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.

Tekkoshocon has now placed up my photo gallery from the weekend as well as fellow photographer RachellaJH's gallery. You can see them both here: [link] Now that Tekko has a chance to host the photos for a while I will probably start putting up photos in my gallery two weeks from now, can't wait!

Oh boy, alright, here we go. I had a great time at Tekkoshocon and I was glad to be a part of the staff to photograph the event. I have pictures from the Full Metal Alchemist shoots Friday night and Saturday morning. Left 4 Dead photoshoot Friday night with and others. Mini photoshoots with and other SteamPunk photos, and and TJ from SweenyTodd. I have pictures from all of the Masquerade and many of the cosplay participants. As well as many hall cosplay shots.

Now normally I'd start loading at least some of the pictures to get the ball rolling but I'm going to first discuss a few things with my boss/Patches as to how we are working the uploading of photos. Since they will also be the property of Tekkoshocon. So it might be a while for pics but I'll get there.

So this upcoming weekend is Tekkoshocon which and I will be official photographers at. I will be arriving late Friday night or if things go well at work earlier than that. I will be photographing both the Full Metal Alchemist photoshoots, the Vocaloid photoshoot, The Saturday Hall Cosplay, Masquerade and many other people.

I'm going to have a pretty busy schedule but if you would like to have a very small photoshoot (12-20 photos) leave me a note and I'll see if we can meet up! Also leave a comment if you're going to be there, can't wait to see everyone.

Well I've finished up at A&G Ohio, I was working on staff so I only did three minor photoshoots.

Zoroko as Makoto/Sailor Jupiter from Sailor Moon
Chibilala as Cobra Commander from G.I Joe
SamuraiSelphie as Zoey from Left 4 Dead

My next upcoming convention is Tekkoshocon where I and RachellaJH will be working as official photographers for the convention. So I'm bound to have a ton of photographs to load up. Between then I might have some more pictures to load up if the weather gets good enough for outdoor photoshoots.