I'd like to ask for an honest opinion. In the city I live in we have something called a Gallery Hop, it happens on the first Saturday of each month. People come into the city and walk up and down the main drag going to galleries and shops, there are sometimes musicians on the streets and other events. It' pretty popular.

I've been pondering the idea of showing my landscape pictures at a gallery hop, and maybe some portrait shots as well (not cosplay, and it will depend if anyone would like to model for me.) I'm not sure how much it will cost to rent the space but I was wondering if I could have the opinion of others if this is something I should do or not. What do you think? And please be honest.

It has come to my attention that a certain website called Gamersbin.com has been taking cosplay photographs and watermarking them as their own. Using the photographs to promote their website without contacting the individuals posing in the photograph or the photographers who took the picture.

I suggest that you look through their collection: [link]

If you see anything that you know they don't have the right to use, please complain to them about it!

It's been a looong time since I've come onto DA. I've been a little busy with other projects. I wish sewing could be one of them, but as my sewing machine is on the blitz, it's going to be a while for me before I sew again. My last convention was Ohayocon and I got some amazing shots from it. I can't list all of what right now because I'm really tired, but I plan to start loading up some pictures on Monday. Sorry for the delay!

My future con list is Marcon and Colossalcon.

I have a few people tempting me into going to my first Otakon. I'd really love to hear feedback from anyone whose gone on what it's like. I've been going to cons for ten years now, but the biggest con I've ever been to is Acen and that was only once. I'd love to hear any tips for a Mega con like this one.

Otherwise, I'm trying to save my funds as I am planning a future trip to Europe to see one of my friends who has been abroad. Eeee! So excited! It will be my first time going across the pond and my second time ever stepping off of American soil (the first time being Canada, not sure if you want to count that as I don't live too far from the border).

I'm still a good 1,000 views away from hitting my 15,000 mark, but I'll be honest, I'm not sure what I can do then to thank all of you. Is there anything in particular people would like?

For anyone who wants to learn how to sew, stop! Stop Now! Don't do it! TURN BACK WHILE YOU CAN!

After learning(still learning) how to sew(stumble) through my first costume with the help of I decided I'd finally tackle on a cosplay project I've always wanted to do; Ardi, an original character by . Just recently I've bought the patterns and a majority of the fabric for the costume. I've started to pin things together and I'm getting ready to sew the first pieces when it happened, ideas. Plans. Cogs moving into motion.

Suddenly what was 'one, two, maybe three outfits' has become 'five...sick...seven?!'. And in addition to that adding another one-two conventions I want to travel to now.

So now I might be going to Youmacon ^.^; All depends on roomage & cost.

The growing costume list is now:
Ardi by
Lord Edgar from Earl and Fairy / Hakushaku to Yosei
Huey from Dantalian no Shoka
Rize Hawkeye from Full Metal Alchemist
Sweatpea from Suckerpunch
and a mystery character to be revealed at Youmacon as a surprise for :3

Forgive me money! I wanted to save you! But alas, I fell prey to cosplay. ;.;

Over the next few days, or depending on how fast I work maybe all of today, I'm going to be loading a ton of pictures onto deviantart. Because I still have pictures from conventions as early as January to upload. I just haven't posted them yet because I forgot about them / didn't have time / my computer crashed twice. So hopefully before any of those reasons stand in my way again I'll be putting them all online. Prepare for a lot of corny/dorky photo titles. And to a few people, sorry for the picture overload. To a few other people, sorry it took me this long.

There is currently a long-winded debate going on between paying/charging for photos at a convention or not to. This debate has been going on for roughly a year now and so I think it's time I throw some of my cents out there. So let's begin with a few points in the argument.

- Charging Photographers most often justify charging for photos because the equipment for SLR cameras is not cheap. A base alone goes for as low as $500 if it is new, and then there are all the different types of lenses, and flashes and gizmos to make your pictures look wonderful, but it's all very expensive.

My response to that: Yeah, and do you think it's cheap to cosplay? There are patterns to buy and then fabric, tons of fabric. Then depending on the scale of what you are cosplaying there are loads of other things that you may have to buy and purchase. And let's not forget about shoes and a wig, which again depending on the complexity goes anywhere from $15-$100+. And then the hours, weeks and sometimes months to assemble this outfit. And this is just for ONE OUTFIT. Now on top of all this you think it's right to charge someone money to take a picture of this outfit?

- But what about the photographers who want to make a business out of it? There are people who sell costumes, why can't we sell our pictures?

There is a difference between people selling costumes and people who sell pictures. First off, a person who is selling a costume is giving their client an item, something tangible to hold in their hands. They are also being paid for the hours of work they are putting into the costume and most of what they are being paid also is money used to purchase items for what they are making. And when you break it down it's usually MUCH LESS than being paid minimum wage. (Unless you're being horribly cheated for your money) Most often when photographers are charging for pictures they aren't actually giving you anything. They are just taking your picture and putting it up on the internet. Now, the photographers who take your picture and then give you a nice glossy 8 1/2 by 11 inch print of your picture, that is worth charging for. Because they are giving their client something tangible to hold in their hands. The money that the client is giving them also goes to pay for the ink, the glossy paper, etc.

-What about asking for donations for pictures? What if the cosplayer really admires the photographer and wants to do something for them?

I don't believe there is anything wrong with a photographer saying 'I am not charging for photos, but I will accept donations' up front. Then if after the photoshoot, and after the cosplayer has had a chance to look at the photos they might think 'well this person was very nice, professional and I love the photos of me' then they might hand that photographer a $5 donation. (I wouldn't honestly expect anything over $15, and even that would be rare). Or, depending on the familiarity between the cosplayer and photographer the cosplayer might offer to buy them a meal or drink in appreciation, but not as a requirement.

-I'm a cosplayer and I've spent $XXX amount of money and so much time making my outfit. So I want a REALLY good picture of it, shouldn't I pay for it then?

If you want to pay for a photographer and toss your money to the wind, by all means, go for it. But consider this, there a many good photographers out there who take really amazing pictures for FREE. They do this because they love what they are doing. And you can find those people, usually by walking up to a person with a big black camera strapped around their neck at a convention. Or by using a convention forum, or deviantart where you can take the chance to look at their portfolio and see if you like them or not.

Anyway, these are my thoughts, please feel free to leave yours below.

I have two cosplays up to bat that I'm getting ready for. The first one is Edgar from Earl Fairy, the second one is an original character by DylanFurst although you may recognize her artwork from an older account. I'm just having trouble deciding which character to do first! (and BTW I did get permission from the artist to cosplay her characters)

Originally I thought I would do Ardi first, a character that has no definite gender, small wings and carries a big ass sword:
[link]
[link]


But then Dylan started making really awesome artwork for her character Bogle, who is, as I like to see him, kind of a supernatural-most-likely-psychopathic stalker:
[link]
[link]

Maybe I'll end up doing both but any ideas on who I should do first?

I seem to be in a bit of a slump recently, I'm not sure if it's the changing in seasons or not. I'm very a Winter girl and I love the cold weather, the hot days in the summer is when I hibernate inside with the A.C.

I still have a shoot from Ohayocon that I need to post, one of Rayearth. >.< Still need to ask one of my friends the names of all the models so I can upload them. And I also have pictures from a friends wedding in February that I still need to get up on another site. Then in March I did a steampunk photoshoot for my friend which should technically be uploaded last if I'm to go in order. Buuuut~ I'm going to load it now since it's ready and then at least I'll have one less thing on my plate.

Rules:

Comment (just say YES) and I'll...

1. Tell you something I'll learn about you by looking at your dA page for 13 seconds.
2. Tell you which color you remind me of.
3. Tell you my first memory of you.
4. Tell you which Left 4 Dead character you remind me of.
5. Ask you something I've always wondered about you, and your answer has to be as vague as possible to keep the suspense.
6. Tell you my favorite thing about you.
7. Give you a weird nickname
8. Tell you what's on my shirt right now.
9. Challenge you to post this on your journal

In order to get some journalist practice and hopefully get my name out there I've submitted an article and photographs to a new magazine called Metro City Comics. Their first issue was released online at [link] Just click 'view' to read.

The article features deviants LadyofRohan87 & ZestyPizza in their Fallout 3 cosplay. I can't thank you guys enough for your help on this Go to page 127 to read my article.

My computer is back on track! So of course here are a few photos that I've been hording up waiting for a chance to share with you all. I'll post a little each day. Man, it seems like forever since the last time I loaded anything up XD Hope you like the pictures. I have no photoshoots planned in the future until Ohayocon.

I know there haven't been any updates for quite some months and honestly I would say it's do to my computer. I'm currently working on a laptop that has absolutely no programs for images, not even paint. Why does it not have any? I have noooo idea, I normally just use this laptop for writing, but unfortunately the main computer I use for my pictures has taken a crash.

I haven't lost any data or pictures, thank goodness. But the computer has been out of commission since August and may still be out another month or so. Once it's fixed you can expect pictures again. In the meantime here is my upcoming convention schedule:

Ohayocon
Tekkoshocon
Colossalcon

P.s To all my friends with DEV pages who are making journals of the hard times they're going through; just a reminder buddy that I'm here, I support you and remember you can use your art to express yourself, you don't always have to be happy and bright.

There's been another sudden spike in my number of viewers. By spike I mean x8 my usual views in a day and I haven't uploaded anything new in weeks. Anybody know what's going on?

So my next convention will be Matsuricon as it is near my hometown. Glad to see it's going to be in a new location, the hotel it was in the previous two years was just very small. If you were at Anime Punch 2009 it's in the same hotel that convention was in. Which is more spacious on the inside and has better outdoor photoshoot areas.

If you are going and want your picture taken drop me a line! See you guys there.

As I write this journal entry I am actually not quite at the 10,000 page viewers mark, but it's okay, I know you're good for it. So as I stated in my previous journal entry I had a chance to schedule a private photoshoot with what appears to be the viewers most favorite character to date.


And that is....


Drum roll...


The Red Spy, modeled by ~Kaskal!

So I'll be uploading the pictures shortly for a while and I hope you enjoy them. Thanks for sticking with me this long everyone XD

Well Colossalcon is over, and I've gotten some Steampunk, Chun Lin, Winry from Full Metal Alchemist and Fallout 3 photos to upload.

I was also able to schedule a very special photoshoot for my watchers out there for when I hit the 10,000 views mark. It was a solo shoot of, from what I can gather due to comments and favorite adds+, everyone's favorite character that I have photographed so far. Anyone care to take any guesses as to who that is?

My next con in the line up is Colossalcon, I will be arriving on Friday and I'm not sure how many pictures I'll get, since it is also a water park. And then at some point not at a convention I'll be taking pictures of people in cameo gear and kilts for the Garrison 328.