[Flashback Friday] Big Apple Comic Con

Have you ever been to Big Apple Comic Con? It’s a New York City convention that was founded by Michael “Mike Carbo” Carbonaro back in 1995.

I can’t believe this con is this weekend! It’s happening so soon… I thought I had plenty of time but I’m still not sure what to cosplay and/or wear. I have great memories from this con last year…

Mangaka Toshio Maeda

From meeting Toshio Maeda to moderating a panel with Lua Stardust to watching the cosplay contest, Saturday was a busy but fun day!

The con is centrally location near Penn Station, so transportation is easy (trains, subways, etc.). You can also easily find public places outside to do photoshoots at, and there’s plenty of great food options in walking distance from the con.

Click here to see photos from my Saturday shoot last year! (I still need to upload the rest of the photos… my backlog is insane, oops.)

And at every con in NYC, there’s gotta be at least one Spider-Man cosplayer!

I have no idea who the Spider-Man cosplayer in the above picture was, but he was epic and I’m glad he agreed to a quick photo with me! Spider-Man is still one of my all-time fave Marvel characters (ever since I read the Amazing Spider-Man as a teenager!). 

You may have noticed my [Flashback Fridays] tag… I’m thinking of starting a new Flashback Fridays series where I write flashbacks to events or memories of the past. Do you like to reminisce? I love taking photos because if I don’t have photographic proof, I wonder if things never happened and they were simple dreams or made up in my imagination…

Click here to view a throwback to my first time at BACC (back in 2017!). It’s a gothic lolita look featuring my first lolita dress ever (a really old Bodyline JSK I got in high school).

If you’ll be at BACC tomorrow or Sunday, come say hi!

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Photoshoot: Sumiko.Foto at Otakon

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At Otakon 2015, I worked with Sumiko.Foto for the first time! I agreed to write a review in exchange for a free photoshoot (and a Free! photoshoot). My first photoshoot with them was on Friday, when I cosplayed Nagisa Hazuki from Free! I cosplay Nagisa to every con I go to, and he’s definitely one of my all-time favorite characters to be! The second shoot with them was on Saturday afternoon, when I cosplayed Kill la Kill with two friends. You can see my Otakon cosplay lineup here! It was a really busy con for me.

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First, let’s talk about the Free! shoot!

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I met up with Sumiko.Foto on Friday morning by the fountains outside Otakon. There was another cosplayer there, a Gou, and she took photos of both of us at the same time. We got lots of solo shots, and also some group shots. Sumiko.Foto handled it very well, and I didn’t mind sharing the time slot with another cosplayer since the photographer definitely split up the time evenly and everything ran smoothly. As for the end results, both cosplayers got amazing photos! All of the photos on this blog post were taken and edited by Sumiko.Foto ; I did not tamper with the files at all. I’m impressed by the results!

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On Saturday afternoon, the Kill la Kill shoot took place! I cosplayed Mako, and my friends cosplayed Ryuko and Satsuki. Unfortunately, I ran late to the photoshoot because my hotel was far away from the con and it was difficult for me to commute back and forth. I had to change to Mako for this shoot, and on my way back to the con from the hotel, I got stuck in traffic. Luckily, things worked out since Ryuko and Satsuki got their solo photos as I was traveling. When I got there, we got to do the group shots!

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I got less photos back from this shoot than from the Free! shoot, but I don’t mind since the photos still look great. It was also more difficult to get great photos from the second shoot since we were in direct sunlight most of the time, and the area on top of the fountains was crowded and busy.

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It’s too bad there are random passerbys in some of these photos, but that couldn’t be avoided. Otakon was definitely one of the most crowded cons I’ve ever been to… There were so many people everywhere!

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My friends agreed that this photoshoot was fun, so we were all happy with the experience. Thank you for shooting us, Sumiko.Foto!

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If you want to check out more photos from Otakon 2015, look through this tag on Tumblr! Thanks for reading~!

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Photoshoot Review: Murder by Cosplay

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At Another Anime Con 2014, I scheduled three photoshoots with Murder by Cosplay. It was my first time working with them, and I am so glad I did! Each day, I had one photoshoot. On Friday night, I had my Aoba Seragaki (DRAMAtical Murder) photoshoot. On Saturday, it was Mikasa Ackerman time (Attack on Titan)~! On the last day, Sunday, Murder by Cosplay shot my Maki Nishikino (Love Live!) cosplay. Be sure to check out their Tumblr and their Facebook!

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The people behind Murder by Cosplay are not just photographers… They are cosplayers too! They understand how to conduct photoshoots for cosplayers since they have experience being cosplayers themselves, and they are also very friendly and understanding. The photoshoots feel relaxed and stress-free; they asked me what I wanted to shoot and what sort of poses I wanted to do, so I never felt uncomfortable or awkward.

First, I’ll share each of my Murder by Cosplay photoshoot experiences.

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Totally not my phone.

1. Aoba

I felt so bad when I got to the photoshoot because I was running late. 😦 The photoshoot took place after dinner, and the restaurant I was eating dinner at had really slow service… It took a while to get the bill and then an even longer wait to get the change, so I had to call Murder by Cosplay and ask if we could move the photoshoot to a later time. They were very accommodating and said that it was fine, so I called them again when I finished with the dinner issue and quickly went to the lobby to meet them. My first time meeting them was fine; they were very friendly and introduced themselves and explained that they are open to trying to capture whatever photos I would like. I really wanted to get a photo in the elevator… And it took us several tries (pushing the elevator button a lot), but we finally got lucky and found an empty elevator! Before we found this elevator though, we took other photos while we waited. Here’s that precious elevator picture:

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This photoshoot was a lot of fun, and I’m glad that they were willing to listen to my ideas for poses and help me out. They even let me borrow their iPhone (since it was blue and matched Aoba perfectly)! They even caught a silly picture that I absolutely love…

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I present to you: Aobutt!

This Friday night photoshoot was a fun success! I am a very indecisive person, so I usually have trouble with thinking of poses; I am grateful for their patience with me. The photoshoot did not take long, but they captured lots of fantastic photos.

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Attack on Photoshoot!

2. Mikasa

At 10 am on Saturday, I met up with Murder by Cosplay for an Attack on Titan photoshoot! It was chilly outside, but my cosplay kept me warm (although the harness/straps were as annoying as ever). We found a nice area next to the convention center where there were lovely trees, so we took some photos there! We also found other locations outside the convention center, like a small wall in front of a grassy area, where we tried to capture some photos. I was happy that the photographers did not try to rush me. The Survey Corps straps are really annoying to deal with, and even though I modified them with velcro, they still slip around. I had to fix them in between photos, and I am glad that Murder by Cosplay did not mind.

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They also caught some cute candid photos! Here’s me fixing my straps:

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#HarnessProblems

Ahh… those straps will be the death of me… (But at least I got some lovely photos! <3)

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Sunny days are the best days.

3. Maki

On Sunday, I started off my last day of the con with a photoshoot with Murder by Cosplay! They were not familiar with Love Live!, so I quickly explained it to them and then we started picking locations for the photoshoot. I felt nervous because it was my first time cosplaying Maki and I was feeling stressed out over a variety of things, but Murder by Cosplay had a great positive energy and I was able to relax and come up with poses. They helped brainstorm for photoshoot locations and also helped with positioning some of my poses. It was easy to find nearby locations, and we made the photoshoot a fast one because my outfit was not very cold-weather-friendly (miniskirt problems…).

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It was a lovely sunny day on Sunday despite the cold, so we caught lots of colorful pictures. The autumn leaves were a beautiful touch in many of the photos. ❤ I liked the variety of shots I got from Murder by Cosplay: some of them look more like portraits, while others are more artsy-looking.

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Finally, my iPod matches a cosplay!

They also caught some silly photos, like me holding my skirt down. (By the way, it was really windy this day, so the wind was blowing my skirt a lot. The wind was evil.)

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I hate you, wind. >_<

If you have any questions about the photoshoots, feel free to ask me or Murder by Cosplay. All of the photoshoots were really fun, and I hope you like the photos!

There are many things I love about Murder by Cosplay‘s photography policies. They have reasonable prices, they are open-minded, and they are honest and respectful. They allow you to repost their photos, as long as you credit them. Their watermarks are in convenient places; you can see the watermarks, but they are not obstructive or distracting. The watermarks look professional and do not detract from the photographs. They also allow you to edit their photos, which is really exciting! I enjoy photo-editing, so I’m always happy when photographers allow me to edit the photos after receiving them. When the lighting is too dark, I mess around with the brightness and contrast to give the illusion of better lighting. For example, the Aoba photoshoot was done at night, indoors, so the lighting was not very good. We had the indoor lighting to work with, so the lighting was a bit awkward. Below, you can see a comparison photo of before-and-after my editing:

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I also became addicted to filters last year… So I will usually apply filters to photos (they’re so easy to use!) as lazy editing.

musicHere is a little blurb from them:

“Murder by Cosplay is a two-man studio co-founded by cosplayers Emile and Alex of the New England area.  Emile has been doing photography for the majority of his life, having studied the art of portraiture and site capture in college.  Alex’s field of study specializes in composition and design.  Together, both work to get the best images possible during photoshoots.”

I would definitely recommend Murder by Cosplay for anyone looking for affordable photoshoots. ^_^ Please check them out!

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Maki in her natural habitat.

If you’re a photographer and would like to meet with me for a photoshoot, don’t hesitate to ask! I love working with photographers. ^_^ Check out my Facebook page for cosplay photos by Murder by Cosplay and others!

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