The Munchkin's Notebook

On March 16 th I did a session with the lovely Breathlessaire in her Miaka Priestess of Suzaku from Fushigi Yuugi based a Dessi-Desu Cosplay design .   The inspiration for this session was Mylar and several Asian Art Pinterest images. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 60x90 soft box 1 bell reflector 2 C-stands 1 light stand Sandbags Backdrop stand Grey hand painted backdrop White fuzzy backdrop Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Pink gel snoot Flowers Three-tiered flower stand White fabric Pink Tulle Mylar sheets Tiny stool   The set up The inspiration for these images was cherry blossoms and work posted on Pinterest that uses reflection and a full black background to isolate the subject.  I didn’t want to go the full isolation route,...

On February 22, I did a professional headshot and lifestyle session with the lovely Ginny of VDS Digital Agency. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 2 rectangular soft box Eye-light reflector 2 C-stands Sandbags Backdrop stand Savage Egg Nogg Seamless Hand Painted Canvas backdrop Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Stool       The set up For this session, I shot two basic setups, one for a headshot and one for traditional full-body portraits.  The reason I did two set-ups was that the client needed two types of photos, corporate headshots, and a more lifestyle portrait look for new letters and articles. For the traditional headshot lighting, I used two strobes, rectangular soft boxes, and an eye-light reflector.  The two strobes were positioned across from each other at 45-degree angles and tilted towards...

Katsucon 2025 didn’t seem as crowded as 2024, but I still wasn’t feeling it.  Katsucon will always have a special place in my heart, but I think I’m just bored with it, from a creative perspective.   While I still love working with cosplayers the location itself no longer excites me and I’m tired of fighting the crowds.  If I return to Katsucon 2026 I think I’ll just set up a studio in my room and do studio sessions.  I can be a lot more creative with a studio session, and I get to use all my lights.  So now let's talk about photography.   For Katsucon I was shooting with my Canon R6 with an 24-105 Canon RF lens, and I had a fisheye lens on me as well, but we will discuss that later.  I had two speedlights, one on camera which acted as a trigger 90-percent of the time and one on a light stand which my husband would hold during shoots. This year I booked 11 cosplay sessions and shot 869 frames.  I shot a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO 800...

On January 11 th , I attended the first D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots ’ meet up of the year.  This meet-up was held at Green House Studios in Fort Washington, Maryland.  The studio was ok, but what really put a damper on the whole experience for me was the studio reeked of a very specific plant, if you know what I mean.   For this session I used: Canon R6 2 Speed light Trigger 1 Light stands Umbrella 24 - 105mm lens Gels Camera Settings: Since this was in the studio, my camera setting did not vary too much.  I shot at ISO 200, and my aperture was evenly distributed between F4, F5.6, and F6.3. My shutter speed varied between 1/200s and 1/250s.  While my focal length varied from 24mm to 40mm, with the most common being 24mm.   The Photos: Let’s start with this image of Susannahvi24 as Kratos from God of War.  This is an interesting background to use for the character as it has nothing to do with the ancient Greek setting of G...

On January 9 th , Washu Cosplay and I did a slightly impromptu snow session at Great Falls National Park.   This was possible because of the passing of the Explorers Act which allows photography in a National Park with a model without a permit.   Before you get too excited, the law limits equipment and the size of the party; you are allowed your camera, tripod, and handheld lighting equipment, and the group can be no more than 5 people, which includes the photographer, model, and assistants.   So, there are no big lighting setups or big crews; for big shots, you will still need a permit.      For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 1 speed light 1 light stand     The set up For this shoot I was mixing flash and natural light.  In most cases, my model was partially backlighted by the sun.  Thus, I u...

My first official shoot of 2025 was with Lady Cels on January 4 th , to shoot her Queen of Hearts cosplay based off the NoFlutter Design. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 60-inch umbrella with sock 1 rectangular soft box 1 bell reflector grids 2 C-stands 1 Platypod Sandbags Backdrop stand Savage Primary Red Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps   Gold ring wedding altar pieces Playing cards Flowers Styrofoam block Scotch tape     The set up The inspiration for this shoot was obviously the Queen of Hearts, but I took my set design cues from the original NoFlutter drawing.  I wanted to create something similar to the swirls used in the background of the image, so I started looking at wrought iron garden fences and ended up on gold we...

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 min...