The Munchkin's Notebook

ISO 100, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/50s, Focal Length 18mm On April 10 th , I did my last official photo shoot in Dayton, Ohio at Something Old Dayton before my big move back to Washington DC.  Don’t worry I’m still doing photography; I’ll just be doing it in the DMV now. (For those that don’t know DMV stands for DC, Maryland, Virginia also referred to as the National Capital Region or NCR.)   This last photo shoot in Ohio was special because it was with for my Mom and two of my Aunts.   Back in at Christmas I gifted all my female relatives, a photo shoot day with me down in Dayton for sometime in the summer.  It was supposed be a glamours all day event with make-up artists (MUAs), food, drinks, fun, and some creative photo concepts; however, with me taking a new job all that changed.  I had to move the date up to April and severely compress my planning time and schedule.  I think everyone who was available to attend still enjoyed themselves but I kn...

On April 4th, I did my last Ohio model session, before my move down to Washington DC, with Madam Vida Muerta .  We usually work together once a year usually in the January/February timeframe on a project, this year we pushed it back till we were both vaccinated.  This shoot was a little special since it probably will be a while before we work together again, due to me moving out of Ohio, thus we did two different sessions.  The first session we did was inspired by all the old master paintings where the woman appears to just be wrapped in a lot of fabric.  With the main inspiration being the painting Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy by Caravaggio .  The second session was a take on the milk bath, but using black bath bombs in place of the milk, with deep red roses.  Both sessions were shot on the same day in the Elk Studio at Lion & Ram Studios ,  the Elk Studio is nice because the main space is very large with a lot of natural light and  it also has a...

  On April 3, I did my last Ohio cosplay shoot, before moving back to Washington DC, with Maker Fishmeal .  We shot her Barbecue Leona from League of Legends. Now the question became where do you photograph a character who has a giant hotdog on a stick as their weapon and a grill for a shield, well at a park on playground equipment.   I held this session at the Fairborn Community park because they had playground equipment and pavilions with picnic tables and grills, which work for the character theme. Unfortunately it was very windy that day, which was playing havoc with the cosplayers hat and turning the shield and hotdog into sails. Thankfully, Maker Fishmeal brought her handler with her, to help manage the props.  I was working without an assistant that day, thus traveling light. For this shoot I used my large portable light stand that can go about 8 feet and can handle uneven surfaces. A speedlight, trigger, and of course my Canon 80D with my 18-200mm lens....

On March 13 and 14, I worked with Gretchen and Brett Bartlett respectively.  These two shoots were inspired by spring, yellow tulips, and Lindsay Adler’s yellow themed photoshoot .   For this shoot I went with a more beauty shoot/make-up ad inspired look and stayed  away from doing full body.  I made a headpiece from tulips and daffodils, and used a yellow tulle top that I made for a shoot last summer.  I kept it simple for the background and used colored plastic tablecloths in purple, yellow, and pale yellow.  The disposable plastic tablecloths work great when you don’t have rolls of seamless paper or a place to store seamless paper. Only downside is you get creases where the plastic was folded, but you can eliminate that in post or by blurring the background in camera. Let’s hear it for bokeh.  I unfortunately did neither of these items and lived with the creases.   For the first session with Gretchen I used two strobes, one with a beauty...

Back on February 13th in honor of Katsucon, which was canceled,  I held an in studio cosplay photoshoot day.  While this was not a real substitute for a convention, it was still a great way to work with several different cosplayers,  at a reduced stress level, no crowds of people, and a very controlled environment.  Because the event went well, I will be holding another one again in the future.  Normally at a convention I will work with anywhere from 8 to 10 cosplayers in a day,  but on a studio shoot day  I only worked with 5 cosplayers, which lent itself to a more relaxed and creative day. I held my studio shoot day at Something Old - Dayton ,  one of my favorite studios in the Dayton area. I used their loft space due to its overall size, set up, and availability of furniture.  I really liked the fake fireplace that they have set up since it worked well with basically all the cosplays I was shooting that day.  Additionally, since thi...