Skip to main content

2024 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2025

This year felt a little off for me; I think it was because I was in a mental recovery mode.  I finished my graduate program in June and immediately went on a week-long vacation to Palm Springs.  I do not recommend Palm Springs in June; way too hot.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but the graduate program mentally and physically exhausted me, which I think showed in some of my creative work.  But being able to work with great people like Natalie Hanrion, Coralinx Cosplay, and Anastasia B kept me motivated.  While I didn’t attend as many Cosplay Photo Shoot events as in the past, the ones I did attend were helpful in keeping the creativity flowing.  I also took some time this year to reflect on a few things and will be making some changes for 2025.

In 2024, I shot 6241 frames, which is a 30-percent decrease from last year.  I edited 3187 frames, which is a 40-percent decrease from 2023.  I think this year, I started focusing on being very mindful about how I’m shooting and which photos are worth editing.  No one needs to see the same image five times in their gallery.  My most used ISO was ISO 100 with 50-percent of my photos being shot at this ISO.  My most used aperture was F8 with approximately 31-percent of my photos using this F-stop. Interestingly, F4 was fairly close behind F8 this year, with 20-percent of my photos being shot at this aperture. I am starting to see a greater distribution of apertures across my work.  My most used shutter speeds were 1/200s with approximately 40-percent of my being shot at this shutter speed.  I found it interesting that the shutter speeds of 1/125s and 1/250 were each around 17-perecent, being my second most frequently used shutter speeds.  Finally, my most used focal length was 24mm with approximately 19-percent of my photos being shot at this focal length. I did expect this as this is the widest my favorite lens goes, but I do have a nice distribution between 35mm and 105mm.

Cosplay and Conventions

I only attended Katsucon 2024 and took a very limited number of bookings due to still being in my graduate program at the time. The convention is getting way too crowded for me, so I have decided that 2025 will be my last Katsucon.  While I love working with people, trying to find locations and just working to make the locations seem unique is starting to feel more like work than fun. (Read Katsucon review here). 

In 2023, I did five one-on-one cosplay sessions outside of the standard convention circuit.  But most of my cosplay work came from attending D.C. Cosplay Photoshoot meet-ups.   I also had the opportunity to attend a Central VA Cosplay Photoshoot event in Richmond.  It was nice to work with some new people in a new location.  I plan to attend more of their events in 2025. 

Creative Portrait Work

In 2024, I did 14 creative sessions, most of which were done in my small home studio.   This year, I tried an interpretive shoot based on breaking out of a box.  I think the overall concept is solid, but I needed to work on execution.  At the last minute, I switched it from inside to outside with live flowers, so the poor model melted during part of the shoot.  I think I’m going to re-attempt the concept in 2025.  I think my other unique shoot was with the fake stained glass windows I made, and I’ll probably work on improving those as well.

Vacation

This year’s vacation was to Palm Springs and San Diego with my mom.  This vacation was only a week long but needed. I also didn’t take that many photos during vacation, mainly because it was too hot.  I want to go back to Palm Springs at some point, but in the fall or winter, when I can actually enjoy the town and landscape.   

Overall, 2024 seemed a bit like a reset year, with finishing school and just mentally recovering from it.  I just didn’t have the motivation, which is ok.  This year, let me look at my priorities, start resetting, and realize it is ok not to want to create every day and just do nothing.  I have a hard time relaxing and doing nothing, but I’m slowly learning how to do it before my body and mind force me to do it.  I’m happy with the work I accomplished this year.

For 2025, I have decided that Katsucon will be my last anime convention.  While I like seeing and working with people the convention scene just hasn’t been doing it for me lately.  So, expect to see more announcements for studio or on-location sessions rather than conventions.  I’m mainly going to focus on studio work; I enjoy working in the studio and developing sets.  I’m also going to try to do a few more on-location sessions now that they have changed the photography rules for the National Parks.  There are so many places in Great Falls NP, and Harper’s Ferry that I want to shoot with a model (and a parachute dress).  Finally, the last thing I’m going to focus on is getting all my photography gear, props, and general stuff organized.  While it is basically organized in my storage room, it could be better.  So here is to a productive 2025.  And don’t forget, if you want to work with me, just ask. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Pumpkin Barron

On October 12th, I had the pleasure of working with the marvelous SunnyRae .   The general theme for the shoot was pumpkins but with coordination on outfits with SunnyRae theme evolved into official portraits of an 18 th century Pumpkin Baron. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 Westcott Strobe 1 rectangular soft box 1 strip box 1 6x6 silver reflector 2 C-stands 1 light stand Boom arm Color checker clamps Sandbags Backdrop stand Rough canvas backdrop Pumpkins Rough canvas drop cloth Flowers Old trunk Books Letters Wooden crate Fake leaves Chair Tri-level plant stand     The set up I wanted to keep this set up a bit rustic yet give the feel of staged aristocratic painting of the time.  I started with a plain rough canvas backdrop then placed an ol...

Night Queen

On September 28th, I did a session with May.   This session’s theme was designed around a Halloween headpiece I made a couple of years ago but never got to shoot.   The vibe of the overall shoot was dark queen. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 2 rectangular soft boxes grids 2 C-stands Sandbags Backdrop stand Fuzzy grey backdrop Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps 2 trilevel plant stands Fake candles Goblets Fake flowers Black fabric Silver fabric Large Styrofoam block Dowel Rods Skulls Fake moss Dry ice   The set up I tried to keep this setup simple in nature.  I started with the base of a fuzzy grey backdrop to which I added a “throne” made from a large Styrofoam block, some dowel rods, and a piece of black fabric.  To that I added two flower pot hol...

Belle Island with Central VA Cosplayers

On October 19 th I drove down to Richmond, VA to attend a Central VA Cosplay Photoshoot meetup on October 20 th at Belle Island.   I wanted to go to this event because it was in an interesting location, and I wanted to meet some new cosplayers.   For this session I used: Canon R6 2 Speed light Trigger 1 Light stands 24 - 105mm lens Gels Camera Settings: For this shoot, I was transitioning back and forth between being inside an old, dark, abandoned building to bright, sunny woods.  Due to the transitions, my settings varied greatly.  I mostly shot at ISO 100 except for when I accidently bumped the nob to “Auto” and didn’t notice, so I also took shots at ISO 2500, 3200, 4000, and 6400.  The shots at the high ISO actually look fairly decent, and not as grainy as one would expect.  My shutter varied between 1/100s to 1/250s with the most common shutter speed being 1/250s.  My aperture varied between F5 to F11 with the most common ap...