Hmmm… what did I remembered last weekend…?
That ain't me.
Nice artworks... Damn I have no spare money already!
Where art thou, Mysctea?
Picturebooks for sale. For the non-anime viewers, think of it as FHM, 2D style. (Others: "BOO!")
The Wall of Photog: Add +50 Defense, +50 Charm and -100 Patience.
I'll counter your attack with... MY NIKON!
ZETTAI RYOUIKI!
OK that’s enough.
Over the last weekend, there was Cosfest 2009 happening down at Downtown East. While some segments of the local anime blogosphere attended Daicon 2009 at Cyberjaya (and subsequently mocked the inefficiencies and the stupidity of the Malaysian government, and to a certain extent, its people), I attended the local convention in which the main event is simple: cosplay.
This was my first time attending the event: I stayed quite far from the East, and my last 2 years was a journey into ferrying patients to hospital as my NS stint. So with free time and commitments, I decided to spend my weekend taking/honing my photography skills.
I met up with MrMayat, whom we previously met for the Red Bull X-Fighters Exhibition Tour (see this guy for a sample of what we did there). I’ve also met up with Hexlord, Blurmage, Fariz (Day One), Fuzzy (Day Two), double (Day Two) and other guys that I lost count whom is whom. I also acquired new friends, and met back my NS mate whom we lost touch for quite some time.
As mentioned, I rent out a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens and a Speedlite 580 EX II flash unit for the event. When I realized I got the short end of the stick, I decided to bring along my 55-250mm f/4 – 5.6 IS for portraiture shots on the second day. I liked my shots better in this lens, although the 17-55mm isn’t a slouch either with its crisp images.
Most of my shots are taken outside the tent, as I tested out, the lighting was pretty bad inside. Others may disagree (because on the second day, the lighting improved), but I felt that some shots are best taken with natural lights. I’ve seen better photos than mine, so I’ll leave it up to you guys to compare and contrast.
Alright, enough talking. Let’s do the picture-spam.
Hey you, wat's up gal?
This character is a Superboss! Look at its Wall of Photog's Area of Effect!
Lip Lai Hor! Have your cospray shoot vely Plofessionarry taken, for only 5 dorrals!
Cosplayers need some time to rest, OK?
“HOI! WHERE ARE YOUR PORTRAITURE PICS, BOY!?”
Oops, sorry. OK, this time, it’s for real.
Girls with Guns
America-san and Britain-san
A Gun on My Hand
A Gun on My Hand II
Nobody expects the Inquisition!
In b4 "Speak With Dead."
Evil...
I'm Gonna... *slits throat*
Sensing danger, she draws her gun at an enemy.
… My God. I’m getting threatened here… Is there anyone to save me from the evils?
As Lacus ponders on the state of the world...
...Cloud heard there'd be some action
Alucard seemed amused by the need to action
Already there's some action happening...
"Somebody set up us the bomb!"
Swords are being lent...
Tridents are being set...
But even the Shinsengumi could not stop the fight...
...As the Gordonator looks upon the scene.
As Saber and Taiga combined swords...
A templar arrives.
Can Index be the saviour for our cause?
Then an Arrancar saw the commotion...
Canada-san giggles (although she's distracted by her immediate attention).
Wonder what happened actually?
So as I turned towards the commotion, I finally found out the commotion amidst the confusion.
The Pyro, The Soldier and The Russian were having a loud tuff at one another, before deciding to melee with one another.
The Russian takes a pot shot...
...And The Soldier takes the full brunt of the knockout.
In which The Pyro took the opportunity to (axe)stab him on the back. All is well.
With the commotion over, I decided to take the remainder of the time making my rounds around the ground for some more photo opportunities.
Yoko arrives... too late. Oh well...
An Usagi Spotted!
A stern wa-loli appears.
Foolie Coolie in my Guitar Hero?
Henshin! (Can anyone helped me where she cosplayed this from?)
...N-n-nice to ss-s-see you... T-t-Taiga-san...
Saber, as taken prone lying. (Thanks Usagi-san, for the inspiration!)
Nice couple, aren't they? ^^;
A TV Man appears. (I seemed to make up whatever characters I don't know with names I think appropriates them.)
Hmm, nice. (Which show did they cosplay from?)
Cardcaptor Sakura
Klan Klan
Phoenix Wright
Hatsune Miku
(I need names here!)
NEGISHI X KRAUSER II! (Yeah, it's overexposed. Supposed to be so.)
Negishi shows us how to teeth-pick
Words can't describe how wrong this can be.
But getting a peck by the Cherry Girls? Gordon, you lost poor soul.
So all that wraps up the pictures that I took for the two days I attended the event. It was unfortunate…
?
!
Solid Snake snaking (pun) away from the scene...
Where was I? Oh yeah…
If there was something I learnt from the experience of taking the whole event, it was the essential use of flash.
The 580 EX II works its charm with my 450D. The pictures that you might see as dark (or bright) is the result of my stupidity in manipulating my darkroom techniques onto my pictures. Going back to topic, some people had advised me to get the 430 EX II as a starter, before upgrading to 580 EX II. This is to accommodate the 430 EX II as a slave flash unit if I am interested in strobism. At the moment, my coffers are running dry, but that should not stop me from saving up a little bit of money. I hoped by the end of October, I should have enough money to buy myself either a 50mm or an 85mm lens as well as the 580 EX II. (That is, if I’m not sold off by my parents to a loan shark and get chased by hoodlums before being saved by a prepubescent schoolgirl.)
Here’s the funny thing: much as I liked the 17-55mm, I seemed to fell more for my 55-250mm even though it pales in the eyes of the former.
I’ve gotten that portraiture bug that some photographers have caught upon. It means to seriously consider the kind of focal length that I’m comfortable with. I tried shooting with 135mm on my lens, emulating MrMayat’s, and the results are nonetheless surprisingly nice.
OK, now I shall go over to one side to cry on which lens to choose from.
Tags: cosfest 2009, Photography
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Pretty good takes there. Can see that you tried out several PP techniques.
Gordon’s and Alucard’s handgun shots came out the best in terms of lighting. Also, most of the pics look eeriely similiar to mine in terms of pose and angle. Well, we WERE shooting back to front/side by side simultaneously…
Hahaha. True, we were both near each other for some of the shots. I guess it couldn’t be helped then.
Something I did noticed: out of a total of 350 shots that I take, 83 are considered technically sound (not really) and out of that, only the ones I posted here are (what I consider) good pictures. I tried to flesh out the essence of the characters these cosplayers are imitating: I guess it takes more than just standing around and posing to get the best out of a good pictorial.
Hey bro, saw u at cosfest but didn’t managed to say hi, u disappeared too fast. O_O
anyway will u like to help me with my birthday post on my blog? Thanks!
gordon:
Consider that done.
I enjoyed this post especially the pictures and caption.
[...] Also, check out the video of same character (but different person) performing the Caramelldansen back at Cosfest 2009. [...]
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