In my teens I was quite heavily into Japanese Anime. I liked the story lines, I liked the animation style and as a young teen, I liked the characters (Either badass robots, or Skimpily dressed women). As an extension of this interest and through the power of the Internet I soon learned about Anime Conventions which celebrate this culture and also a phenomenon called Cosplay.
The first time I saw photos of Cosplay, I was absolutely flabbergasted as to how intricate some of the costumes are, fully appreciating the amount of work that has been poured into them and to this day, I am still amazed. So, naturally, when an invitation to attend LAGC was extended to me, I went right for it.
I’m shy by nature so after we had arrived and settled in, I was admiring the costumes, but was too shy to ask people for photos. I’ve also read a lot on the internet that you should always ask someone before you take their picture, its only polite. Following the etiquette left me Photo-less for a good portion of the event, however, there were lots of inanimate objects to shoot. Two of my favorite images are Sonic below, and the Dreamcast I managed to snap.
This kind of event however is not all about the objects and costumes, Its about looking around and using your eyes. Events are dynamic, people do interesting things. Timing is everything. The image to the right would have been a much stronger image and told more of the atmosphere had the person in the background been in focus and maybe if I could have gotten a tiny bit closer.
But hey, this was my first con!
After a few beers and talking to a few people, I did manage to start getting some costume shots in. Key thing to note here is that I had been drinking this time so most of the pictures were rubbish! I think I’ve definitely caught the Cosplay Photography bug though…
Here is a nice shiny gallery of the images that turned out OK.
Complete gallery can be found on Google Plus