Skip to main content

DCC Meet-up Cincinnati


On March 10th I hosted a meet up of the Dayton-Columbus-Cincinnati Cosplay Photoshoot group at Urban Artifact’s Venue space which is above the taproom in an old renovated church. The venue space we used to be the main reliquary space of the church, and the taproom would be in what was the basement area. Highly recommend visiting the Urban Artifact taproom, if you like craft beers. This was the second meet up of the year for the DCC, and we had a great turn out for the event.  

I shot 312 frames of which I edited 197 frames and delivered 139 final images. I shot the whole meet using a light from a single off camera speed light on a light stand with an umbrella. I shot using ISO 200. My aperture varied between F3.5 to F8.0 with the most common being F7.1.  My shutter speed varied greatly from 1/25s to 1/1250s with the most common speed being 1/250s.  Finally, my focal length varied from 18mm to 50mm, with the most common focal length being 18mm.  It does not surprise me that 18mm was the most common focal length since I was close to the models while still getting full length shots.

I will say we had a lot of good cosplayers at this meet up, but I was having trouble getting into shooting. I think my problem was I was still recovering from Katsucon which takes a lot out of me creatively. I usually take a minimum of one month break before shooting again after Katsucon.  In this case I was only two weeks removed from Katsucon, so wasn’t fully up to creative shooting.  So, I apologize to the cosplayer’s because the photos from this event were not what I consider my best work and I know I could do better.  You can see all the images from the shoot here.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay .   The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.   Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.   Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.   Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.   (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...

2025 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2026

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...

Katsucon 2025 Wrap - Up

Katsucon 2025 didn’t seem as crowded as 2024, but I still wasn’t feeling it.  Katsucon will always have a special place in my heart, but I think I’m just bored with it, from a creative perspective.   While I still love working with cosplayers the location itself no longer excites me and I’m tired of fighting the crowds.  If I return to Katsucon 2026 I think I’ll just set up a studio in my room and do studio sessions.  I can be a lot more creative with a studio session, and I get to use all my lights.  So now let's talk about photography.   For Katsucon I was shooting with my Canon R6 with an 24-105 Canon RF lens, and I had a fisheye lens on me as well, but we will discuss that later.  I had two speedlights, one on camera which acted as a trigger 90-percent of the time and one on a light stand which my husband would hold during shoots. This year I booked 11 cosplay sessions and shot 869 frames.  I shot a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO 800...