Skip to main content

Revenge of the Fifth - Cosplay Meet Up


On May 5th I hosted a meet up of the Dayton-Columbus-Cincinnati Cosplay Photoshoot group at Oaks Quarry Park in Dayton.  We had a meet up last year in this same location, which turned out well. This meet-up was Star Wars and space themed, in honor of “May the Fourth” and “Revenge of the Fifth.” The location overall is very versatile, and can lend itself to a variety of cosplays.

I worked with all 8 cosplayers in attendance, which resulted in me shooting 292 frames. Of the 292 frames I edited 176 images and delivered 128 final images. I shot the whole meet using a light from a single bare off camera speed light on a light stand. I shot with a bare speed light to compensate for the sun. I shot using ISO 100 with an aperture of F8.0.  My shutter speed varied from 1/200s to 1/800s with the most common speed being 1/400s.  Finally, my focal length varied from 18mm to 60mm, with the most common focal length being 18mm. The use of a focal length of 18mm allowed me to capture the background  which really set the tone for several of the images.

Two of my favorite images from the shoot are of Izzyquinzilla as Jedi Belle.  For those unfamiliar, Jedi Belle is a mash up Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” and Star Wars Jedi.  There are several versions of fan art of this mash up.  The reason I like this image is because the wind cooperated for once, thus giving the skirt a billow effect.



Now you can’t have a Star Wars meet up, without shooting a fight scene. Luckily, there was a Rey portrayed by Nonsense Noah and Kylo portrayed by Robert in attendance.  In the movie the fight between Rey and Kylo would have happened in the snow; I figure a barren looking quarry is close enough considering it is spring time here.     


Overall it was a good meet up, and I think the cosplayers got several good photos from the photographers in attendance.  You can see my complete set here. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

Cyber Blue

On October 11 th , I worked with Dayvon on a cyber concept shoot. This shoot was designed around a pair of contact lens with a circuit board pattern. This inspired me to think about things like “Blade Runner”, “Tron” and cyber punk in general.    For this shoot I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights 2 Phottix strobes 2 Phottix Rectangular Softboxes with a grid 2 C-stands Blue gels Silver garage insulation Backdrop stand Black backdrop Connectable foam workout mats For this shoot I started out using four lights. The first two were small speed lights with blue gels attached placed on the floor aimed at the backdrop.  The backdrop was silver garage insulation, which looks like silver bubble wrap. The backdrop reflected the blue light forward providing a bit of rim light.  My main two lights were the strobes is rectangular soft boxes with grids attached. For this shoot I kept the lighting very low key, styled along that of a photo of Ryan Gosling i...

Return to the National Portrait Gallery

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...