Each year in February there is a cosplay event organised in Wellington that brings together both cosplayers and photographers who collaborate on a completely TFP basis.

It started in 2019 and I was fortunate to be selected in that year and the two following ones. The images in this and the next two posts were taken at the 2020 event.

The way that the event works is that you are matched with a number of cosplayers and you then sort out a shoot time and location over the course of the weekend. Some of the more experienced cosplayers have multiple costumes so there is often variety available.

My first shoot in the 2021 event was with Nikki who goes by the Instagram name @chameleon.costume and we decided to shoot her dressed as Leyleth from Vox machina which she explained to me was a dungeons and dragons fantasy series.

The costume screamed nature so we set up to shoot in the redwood trees that form part of the Wellington city belt on Mount Victoria.

It would have been nice to shoot in golden hour but the timing did not allow for that plus the cloned on the day made it impossible anyway. So I used my usual cheat of a speed light with an orange gell.

I had also packed my lensbaby so I brought that out to play as well.