The Munchkin's Notebook

On November 7 th ,   I attended a D.C Cosplay Photo Shoot meet up held along Ellanor C. Lawrence Park in Chantilly, VA. It is a very large public park with a few historic structures on site. Due to its overall size, the group stayed in the area near the Walney Visitor Center. For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed light Trigger Light stand 18-200mm lens The weather that day had a nice beautiful blue sky with a few fluffy clouds, a perfect fall day. While the trees in the park were a nice mix of yellows, oranges, and some green. I ended up using a 100 ISO without a light modifier. My aperture varied from F6.3 to F8, with most shots being taken at F8. My shutter speed ranged from 1/40s to 1/250s. My shutter speed seemed to be concentrated between four speed 1/60s, 1/80s, 1/200s, and 1/250s which was most likely related to the locations I was shooting in; going from sun to shade. My focal length ranged from 18mm to 80mm, with most shots being at 18mm. I need t...

On September 25th I did a parachute dress session with Ms. Brickhouse at BigBarn1810 in Maryland.   The location is a restored historic barn with these very beautiful windows that light up the main space of the barn, and were just perfect for this session.   I made the dress from a 30-foot diameter military parachute.   It is a very large dress that can be hard work, thus I always tell the model to bring a handler/assistant for this dress.   I’m very thankful to the two assistants the model brought with her and the help they provided throughout the session. For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed light Trigger Large painter’s pole Assistants The start time for this session was around 10:00AM, which allowed us to maximize the beautiful light coming through the windows of the barn.   However, I still used flash to add some fill light and to light images taken in the loft of the barn.   I used an assistant with a painter’s pole for this...

  On October 9 th , I did a styled session with Lady Chapell Cosplay . The theme for this shoot was an autumn witch, based around an autumn decorated witch hat. When I designed the set, I went for the “ witchcore ” aesthetic which is more home and garden then scary witch.       For this session I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon 80D Trigger 2 strobes 2 speedlights 2 c-stands 1 flag 2 gels (orange) Backdrop stand Grey backdrop A-clamps Sandbags Speedlight clamp 2 Square Soft boxes with Grid 1 Strip Box with Grid Peacock Chair Pumpkins and gourds Dry Ice Skull Crystal ball Chalice Fake spider Fake candles Flowers Table Bowls Hot Water My inspiration for the set came from images by kladovay_mechta out of Russia, which used wicker chairs and a lot of pumpkins. I also took inspiration from some Pinterest post about the “witchcor...

On October 16 th ,   I attended a D.C Cosplay Photo Shoot meet up held along Workhouse Arts Center , in Lorton, VA with access to the Workhouse Haunt areas.   The Workhouse started life as a prison in 1910 and gradually became a work camp.   However, by the 1980 the workhouse was overcrowded and disorganized, thus in 1997 Federal legislation ordered the facility be closed by December 2001.   The property was sold to Fairfax County in 2002, which transformed it into cultural arts center. The location was nominated the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.   (Source: History of Work House Arts Center ) Because of the locations history and historic buildings it made it a very interesting place to shoot. My only regret was not going out to the location sooner to walk around and see some more of the property and be better prepared for the day. For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed light Trigger Light stand 18-200mm lens There was supp...

On September 26 th , I attended a D.C Cosplay Photo Shoot meet up held along the waterfront in Old Town, Alexandria, Va.   The waterfront has changed a little bit since I was last there, with some added outdoor restaurant seating and improved park features.  Overall, it is a nice area to for general photoshoot, but you must be there early in the morning or it tends to get crowded.  Thankfully this meet up had an 8:00AM start time, so the number of people out and about would be very tiny during the three hours meet up.    For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 1 Speed light Trigger Light stand 18-200mm lens For this shoot I ended up using a 100 ISO, since I was working with very bright sun, this is also why I used direct flash without a soft box or umbrella. My aperture varied from F8 to F13, with most shots being either F8.   I was keeping my aperture high so I could keep the shutter speed within the sync speed of my speed light. The sp...

On September 18, I did a studio session with   Kayari at LED Studio in Old Town Alexandria. The session was a cosplay session, focused around the “ Birds of Prey ” version of Harley Quinn.   LED Studio was a perfect location for this session, due to the lovely exposed brick walls within the studio, the seamless paper choices, and the overall size of the studio. The studio was a good value based on its overall size (a lot larger then expected) and location.   For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 4 Speed light 3 Light stand Strip soft box with grid Square Soft box with grid Blue and Pink gels Trigger 18-200mm lens To prepare for this session I went through several movie stills from “Birds of Prey” to understand the expressions, mood, color tones, and lighting used in the film. This allows me to determine how I’m going to approach the session and what my lighting set up will be.   I zeroed in on a still image lighting Harley Quinn from the from...

On September 11, I did a fantasy moon goddess session with Emma. The inspiration for this shoot was the moon and all the fake cloud tutorials that were flooding my feed.   For these sessions I used: Photography Equipment  Props/Miscellaneous Cannon 80D Trigger 2 strobes 2 speedlights 3 c-stands Bell reflector Beauty dish 2 flags 2 gels (blue & magenta) Grid (5-degree) Backdrop stand Fuzzy white backdrop Printed backdrop A-clamps Sandbags paper mâché moon 2 pillows 8 DVD cases 5 pounds of fiber fill (aka. fluff) silver dress Ewa Jobko silver circlet This session revolved around the love of the moon, and I wanted to make sure the model had a moon to love, thus I made one.   To make the moon, I bought one of those 24-inch round balloons, blew it up, and covered in three layers of white tissue paper using a standard paper mâché technique.  When covering th...