For the second year now I joined the Wellington Cosplay Photofest held over two days. Unlike 2019 the number of shoots was reduced to a more manageable four spread over the two days.

Shooting cosplay is very interesting and challenging at the same time. Th cosplayers are pretty good at getting into their characters, however it is important that you shoot them consistently with what the character does.

Fortunately my first shoot with “Sas it up Costuming” was in a genre that I was very familiar with. She was coming dressed as a Guiddich player from the Harry Potter movies.

We set up the shoot for Saturday morning and she asked that we try to use a park or something that could resemble Hogwarts. I suggested that we could shoot in the park by Victoria University and also around the Hunter Building as it has a gothic style.

I arrived at the park early to discover that it was being used for sports so we ended up shooting around the university. I

I wanted to produce a shot where it looked like she was flying on the broom and I found the perfect location. There was a rail wide enough for her to balance on it. I started with an empty scene then shot her on the rail.

We then shot close ups of the broom handle and end. As the broom she has brought was not a full length we created that illusion in the images.

In photoshop it was a matter of removing the rail and replacing the other images in it. It ended up being more challenging than I thought and this was mainly caused by not getting the angle consistent. Still everyone seems happy with the end result.

My final shoot in the Wellington Cosplay Photofest was with Jasmine and Ryan who were dressed as Kisuke Urahara and Rangiku Matsumoto from Bleach, another Japanese Anime.

The shoot took place in the Botanical Gardens and over the course of nearly two hours we managed to wander over most of it.

The shoot happened late in the day and the lighting conditions were quite challenging at times when the sun came out quite low and direct.

Ruan was certainly very confident wearing his Japanese shoes even climbing trees in them.

At the end of the shoot we were back at the Lady Norwood rose garden just as golden light started to appear so I just had to use it.

After my shoot with Chris I had a little time before my final shot of the day, which was being held back in the Botanical Gardens. While I was scoping out locations I came across Sarah dressed as Princess Aurora, who was also waiting for her next shot.

Although not planned Sarah was willing to kills some time so we headed into the Begonia House and then onto the Japanese Garden.

I ended up shooting a time-lapse of Sarah spinning but it will not allow me to load it up here.

The second shoot on Day Two of the Wellington Cosplay Photofest was with Chris who was dressed in a full stormtrooper uniform from the Star Wars movies.

I had discussed with Chris doing two very different types of shoot with him. Initially we started with a serious style shot in the grounds of Parliament. As stormtroopers all look the same it meant that I could take multiple shots of Chris and then blend them together in Photoshop.

Chris drew quite a bit of attention to himself and with practically every shot we had people asking to take photos of him.

For the second part of the shoot I had had an idea of recreating a famous photo from the Vietnam War protests of the woman putting a flower in a soldier gun. I had arranged with a local pub for Chris to be photographed at the bar, and when we walked in he attracted a lot of attention from the patrons, especially a little girl dining with her family. I asked her if she would put a flower in the gun which she if somewhat hesitantly.

I had wanted to photograph the stormtrooper doing regular things, and by sheer chance as we passed the cathedral next to Parliament the choir was just coming out. Three of the choir members agreed to pose with Chris as well as taking selfies.

We ended up at a local supermarket for a shot I wanted with an ATM. It was hard work for Chris to walk in the suit but we were both really pleased with the shots I was able to get.

Day Two of the Wellington Cosplay Photofest started early with Rebecca who was dressed as Rem from “Re:Zero” which is also a Japanese Anime series.

As we both lived in the Hutt Valley we decided to hold the shoot there and met at Percy’s Reserve in Lower Hutt. The reserve had a small waterfall that we decided to walk to.

Although the morning had dawned with clear skies the track and the waterfall were in areas of shadow, so I needed my battery powered strobes to add light into the images.

As we were walking back to the car at the end of the shoot I noticed a patch of sampled light and decided to use it for a low key look and was really pleased with the result.

The second shoot on Day One of the Wellington Cosplay Photofest was with Briana who was dressed as Arrietty from “The secret world of Arrietty Ghibli” which she explained was an Japanese Anime series.

For the shoot we arranged to meet at the Botanical Gardens as I wanted to incorporate a Japanese look into some of the images. We started shooting in the Begonia House by the large lily pond. Fortunately the area was not too busy and I didn’t have too much trouble with other people.

I liked the reflections that I could see in the water so for a series of images I positioned the camera closer to the water to get the mirror image.

Part of Arrietty’s costume is a throwing hook and rope so we tried to get an image showing Briana using it. Getting the timing right on this this proved a lot harder than thought especially as the version that Briana had created did not have the full weight that a proper version would have. Therefore it did not pull the rope as well.

Still it was a great shoot and a good end to Day one.

At the end of 2018 I saw a Facebook post that invited photographers to take part in a weekend event being organised by members of the Wellington Cosplay community. Those selected would be paired with cosplayers and over the two days we would have four or five shoots.

I figured it would be a lot of fun, and so I applied and was accepted. The format was very similar to what I had been used to with the GTC collaborations except that once we were paired up we could arrange the time and place of the shoot.

When one of my original selections pulled out I was offered the opportunity to shoot with Hayley who was a special guest of the weekend and travelling from Sydney just to take part. She is a very experienced cosplayer and model which I knew but both make my job easier, but at the same time more difficult.

Now I have shot lots of models and costumes but cosplay was going to be different as I was dealing with a character that needed to occupy a world. Halley was outfitted as Battle Suit Cammy who is a street fighter. When I learned that it was obvious that the bunker at Palmers Head would be perfect.

The shoot with Hayley went very smoothly and it was a great start to what ended up being six shoots over the two days.