Matsuricon 2019

I attended my second Matsuricon, and I’m still not sure how to rate the overall convention. The check in process was smooth except for the confusion over the photography badges again.  I’m starting to think they need to better train their volunteers who check people in so there is less confusion about photography badges. (A photography badge is needed if you are charging for one-on-one sessions.)   This year I had 11 sessions booked, but had to cancel one, because I ended up getting sick.  The convention center felt like it was the same temperature inside as it was outside; and I do not due well in heat.  I had to cancel my last session of the convention because I was just feeling ill and it is not fair to the cosplayer if I cannot provide my best during a session.   I also attended the cosplay fashion show and shot during that.  I have two comments on the fashion show, first it needed to be longer with more cosplayers, second the cosplayers needed to be reminded to walk down the catwalk and walk all the way to the end of the catwalk.  Overall the cosplay fashion show was ok, I would attend it again.

For Matsuricon I took 988 shots, with most of the shots coming from one-on-one sessions.  Of the 988 shots, I edited 715 images.  During Matsuricon I used ISO 100 or ISO 400 depending on the conditions. My dominant focal length was 18mm,  and this is due to working in tight quarters and wanting to capture the complete cosplay.  My dominant shutter speed was 1/250, which also happens to be the highest sync speed of my flashes without changing to high-speed sync mode.  Finally, my dominate aperture was F9 with F10 being a very close second, this was most likely due to me trying to reduce ambient light and rely on the flash for lighting.   

This year I spent a lot of time walking from one end of the convention center to the other.  I did a lot of my shots at the large lattice windows in the front of the convention center and a fair number of sessions in the parking garage. Yes, parking garages make great locations, especially if they have murals and your working with comic book characters.  This year I worked with some great people and got some nice shots. I’m going to discuss a few of those shots below.

ISO 100, Aperture F7.1, Shutter 1/160s, Focal Length 35mm

My two of favorite shot shots from this year are of Raven Moonlight as Lucoa from “Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid” (left) and of Cyren as Camie Utsushimi from “My Hero Academia” (lower right).  These two ladies are great to work with and easy to direct. The image of Raven Moonlight as Lucoa, I like because it is sexy yet has the bit a sweetness to it.  When editing the image, I went for a high fashion and high-key look, which really brings out the personality of the character she is trying to portray.  The image of Cyren as Cami, I like because it sexy yet under stated. It is a traditional sexy pose but by editing the portrait to be low key and fading it slightly it gives it an understated quality in my opinion. 

ISO 400, Aperture F11, Shutter 1/250s, Focal Length 28mm

The next two images are of shots done in a parking garage.  The first one is Marvelfanboy82 as Spiderman (left) and the second one is of Pandacosplay as Lady Deadpool (Lady Deadpool is an actual comic character not a gender bent Deadpool) (right). The reason I like this image of Marvelfanboy82 as Spiderman is because it captures the Spiderman vibe and looks like he is about to spring into action.  For this image I kept the image intentionally cool.  I also bumped the blacks, shadows, clarity and the vibrance of the image. It also has a bit of vignetting to the image.  The image of Pandacosplay as Lady Deadpool, I like because it shows action but the image is rough and gritty, just like Deadpool.   For this image I used an orange/blue split tone and cranked the clarity adjuster to the max, which make the image look gritty. I also dropped the highlights and the whites and kicked the vibrancy up a notch while adding a slight vignette.   

ISO 400, Aperture F10, Shutter 1/250s, Focal Length 18mm

ISO 100, Aperture F5.6, Shutter 1/160s, Focal Length 24mm

Overall this year I got to work with some great people, try my hand at shooting a fashion show, and see several interesting cosplays.  If you would like to see all the final photos from Matsuricon you can check them out here: Matsuricon 2019

As a side note, I was not worried about getting a ton of bookings this year for Matsuricon because I’m currently working on a Masters Degree, which is eating up a lot of my time.  This is also why I haven’t been posting as much.   Hopefully by June of 2020 I will be done with my degree and be back to shooting and posting more regularly.