StarFest!

StarFest concluded yesterday and while the cosplay element wasn't as strong as other conventions there were some amazing turn outs! Of course with the heavy Star Trek influence there were a lot of Star Trek uniforms which I wasn't inspired enough to grab some shots of. However I am always a sucker for Storm Troopers: Overall there were some wonderful cosplayers walking around. These Disney princesses were a treat; certainly the best Rapunzel I've seen: A fixture of StarFest is the 501st Mountain Garrison. The past few years that I have gone they have an excellent photo opportunity setup with some classic scene from the films that you can be a part of. My favorite was the tunnel from the Hoth rebel base a year or two ago but this one also spectacular with Han Solo in carbonite: My absolute favorite costume of the weekend is this Silvermoon City Guard (the Blood Elf capitol) from World of Warcraft: The detail on her whole costume was exquisite and I particularly liked the attention she paid to the book she included. She was rightfully very proud of the way it turned out and thrilled to have so enthusiastic get some pictures after all of her hard work. I even caught up with her again later in the day and I had changed lenses to get a few more full figure shots: Another happenstance photo shoot occurred when this Black Cat crossed my path: We ran outside and she spent about 5 minutes with me and I was grateful to have some more model help/exposure. Many thanks to all of the excellent costumes at StarFest this weekend! Especially to Ms. Blood Elf and Black Cat. They were both natural models with some great posing and I hope to continue to learn from people like this to help future cosplayers during our shoots!

Inspiration

Thankfully we don't have to rediscover fire every morning to make breakfast. Some smart person came before us and figured that and a million other things out so all we have to do is stand on their shoulders and focus our time figuring out the next best thing. Similarly there are some photographers both cosplay and nature/landscape I admire and try to learn from by looking at their images and comparing to my own. Being able to look at pictures of photographers that inspire me I can try to focus more on development of my style.

First is Ljinto:

Everything I see from this photographer is incredible. One critique I have over my own cosplay photography is how dark the images are. Ljinto always has such bright, vivid images that are balanced and not blown out. I wish I had seen more of his work before a party I attended at Dragon*Con where this was taken. I would have asked how he achieves such amazing photos.

Next from the world of cosplay is Mindfall:

He always has wonderful perspective shots that help display the personality and costume of the character he's shooting.





Finally from the realm of nature/landscape/travel photography is Peter West Carey:
I'm pretty certain I've mentioned the Digital Photography School before and that is where I discovered this phenomenal photographer.

The best part is he also teaches photography workshops and leads photography tours. He is coming to Boulder in June and I'll have the pleasure of fine tuning some skills in a 4 hour workshop then at the end of the month head up to Portland for a hike around Mount Hood. During the weekend he'll be teaching a small group about waterfall, sunset/sunrise, and star photography. I'm pretty stoked to get to meet him and learn hands on.

What do you think of the photographers I like? Any you think are on the same level? Let me know! I'd love to see their work as well.

Cheers!

Elfquest Shoot: Red Rocks Colorado

Colorado has had some remarkable spring weather lately. A few weeks ago my wife asked to have a shoot of her Clearbrook costume she made for Dragon*Con a few years ago. Being blessed with Red Rocks a few miles away we headed there since after leaving their forest homes the elves travel through a similar terrain.













The final shot was one of my favorites of the day. I love how the vastness of the land she's looking out onto is conveyed. Not necessarily the best shot to show off the costume but you get some detail of the braid.

Keep checking back for more shoots! I'm getting things ramped up around here for the convention season.