Not Inside a Fishbowl

Redheads got me thinking

strawberrymiruku — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:24:55 +0000

This happened quite some time ago (A few weeks back?), I was asked by a friend of mine to shoot for his girlfriend’s final project. She studies in the School of Fashion and the Arts and her final project was to design two dresses and to have a shoot for them and present them in front of a panel.

Yes, it must be very interesting to be in the world of fashion but sadly I am not.

So anyway, I, of course, agreed to shooting. It was perfect timing because I had just borrowed a redhead and a Kinoflow from our school. I had the disney shoot prior to this so I was still in a “shooting” disposition.

I got picked up by my friend (30 minutes way too early) and we headed off to the fort cause he hadn’t eaten yet. Grab a burger and milkshake and let’s go. We got to the apartment and went to the penthouse. It was beautiful. I didn’t get to take pictures of the place because I was too amazed and kept staring. So after intently staring at various parts of the house, we waited for the model. She was a the sister of a friend of my friend. O_o She was a bit late but all fashion models are at some point. She got dressed and did her make up, I set up one redhead (Kinoflow useless in broad daylight) and fixed my camera.

The first dress was short and was black and green with a big bow on the side. (that’s the best description you can get from a non-fashion student) I found it hard to shoot because I’m used to emotive portraits, surreal and other more people-emotion-centered photography. With this one, I had to showcase the dress more than the person. So here are the final three shots of the short dress.

I guess the hardest part for me was telling the model how to pose (which I actually didn’t do…) From time to time, i’d tell her to move her face or look away but apart from that I know absolutely nothing on how to fix the pose of a model. I guess that’s something I need to work on. I love shooting people so it should be something I should know how to do right?

Yes well the next dress was way more fun to shoot because it was long and flowy. I like those kinds of dresses.

I couldn’t shoot, or rather I didn’t want to shoot by the balcony again cause the sky would get overexposed. I was lucky enough that the condo unit had humongo gray windows. It matched the dress plus it showed the view of the sky. My mistake was not clearing the chairs away. Ahhh chasing daylight and all. This was shot around 5pm.

Well after the shoot we ate sushi then went on home.

I hope to do more shoots soon. I love filming, I really really do but I also love photography.

It’s not wrong to love two things, it’s wrong to love two people…

ahaha

Till next time then.

An Accidental Photoshoot

strawberrymiruku — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:02:33 +0000

Well it was 3 weeks before I had to pass my final portfolio for Photography class and I still didn’t have a theme.

I found a Kanon Visual Artbook and decided to copy those pictures and have them in actual Photographs. Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to prepare and all the clothes on these pictures were all closet-grabbed. Haha. Fortunately, the clothes and shoes we had would fit with just minor changes like colours and stuff.

We had a lot of issues. For one, not everyone who had to be there was there so we ended up cycling and shuffling the characters in the scene. We also had little daylight, I had to rush most of the pictures to keep the light plus the sun was too orange considering Kanon took place in a magical snow-filled city. There were also a lot of people jogging around the field and they are certainly not part of the photoshoot. We had to time the shots where no one was there. We also got a LOT of stares. And one of the joggers called out to my friend who played Nayuki.He called her Sailormoon.

I don’t know if this really qualifies as cosplay…

I don’t feel I did it justice but we had lots of fun.

So there, after a day of rushing and heat, I had a full set of 10 pictures. I went to class to show my Prof and he told me that they were too Facebook-y. O_o

Yes. He didn’t like it. ahaha. So I had to reshoot with another theme. I ended up with a disney theme which I found to have liked so much more.

Here are some of the Kanon Visual Memories shots that we took and the pages of the artbook that we used for reference.

A just for fun picture that wasn’t really in the artbook ^___^

The disney set and another set I did are on my flickr. I’ll find time to post our wonderful experiences with the disney set.

Huh. A photography blog? Nah.

Costumes, Playing and Mini Top Hats

strawberrymiruku — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:42:22 +0000

I went to another cosplay convention over the weekend, Cosplaymania 09. There were so many people but then again, I wasn’t expecting anything less than what I saw. But the what made this interesting was probably the fact that, apart from a parade, this is probably the most colourful and elaborate crowd you will ever see. Props, weapons, “big” costumes were everywhere.

I wasn’t really able to take pictures since my brother was holding the camera. Camera-hog. Ahaha. I went with my niece though, it was her first convention and she was so excited. I don’t know where she got her love of anime from, maybe from watching Akazukin Chaha alongside my brother and I or maybe the influence of her friends, I don’t know, but it’s fun to see a little kid enjoy. Little kids will always have more fun.

More pictures at my Multiply site: Sporkmiester

I don’t know why the pictures are all blurry O_o

I ask myself why I keep going to these conventions. I love anime and I would love to cosplay but three things stop me from actually doing it:

1. I cannot afford it (both money and time)

2. I don’t think I can pull off any costume or do any character justice.

3. I don’t have the courage to cosplay by myself. (I’d love to be in a group)

Well, if I do get the courage and money to do it, I will. But that might not be anytime soon.

So…what other reasons are there for going?

Well apart from my great love of anime and japan and cute hats and things, I love the whole atmosphere. As a photographer, I think one of the best people to take pictures of are cosplayers. They are full of energy and character and every cosplayer is just so intriguing. Even if there is more than one cosplayer cosplaying the same character, they’re never really the same. I once came across two Miku Hatsunes. One sang the other just danced. I also love toys but I mostly just..stare…cause they are way too expensive. If I have the money, I buy one or two figurines every now and then. And yes, I take them out of the box. (It’s too sad to leave them in there.) Another thing I love are the things they sell. Mini-top hats, character hats, bracelets and chokers are on top of my buying list. Anime DVDs are cheaper and more extensive when it comes to selection and there are also game trials and magazines.

I bought a mini top hat from BabyMoonLifestyle. Their hats are so adorable.

I think I’d like to keep going to conventions. I should start talking and meeting more people when I go there instead of just walking around and looking at the stuff at stalls and watching cosplay competitions. It gets lonely.

Well I’d like to end this with a list of things I believe should be done at least once at a cosplay convention

Come in full cosplay.
Come in original fashion
Come in cosplay in a group
Have pictures taken by random strangers
Have pictures taken with friends
Be totally in Character
Pose for real
Meet new people
Attend one of the workshops(if applicable)
Join a contest (be it ramen eating or cosplay)
Go to the maid cafe (or the mecha cafe for Cosmania )
Buy something you can’t buy outside a convention
Be someone absolutely different just for one day
Don’t care about what anyone thinks

Well that’s it for now. My first post!

I don’t know if I’ll be posting daily but I like writing. It gives you less stress, doesn’t it?

I’ll be writing soon again, not sure about what, but will be writing for sure.

Ja ne.