-cosplay
conceptual/fine art portrait shoots this year, of which two photos from those
shoots were shown in an art gallery in Alexandria, VA. I also worked in some landscape and travel
photography, during my vacation to Scotland and Acadia National Park, in both
cases I was not overly happy with my results. So now let’s look back at some of
my overall statistics and favorite photos from the year.
This year I edited 6,475 photos, (this number may be a little low
due to me having to reformat my hard drive in September); my most used focal
length is 18 mm, with a shutter speed of 1/100s at an f4.5 aperture, and ISO
100 and ISO 400. You can see the distribution of each of focal length, shutter
speed, aperture, and ISO below.
It is always hard to narrow down my favorite cosplay photos to
just three, because I end up working with so many amazing cosplayers over the
course of the year. It also helps that I have built relationships with several
cosplayers through the DC Cosplayer and Photographer group. Sadly, I will not be as active in the group in
the come months or years due to moving out the DC area and to the Dayton, Ohio
area. I’m hoping there is a similar group
in Dayton, if not, I think I will start one because of the great relationships
you can build in a group like that. So,
I will be braking down my photos by three favorite DC Cosplayer and
Photographer (i.e. Meet-up) photos, general cosplay (conventions and one-on-one
sessions), non-cosplay portraits, and finally travel.
Meet-Ups
The DC Cosplayer and Photographer group does its best to have a
meet-up about once a month. I made five
of the meet-ups this year, I would have made more but my work and personal
travel schedule conflicted for several of the dates. As I said it is hard to pick just three
photos from the year, but there are a few that stand out. The
first is from the last meet-up I attended, it is of Jennifer Glinzak Costumery
as a winter version of Sleeping Beauty. The second image is of JMS Cosplay as Negan
from The Walking Dead. And the last one is
of GC-Chan Cosplay as Daenerys from Game of Thrones.
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| Jennifer Glinzak Costumery as a winter version of Sleeping Beauty |
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| JMS Cosplay as Negan from The Walking Dead. |
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| GC-Chan Cosplay as Daenerys from Game of Thrones |
General Cosplay
This year was only able to attend Katsucon, but I did do 21
individual shoots at the convention, which is a lot. For 2018 I am scaling back the number of individual
shoots at Katsucon, because I basically wore myself out and ended up getting
con-crud for the first time. I don’t want to do that again. I also did 9 one-on-one cosplay sessions
through the course of the year. Though I’m not sure if I want to call the
Lolita shoot cosplay or not, since that is sometimes a lifestyle or fashion
choice. It is hard to pick just three
photos for this group, because the individual personalities sometimes weigh
into the photo. I must say in my experience the more fun you are to work with,
the better the photos come out. This
first photo is from Katsucon of Angels n Demons Cosplay as Reaper from
Overwatch, she was so fun to work with. This second photo is also from Katsucon
of Sheryl in her wedding dress by Miguo cosplay. I was dying get a few photos in
front of this wall (it is like getting the gazebo) and the white on white just
worked. This last photo is from a one-on-one session out in a local sunflower
field with Sara Cosplay as Belle from Beauty and the Beast (live action version).
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| Angels n Demons Cosplay as Reaper from Overwatch |
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| Sheryl in her wedding dress by Miguo cosplay |
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| Sara Cosplay as Belle from Beauty and the Beast |
Fine Art Portraits
This
year I did a few conceptual portrait sessions.
These sessions were based on an idea/concept I wanted to shoot. In two of the cases I supplied the dress, the
model just came with hair and make-up prepared based on a mood board I sent
them. I had three concepts in mind a film
noir shoot, a cherry blossom shoot, and a parachute dress & water fall combination
shoot. I’m going to pick my favorite from each of those sessions. The first is from the noir shoot with Orisen Cosplay, which was done in studio with a very large gobo. The second is from the cherry blossom shoot, also
with Orisen Cosplay as the model. I was
so glad she was over 6 foot because the train on that dress is 20 feet long,
and she worked it like a champ. This
final image is from the parachute dress session, with Anna a friend of mine as
the model. This photo was basically the
last photo taken during the session and it is my favorite.
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| Model: Orisen Cosplay |
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| Model: Orisen Cosplay |
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| Model: Anna |
Landscapes
I
was not as happy with my landscapes this year as I have been in previous
years. I think in most cases it was
because I just was not feeling it. I
really need to feel some emotion or say capture this moment or place. While I was in some beautiful places, they didn’t
speak to me photographically. But I did
eek out a few nice photos. This first one is from the Island of Skye in Scotland.
This second photo is not amazing, but it
is almost on every postcard in Edinburgh, Scotland. I like it because it is my version of the
postcard photo. This last photo is from Acadia
National Park, and isn’t even a landscape but a picture of a piece of large
drift wood on a pebble beach. I like it
because it is kind of modern and would be one of those photos you see in a spa
or doctor’s office.
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| Old Man of Storre, Island of Skye |
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| Overlooking Edinburgh Scotland |
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| Driftwood with stones, Acadia National Park |
Overall,
I think I had a decent year, and am looking forward to staring a productive
2018 in Dayton, Ohio. I will miss
several of the people in DC and the variety of place to shoot, but am hoping to
find good people and places here as well.
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