Self Reminder: At-Con photo shoot

Sac Anime was this weekend and it was pretty much the last con of summer 2010 in California. So far I've been to 5 conventions this year and thanks to that I got the opportunity to shoot at various convention locations. Some shoots went well and some didn't. After reviewing those failed shoots I realized one very important thing that I overlooked all these time.

Here is a screen shot of a poll from my DA:



The most important thing I (or any photog) have to keep in mind is we are at a convention. People are rushing from here to there so we should pay extra attention on how long a shoot might take. Don't be over ambitious trying to finish three 2-hours shoots in 1 day or spending 4 hours for one shoot.

At-con photo-shoots have a totally different set of rules.

Just another self-reminder. :)

Fanime 2010

We have hotel lobby w. classy setting right next to the convention center

Fanime is still my most favorite convention in California. I was so happy to attend this convention 3 years in a row. It has gotta a lot bigger compared to 2007 but still at least as awesome as before! :)


Stairs, tree and grass (aka. park) 3 blocks away from the convention center

There are so many places available for shooting. The variation is really great. You would have no problem looking for location for various series. Also, unlike LA, most of the locations doesn't requires any special photography permission to shoot. Making it much easier for photographers and cosplayers.


Random bikes at the convention center

This year I didn't setup any photo shoot but instead I was walking around the convention center getting photographs here and there. It was really fun hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones. I really enjoy being so relaxed at con, I guess I'm gonna do this more often from now on :)


Indoor at the convention center

All images (hi-res) can be found on my homepage and my DeviantArt. Anime Expo is in 10 days... I can hardly wait for the fun time ahead!! :D :D

Remarkable ACG Photographers

What Frank West was planning to do with a camera in this situation is beyond me

If you are a fan of anime, comic or game I'm sure you already noticed there are quite a lot of photographers in various ACG series. In a twisted sense, they are much like photographers in real life in which they all carry their equipments around everywhere they go and each have their own skill-level and specialties. However, the biggest different is that in the ACG world most of these "photographers" used their camera for everything but photo taking...

Here is a list of remarkable ACG photographers. You might consider them to be as big as Nigrel Barker in the ACG world. xD

Aya Shameimaru - Creepy Photographer

Aya uses a wide range of gears. Including Leica rangefinder, p-and-s, dSLR, SLR... anything

Aya is one of the many characters from the famous non-commercial gaming series Touhou Project. She is the main journalist of her own newspapers Bunbunmaru Newspaper and is always busy collecting material for her articles. She has a habit of taking embarrassing or risque photos of other characters for her newspaper and she is often being seen harassing her assistant Momiji Inubashiri. Definitely one of the most infamous creepy photographers in the ACG world.

Momiji is often a victim of Aya's harassment.

Frank West - Super Hero Photographer

Frank's favorite gear is probably baseball bat, or guns or anything that kill zombies

Frank West told everyone not to mess with an ACG photographer in the epic Capcom action game Dead Rising. In the game he was forced to fight his way out of a zombie-infested mall with anything he picked up in there. Obviously being artistic with his photography didn't quite make it to his priority list and thus his camera is more like a fancy necklace than a... camera. After playing for a while I really think he should consider a career change. He could be an AMAZING underground fighter I'm sure. XD

Frank will be appearing in Marvel vs. Capcom III next year. This time bringing his game to the next level by fighting against various superheros from Marvel.


Heroines from Fatal Frame - Drama Queens

Camera Obscura is the gear of choice in the Fatal Frame series

There is a lot of very dramatic events going on with Miku Hinasaki, Mayu/Mio Amakura and Rei Kurosawa from the Fatal Frame series. Among the 4 of them Rei is an award-winning freelance photographer while Miku is a photography assistant (Fatal Frame III). However, unlike most freelance photographers in the US they don't get to deal with style and clients much during their work hours but instead they deal with ghosts, exorcism, and dark Shinto rituals on a day-to-day basis. Definitely not an easy career over there.

Can't wait to try Fatal Frame IV on Wii.

99% of Rei's tasks involved photographing ghost from various haunted mansions. Quite different from what we do in California.


Jiro Tomitake - Victim Photographer

Gear of choice for Jiro is his SLR. He is going everywhere with it.

Jiro Tomitake is quite an unfortunate photographer as he got killed so many times in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series. For a second there he might even reminded you of Kenny Mccormick from SouthPark except his death is usually less comical. He is a freelance photographer who travel to the Hinamizawa town around 3 times a year for his work but unfortunately usually ended up getting killed there.

He specialized in bird photography... although we didn't really get to see any of his works from the series.

IMO - SouthPark

(image source: WarriorPoint)

A few years ago I thought all American cartoons are for kids and I'd introduce people to Japanese animes just because they are less "kiddy"...

Recently I realized I've been totally wrong all these time... South Park for one is definitely not for kids xD

The theme and story-telling of this show is so different from anime in general. The show is always about the current events happening in the society. Criticism of countries' politics, religions and many other touchy subjects are usual topics of the show. Also, no matter what the topic was the four kids would still swear non-stop in most episodes (except maybe Kenny since we can't really tell what he is saying most of the time xD) The script are nicely written so most of the time you'd get a good laugh from it rather than be pissed/offended by the show.

I'd recommend this show to everyone (18+ I mean). If you are an anime fan and need a break from it this is definitely the show to checkout! I am sure you are gonna be addicted :D

... IMO this show really need more love from the cosplay circle. It'll be AWESOME :D

All episodes available on southparkstudio.com