The Munchkin's Notebook

On September 13th, I attended the Costume & Camera event at Meridian Hill Park in downtown DC. I have always wanted to shoot at Meridian Hill, as it has a lovely stepped waterfall and just looks nice.  However, the day was super hot and humid, and it didn’t help that I was having an IBS flare.  I almost canceled but toughed it out, which was good because the photographer-to-cosplayer ratio was way off, more cosplayers than photographers. Another nice thing was getting to see one of my favorite people to work with after their two-year hiatus. For this event I used: Canon R6 24 - 105mm lens Cannon speed light Platypod Handel Assistant Camera Settings: This shoot started at 2:00PM in the afternoon in downtown DC.  I ended up about 15 minutes late because I had to find parking and a bathroom, both hard things to find sometimes. It was super sunny with a few clouds, even though the forecast called for rain, which added to the humidity. The park also ha...

On October 18 th , I did a cosplay studio session with Kei (za_warudio) and Kitsune Kauki (kitsune_kazuki) for their Mizi and Sua from Alien Stage cosplays.   Alien Stage mostly takes place on a stage, so I kept the set very simple to align with stills from the show and the fan art references. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 bell reflectors 1 round soft boxes 1 bell reflector with barn doors 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Silver backdrop Smoke genie Stool Pillow (to kneel on) The setup The stills and reference photos provided were very simple in regard to background, so I went with a black seamless and a silver backdrop.  I chose a silver backd...

On May 1 st I did a cosplay session with the lovely thenext.jeneration and thebreezybiz (Instagram names) at Meadowlark Gardens .  The garden was a great place to shoot their Tangled the series cosplays due to the mix of wooded areas, gazebos, and open lawn that allowed us to capture the essence of the series locations. For this shoot I kept my equipment to a minimum and brought my husband to assist with lighting, since light stands are not allowed.  I had my Cannon 80D, 18-200mm lens, trigger, speedlight, a painter’s pole, and a trash bag. For this session I used ISO 400, because I was mostly shooting in the woods with medium to heavy shade and it was an overcast day which further diffused the light. I used an aperture of F8, since I was group images and wanted to ensure both cosplayers were in focus throughout the image.  My shutter speed varied a lot from 1/40s to 1/1000s with the most prevalent shutter speed being 1/100s. My shutter speed varied due to where we...

On Friday, February 14 th I went to an anime convention for the first time in my life.  Now a little disclosure, this was my husband’s idea (he is the one who watches anime, I’m usually in the room working on photos so only half pay attention to the episodes) as a way for me to expand my photography portfolio.   I have to say it was a unique experience.  We showed up at the convention center in the late afternoon of the first full day, and were thankful we got the VIP tickets. We just walked in, picked up our badge and were on our way.  This meant we skipped the hour long wait in line for our badge. From there we wandered around a bit, in the merchant’s hall, outside and in the atrium area before our first event/experience the “Maid Café”.  Yes, we ate at the Maid Café for our special Valentine’s Day dinner. It was a fun experience we had a crossplay maid (guy playing a girl) who was very entertaining, the food was pretty good too.   Then ...