The Munchkin's Notebook

On October 15 th , I attended the D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots ’ meet up at the Workhouse Arts Center , in Lorton VA with access to the Workhouse Haunt Areas .  This is an annual event location for the group. You can read my previous blog about last year’s even at the Workhouse here: Cosplay at the Workhouse Arts Center & Haunt .   For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed lights Trigger Light stand 18-200mm lens Gels Small smoke machine Camera Settings: This shoot was an all outside doors event, unless you were lucky enough to get one of the 10 spots to shoot in the one building open to us for photography. I was not one of those people, so all my shoot locations were outside.  Because we had a bright sunny day, instead of cloudy and overcast like the weather predicted I was using ISO 100 with an aperture of F8. My shutter speed ranged from 1/60s when I was in heavy shade of a building to 1/250s in bright sun and maxing out my flash sync s...

On October 2 nd I did a TFP (trade for print) spooky Lolita session with my friend Eowinth . The session revolved around lots of skulls, dark flowers, and the color red. For this session I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon 80D Transmitter/Trigger 3 strobes 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stands Dark Grey Backdrop Sandbags 3 bell reflectors Red gels Barn Doors Grids Foam triangle Black tulle Fake spider Fake ghosts Skulls Flowers Dowl rods Table Black cloth Smoke machine chalice   The set up For this session I wanted a dark gothic Halloween look, which looks pretty but has those creepy elements like skulls, ghosts, and giant spiders.   The first thing I did was create a chair out of a large foam block and dowl rods, which I then covered in black fabric and tulle. I then added some black vines, some dark flowers and a giant spider hanging on the edge. I the...

On October 2 nd I did an Asian fall festival inspired session with the lovely Ayla . For this session I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon 80D Transmitter/Trigger 3 strobes 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stands Rough canvas backdrop Sandbags 2 Rectangular Soft boxes Soft box grids orange gel flag Fake pumpkins Fake fall leaves Orange pails Real pumpkins 2 foot posing cube 1.5 foot posing cube   The set up For this session I wanted to create layers and levels of pumpkins as well as give the model a place to sit. As I learned from a previous session hay bales are messy, so I wasn’t going to use those again.   Thus, I substituted my posing cubes in place of the hay bales. The cubes are stained a nice rich dark walnut color, which I felt complemented the fall colors while breaking up all the orange. They are also easy to move around, so I could modify the set as we move...

On October 1 st I did a not so scary cosplay Halloween session with the lovely Washu Cosplay , who was doing Halloween Eli from Love Live. The set for this shoot was inspired by the figurine’s promotional poster . For this session I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon 80D Transmitter/Trigger 2 strobes 4 speed lights 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stands Grey Backdrop Sandbags 2 Rectangular Soft boxes Soft box grids Purple gels Orange gels   Fake pumpkins Fake fall leaves Orange pails Real pumpkins Hay bales 1.5 foot posing cube Ghosts Large light up jack-o-lantern Candy corn puffs Smoke machine Plastic Halloween bucket The set up This set design was based off the promotional posters for the Halloween Eli figurine. The posters showed a very cute and fun Halloween scene with purples, yellows, and pinks. The primary anchor for this set was the large jack-o-lan...

On October 1 st I did a “pumpkin princess” session with the lovely Tiffany .   This session based on a lovely corset I imported from Germany from Mel Plum Fine Art . For this session I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon 80D Transmitter/Trigger 3 strobes 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stands Rough Canvas drop cloths Sandbags 2 Rectangular Soft boxes Soft box grids 1 light stand CTO gel Fake pumpkins Fake fall leaves Fake mums Orange pails Real pumpkins Hay bales Burlap wrapped Styrofoam blocks 1.5 foot posing cube Corn stalks The set up This set was designed around warm golden colors and lots of pumpkins.  I started by hanging a large rough canvas drop cloth as the background, then placing a second on the floor as a floor drop. I felt the canvas help with projecting the feeling of fall. These are back and floor drops were nothing special, just cheap drop cloths...