Cosplay

Cosplay Shoot: Yuna

The Final Fantasy series have been close to my heart since I’ve been its avid fan for years. Recreating the scenes within the game has been one of my career goals in shooting cosplay. Yuna was certainly no exception. Few things that hindered me from working on a Yuna shoot, was finding the right cosplayer to work with. For me, casting and personification are a few of the crucial factors. Yuna stayed in the back burner (or what I personally call, concept cellar) until I had the chance to work with Nana this year. We were able to bring her in along with Enji Night for Comic Con Asia, so before the con mayhem began we took some R&R and brought them to the beach for the day. We did some beach sets, but it was this cosplay I was aiming to pull off.

Though we did the main shoot in Batangas, getting the perfect afternoon shot was another matter. I had to rely on my bank of sunset shots taken in various beaches in the Philippines and blended them in to get the clouds and afternoon glow look. If you’d notice in the video, the sun was really high and we hardly had any decent clouds to work with. That’s the downside in doing things on-location.. you are subject to the weather. When it’s good, it’s good… when it’s off, well you have to make do with it.

The ripples and water effects we’ve already banked before hand, and the sending spirits were a combination of shooting baby powder shooting out from the nozzle of the bottle, and then manipulating them with PS’s puppet warp feature. The glowing heads of the spirits were bubbles blown out from a bubble maker. The glow effect is rather rudimentary when you place multiple layers on top of it and blurring them.

This was shot around 530PM, at the height of “magic” hour.. which is technically about 15 mins worth of that awesome sun.

If you wanna see how we lit this scene up, here’s my behind-the-scenes clip.

Production Credits

Make-up / Hair: I-ann Monzon
Styling / Costume / Model: Nana Kuronoma
Shoot Production: Carlo Ocampo
Digital Imaging: Ghani Madueno
Special Thanks: Phottix Philippines

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Tokyo Game Show

So yeah, the following week I find myself in Japan again. This time it’s for the Tokyo Game Show. It was one of those “research” trips I had to do for my creative consultancy job. And what a research trip this turned to be. Though I’m not a newbie in the cons circuit, this is my first TGS. And boy this event certainly didn’t disappoint.

Now this is something you don’t see in local conventions: and organized way of shooting cosplayers. Somehow the Japanese follow a collective courtesy when it comes to asking cosplayers for a shot. TGS placed a good portion of cosplayers in the adjacent parking lot, but in effect the slots made it easy for them to take up a spot at the end of the parking curb, and use the lines as guide for photographers to line up.

As for the open areas, photographers don’t get to circle around a particular model either. There’s natural line that forms the moment one person asks for a photo.

This Sephiroth cosplay is on point. He just needs the Masamune.

The line to this booth in insane. As much as I wanted grab my hands on one.. it’s physically impossible without wasting a few hours of your time in line — no matter how organized this place is.

VR is such a big thing this year. One hall was dedicated to VR game and experiences.

Because I just had to ask a picture from random group cosplaying Japanese.

If I could only take the floating moogle home.

Mandatory image near the signage. Good thing were lots of nice people to ask pictures from. Cheezu!

After walking 11 halls of this place, my feet were killing me! But I can’t wait to go back next year!

For the rest of the images (and photo dump), you can check this out.

If you guys can stand my ramblings… here’s a hodge-podged clip of my adventure here as well!

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Cosplay Shoot: Cindy Aurum

I haven’t played FF XV. I know. It’s a tragedy. But I am aware of the game, and watched Kingsglaive. Some good friends have played and finished it. But I will find the time to play this some day. Playing FF for me would just suck me into a void and disappear from society for several days until I get it done. I can’t afford something like that for the mean time. Maybe perhaps during the Christmas season.

At first I had misgivings about FF XV being a sausage party and all that, but that quickly dissipated when Cindy finally got into the picture, albeit an NPC. We just had to do a cosplay shoot with her. So Raffy gracious contact Katie again for a shoot. I’ve worked with her before on a Harley Quinn cosplay shoot, and she is a shoe-in for Cindy. The main challenge was finding the right venue who would lend us the space to shoot in. I remembered a good contact in the car restoration business, Alex. We were both tapped as brand influencers for a clothing brand some time ago. Good thing I kept his contact details since. He usually works on high end and vintage cars, which gave quite the texture.

Check out the video below and see how we came up with the shoot!

I took a different approach to shooting this cosplay, patterned after the last collaboration I did with Chris Cantada. More of an editorial feel, and less of the hyper-realism techniques we have been known for the years.

Image Gallery

Production Credits

Make-up: Ara Fernando
Hair: Toni Santos
Costume Production: Badj Genato
Model: Katie Kosova
Special Thanks: Alex Restoration, Roosevelt Ave., Quezon City

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Cosplay Shoot: Chillin Like a Villian with Lord Drakkon

Scratch one off the bucket list! Finally got the chance to work with Chris Cantada for an editorial style cosplay shoot. It’s been awhile since I’ve shot cosplay again, so this is a welcome respite from the usual work.

I took another route from our known style, and did something a bit more editorial in nature. Minimal post-production work, and no image composition. It also helps that Chris’s costume is on-point, so there wasn’t much tweaking needed as well. If there was any Photoshopping done, I just took out the latches from the helmet and the opening where the helmet splits.

The challenge working in Mandalay is replicating the same feel of the venue into the photograph. It’s dimly lit, yet you want the cosplayer to stand out. I had to dial down my lights to their lowest power, and soften the spotlights. I can’t spread out the lighting as much or else it would appear too bright. I added some ceiling bounces with orange gels to help push the warm feel of the place. Overall, I used about four (4) lights for this image.

We just wanted to imagine how this new evil Tommy White Ranger would chillax after long day’s work being a villain.

I also had the chance to sit down with Chris over drinks (pun intented over this image), and chat with him about his passion for the Power Rangers.

I know you have been asked this numerous times, but for the sake of those who haven’t read up on your history… how did you end up doing costuming for Power Ranger shoots? It’s quite a change in career from music.

Ever since I was with Sponge Cola, I was very open about me being a Geek. I collected toys and wore Star Wars costumes. But what happened with me going from hobby to a more professional capacity was just a happy accident.

A few years ago during the 20th anniversary of Power Rangers, I started to rekindle my passion for the franchise. I was always a fan since I was a kid, but I never wore the costumes because I was overweight. And tight costumes on a chubby boy was not something I wanted my classmates to tease me about! So when the Power Rangers hype was all over my news feed, and I wasn’t overweight anymore, I decided to finally have a costume made.

But having a Power Rangers costume wasn’t enough. To make it legit, I figured I needed to have a “morph” video! So that’s what I did with my phone camera and iMovie. Something very crude and amateur like, but gets the job done. Let’s just say people liked watching those types of videos. I made more videos over the course of that year. This time though, I tried doing cosplay fan films. I slowly realized I stumbled upon this niche group of people who really supported what I did. Fast forward to today, with over 250 million views on my channel, I’m very much happy being a professional Geek.

The costumes are pretty intricate, how long does it take you to produce a new ranger?

I have these suits and helmets made by different and talented costume makers. But the one guy who made most of my stuff is a local maker named Kamen Rider Nimoy. It usually takes 2-3 months to make, since he has other clients.

How many of these helmets do you currently have?

Right now, I have about 10… and counting. Haha!

Do you get mobbed at cons even out of costume?

Haha, “mobbed” sounds like something that can describe Alodia Gosiengfiao’s con life. But for me, it’s just very casual. They usually come up to me just to say they like my videos and cosplays.

What as the craziest thing a fan ever did to you? If there was any somebody crazy.

Nothing crazy! But there was one endearing instance when I was in a restaurant with my wife. There was this little boy who came up to me with his mom and asked for a photo with me. The mom had no idea who I was obviously! My audience is really in that age group of kids, around 8-15 year old boys. Times like those really make me enjoy what I do.

Would you suggest picking up babes in a Power Ranger outfit? If so, how?

HAHA. If you have a nice body wearing the spandex suit, why not? You can even come up to her, ask her for the time and when she replies you say, “No, it’s Morphin time…” HAHAHA!

If you had a chance to invite one of the Power Rangers to guest on your channel, who would it be?

I was actually fortunate to have five Power Ranger actors guest on my channel, three for fan films and two for official interviews. I’ve had the Original Red Mighty Morphin Ranger (Austin St. John), the Red Space Ranger (Chris Lee), the Blue Dino Charge Ranger (Yoshi Sudarso), the Yellow Mighty Morphin Ranger (Karan Ashley), and Zordon himself (David Fielding). It’s a great thing when the people involved in this show actually recognizes your part in promoting the franchise in a positive way. That’s the best feeling.

Just had an absolute blast shooting with Chris this afternoon. For the heck of it, we even did some extra outtakes outside on the street in a nearby Jollyjeep. It’s not everyday when you see a Power Ranger walk around the streets of Metro Manila.

Of course this entry wouldn’t finish without behind the scenes. Watch how Chris and I ended up shooting together.

We would also like to thank the guys from Mandalay for allowing us to film and shoot at their awesome location. If you want to watch more of Chris’s videos, check out his social media details here:

YouTube: www.ChrisCantadaForce.TV
Facebook: Chris Cantada Force
Instagram: @CantadaForce

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Asia Pop Comic Con 2016

APCC is probably the closest to a US-based con as you could experience here in Manila. From the guest line-up down to the con floor setup, it has the vibe of a small-scale NYCC. This con quickly became the one for me to look forward to every year, even coming in as an attendee this time around.

It was great to see lots of local artists finally taking the plunge and sharing their craft on the con floor this year. I particularly like Rian Gonzales’s work, and asked her for a commission (still pending as of writing). There were also more local franchises and properties showing off their latest projects (Pedro Penduko, Patintero). Another unique feature in our local pop culture market are advertising professionals (creatives in particular) also dabbling into the comic book scene. It was awesome catching up with some of them outside of the usual industry environment.

apcc2016_0102 — Had to make a stop at Victoria’s Courts booth for their wraps and sandwiches.

apcc2016_0079

The CAGE was entertaining as usual, with notable cosplay personalities back on stage. If there was anything I missed this year, would be sitting behind the judge’s table. I hope in the subsequent years, the organizers can also work on putting more panels and workshops since they did get the entire SMX at their disposal. This year was just sparsely peppered with Whilce’s art and Lindze’s cosplay make-up workshops. Other than that, the entire workshop schedule was bare for the weekend.

apcc2016_0109

Still, APCC is shaping up to be the con to attend every year for me. I’m looking forward to its growth in Manila.

Here are some 360 shots of the con floor over the weekend. Enjoy!

Photo Gallery

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Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Cosplay Image Breakdown: Chun Li

Now anybody with a simple digital camera, even a smart phone can call themselves a photographer. While the debate criteria of what makes a legit photographer rages on, the fact is such technology is here to stay enabling us to take pictures with minimal gear. It’s dramatically changing the way we go about our imaging. Digital photography equalized the playing ground between the so-called “professionals” and aspiring amateurs. With the tools of the trade relatively cheaper to procure, how can your work get noticed?

The battleground prior to the digital revolution was equipment and upkeep costs. There was a clear line between the haves and have-nots. Even at the hobbyist level where one already runs on shoestring budgets, the costs of developing film, printing, etc…can take a toll over time. Now that this divide has been blurred so much, the next level of engagement are concepts. Sure, we can all shoot the same things if we just take equipment as the only factor, but it’s with ideas that would separate our work for the rest of the pack. It’s how you approach the subject that defines photography over the kind of camera you shot it with. There’s an interesting article over at Petapixel discussing this with veteran photographer Ken Van Sickle. I somewhat got an idea from that interview in merging them with loose imagineering tools I’ve left scattered in my head.

In hindsight, wish I thought of these things prior to writing Geekology 2.0. But alas at least blogs have allowed me a medium to append the work somehow.

Ideas are inspired from observation as filtered by our senses and processed against past experience. Patterns emerge as you dig deeper into a common denominator among various concepts executed through photography. A premise I would like to put out there: photography concepts are made with geography and time. The nature of the medium captures time and space within the confines of a frame. So by working in reverse, you can come up with ideas to put within the frame by locking into where and when an image can be captured. A simple exercise based on this is by creating a visual mood board based on a city and decade. You can stop here and do this exercise before pushing forward with the rest of the article.

Now the fun part is when you try executing this methodology into cosplay photography. Our point is to reverse engineer the elements of a particular character then recreate a new world derived from a place and time based on their inspiration. But first we have to understand how an effective conceptualized cosplay image works.

Elements of Image Impact

Connection to the familiar or archetype of the character in question.
Hidden “Easter Eggs” creating references to related concepts surrounding the character.
The connections themselves can range from the obvious to the subliminal.

Our brains work by connecting the dots between separate ideas. That’s how we keep memories or understand abstract concepts or even remember things. The same logic follows for imagery. We get to engage our viewer’s imagination with references they can draw out from our initial image. This is dependent on the number of connections we have injected (intentional or otherwise) into the image subjected against the viewers familiarity to the subject. The more our image (and its surrounding concepts) overlaps with the viewer’s experience of pop-culture, the more we can draw out a reinforced response. How well you are exposed to pop culture and other media determines these connections.

Such awareness helps us isolate elements that makes the image effective in the first place and tweak them for maximum impact.

Deconstruction

We break apart a particular character based on their visual design and reverse engineer the inspiration from which they are derived from. This of course is more along the lines of educated guesses and a totally subjective exercise. But the more common ground found between you (the viewer) and the character design, the more validation you can get. This in turn can help in determining the probable source of inspiration for the character.

This is basically a guide into the thought-process on how we came up with a particular cosplay shoot some time ago. Let’s look at our SF Alpha Chun Li image.

chunli-alpha_final

We plucked out Chun Li from her video game environs and placed her in a Chinese corridor setting. The location does emphasize the fact that the character is Chinese, but the ending up picking that spot wasn’t a straight forward one.

Side Note: My original idea prior to this process is to look for New York-ish back alley setting and just light it up dramatically. That idea quickly fizzled when you don’t find such locations easily in Manila.

This particular costume design is from the Alpha series, which takes place between Street Fighter I and II. Hence you would see younger versions of some notable characters plus some casually mentioned ones in II. Chun Li’s character design looks like a mash between gymnastic tights and a tracksuit. Add the sneakers, and this passes for a costumey hipster Chinese OOTD if you happen to live in Hong Kong. But why a tracksuit? It could’ve been any other Chinese costume, or perhaps a daintier version of her original one, but this design pays homage of one of Hong Kong’s popular martial arts / actors back in the day: Bruce Lee.

Chun Li’s costume design in Street Figher Alpha. Rendition by UDON.

The popularized tracksuit was paid homage in Western movies (e.g. Kill Bill).

Another Side Note: If you get to play Super Street Fighter, they even have a Bruce Lee doppleganger, Fei Long.

From the onset, you would not make the connection right away, but isolate the costume. Both at some point are wearing tracksuits and trainers. Chinese? Martial artist? Coincidental? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We don’t need validate the intentions of the character designer, but what’s important is the connection made between the two based on this character design. Furthermore, you draw out inspiration from the visual cues, but not necessarily from how the character is developed. This is enough to push the thought process along. If you want to further geek out, you can research on what relates the tracksuit to Chinese martial arts and sports. It would also be curious to note the kind of shoes they are issued for it too.

By breaking up an image into its visual elements, we can then grow the thought by attaching further related concepts onto each of them. I listed down probable related words derived from the character design using terms, ‘tracksuit’ and ‘Bruce Lee’ as my anchors.

Track Suit
- Bruce Lee
  - Hong Kong martial arts movies
    - 1970s
    - Drunken Master
  - Game of Death
    - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Mental Note: I went as far as trying to cast for tall black dude to fight against Chun Li)
Chinese / Cantonese movie look
- Props and settings

Mental Note: I purposely skipped out on Uma Thurman’s Bride homage to the same tracksuit since it’s already modern day take. This is an exercise in drilling down into the root of the visual design.

Reconstruction

Art on the other hand is determined by method and time. Artists born throughout centuries have introduced various painting styles and techniques. Some have become synonymous with them. Picasso is to cubism, as Salvador Dali is to surrealism. The same can be said with photography concepts, or concepts in general.

Now, let’s go back to the premise where photography concepts are created with a place and time. Working on the Chun Li image, we pinpointed Hong Kong in the 1970s as our target look for the situation. What I did next is gorge on old martial arts movies and binge watched them for one afternoon. I’ve isolated flicks like Drunken Master and Way of the Dragon as working samples. What about those movies made that them unique? What was during this era that made these film makers produces movies with this distinct look? How can I merge this with a modern-day video game character? The more I researched, the more questions arose. Finally distilled some points to consider:

Use the color grading of these movies, leaning into a yellowish tone. Desaturate on certain hues, but bump up the remaining color.
Find a location that best matches a fight scene in these movies, with strong Chinese cues. It just so happened that my production designer had this setting in their ‘backyard’. As of date, this location has been demolished.
Inject commonly used Chinese colors (yellow and red) to juxtapose against the blue costume

Mental Note: You can also use a contemporary movie such as Kung Fu Hustle as design inspiration as well.

Final Result

We ended up deriving a scene from martial arts movies and injecting Chun Li in it. This plays up the fact that Chun Li is also a martial artist, and her SF Alpha costume somehow pays homage to Bruce Lee.Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Model Portfolio: Jinri

Got one of my favorite muses back in front of the camera. I just love experimenting shots with Jinri since she’s game with almost anything. This session, we wrapped up images we’re doing for the Ruin Your Childhood series, and did some extra stuff on the side. This post is about that extra stuff.

The fashion angle is something we don’t really get to do that often, so we did one for kicks. In hindsight, should actually do more fashion layouts with Jinri in more shoots to come.

I would have admit the Miko Mido isn’t really from a ruined childhood origin, but it was something I know that would strike a chord with a particular set of fans. Those who wer A formal cosplay shoot of Miko Mido is in the works though, so that’s something you guys can watch out for.

Photo Gallery

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The last layout we did was the paint splash beauty / head shot. It was something that popped in my head the night before and surprised Ara with if we could do a headshot inspired from Japanese masks. The paint splash thing was something she added in the end, and it gave that somewhat Samurai-ish feel to it alongside the clumped anime bangs.

As for the lighting, this is were we played around a little bit. It’s not your usual beauty shot lighting where lights are placed overhead, with a reflector underneath. This time, we’re reversing the formula, and aiming to get the highlights first then figure out how to get light back on our model’s face. More of that if you get to watch our self-produced slapped together amateur video.

What is crucial though is having both sides of your lighting formation mirror each other. I used two (2) big strip lights, and two (2) 4 x 8 ft. styrofoam boards acting as soft reflectors. They are placed in an X formation, with one reflector bouncing back the light opposite to it. The last light acts as a fill in front, and adjusted to personal taste. That uses a honey comb grid, the smallest one available (10 degrees). As for measurements, I first powered the strip lights enough to get a mid-tone measurement where their fall out is going to be on the model. From there, I adjusted the power 1.5-2 stops stronger. This would over expose the highlights creating that rim, but still retain some details on the skin as it tapers off towards the center. The reflectors are then put into place to bring back mid-tones into the center section of the face.

Production Credits

Make-up: Ara Fernando
Hair: Toni Reveler Santos
Styling: Hannah Kim
Model: Jinri Park

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Shooting Cosplay: A Creative Journey

The Creative Frustration

Shooting cosplay came from two polar creative fronts: my frustration of illustrating and love of photography. Back in high school, I was one of those doodling kids who wanted to draw what I read in the comics. The stuff I used to read were several Marvel X-Men titles and Batman. What resulted out of it were crash courses through summer art school and glorified stick figures. I also left several unused easels and drawing boards in the wake of my pursuit. I slowly came to accept that I couldn’t draw, but somewhat had an eye for graphic design. I knew how to put together pieces of a creative puzzle but couldn’t make them on my own. I dabbled as the art director in our school publication but it was in college when the camera was first introduced to me.

My cousin was taking up weekend photography classes in another nearby university and would often bring home sheets of paper to develop alongside the manuals. Started reading them on the side, learning the process of developing film in the darkroom. From there, I stared saving up for a camera through side projects I used to do as graphic / web designer. The shutterbug firmly bit when finally got an apprenticeship with a family friend. I guess the rest is history.

My journey in photography certainly wasn’t a straightforward one. It’s a series of glass ceilings after another – often seeing the next potential yet can’t seem to get there. It was that frustration that led me to start searching for my own handle in taking pictures. I had to ween off making bad attempts copying how other photographers light their images. I had to own my pictures. How became the biggest question.

It wasn’t until I was shooting for several years when I thought of putting together my love for comics and anime with photography. I started to get drawn to images entailing certain levels of production design. The bigger, grander, more complicated… the more I welcomed the challenge. I started referencing inanimate objects (e.g. dolls, mannequins, etc…) into our early work. When we finally got to mount my second exhibit “Pop Nostalgia” with the Crucible Gallery in 2009, I had an inkling pop culture was becoming my anchor for creativity.

Rhian Ramos as Rogue — Rogue in Flight, 2011. This was our first “official” cosplay shoot, after dabbling with peripheral concepts of pop-culture.

Production Credits

Make-up: Ten Franco
Hair: Charlie Manapat
tyling: Hannah Kim
Costume Production: Badj Genato
Production Designer: Raffy Tesoro
Art Direction: Javey Villones
Digital Imaging: Ghani Madueno
Model: Rhian Ramos

Just like how I dabbled with graphic design, it had parallels with my photography. I wasn’t really good at generating my own ideas, but learned how to reference more known genres and imagery. I didn’t even know about the term “cosplay photography” until a couple of years after. That was when people started calling our work as such. Personally, I just wanted to give homage to pop culture icons of my youth.

Regular pictures of people in costume was out of the question. We wanted to push the imagery, to bring it back to full circle, blurring the lines between a picture and an illustration. This came about several trial and error experiments for a few years partnering up with advertising creatives. The body of work during these early years produced a variety of results, but never the full satisfaction of accomplishment. There was big room for improvement, and that feeling of “what-if” always lingered after every shoot was done.

alicewonderland_final — The Tea After Party, 2010. One of the milestone images we have achieved as a team.

Production Credits:

Make-up / Grooming: Noel Flores / Charlie Manapat / Nadia Bouhou
Styling: Mico Calma / Badj Genato
Art Direction: Jay Tablante / Angelo Lico
Production Design: Raffy Tesoro
Digital Imaging: Angelo Lico
Models: Alodia Gosiengfiao / Ashley Gosiengfiao / Natalia Santiago / Faus Ongtengco / Maria Dolonius

In 2010 was perhaps when we stumbled upon a milestone when we produced this mash-up interpretation of Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland called, “The Tea After Party.” It was only then when we had a resemblance of synergy between photography, make-up, styling, set design and post production. Of course we still regretted a lot of things we wished could’ve been done, but that’s already a lingering frustration from every work we do. It was from this image where a dramatic shift in our current style has stemmed from.

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Work Process

Having past experience in publishing and advertising prior to photography proved to be valuable as we started to streamline the thought process of coming up with cosplay shoots. It wasn’t enough to come up with one-hit wonders and then forgetting how the process was done. We wanted something that can be repeatable. Creativity energy is preserved and targeting towards a particular goal.

Every advertising shoot doesn’t push forward without a pre-production organizer. It can come in various formats, but the most common is a PowerPoint presentation. If we are to follow a full-blown version of such a deck, it would contain the following:

Team Members involved
Character background
- This puts everybody in the same page when it comes to character design since a lot of characters have various costume designs.
Make-up pegs
- Illustrations aren’t exactly the best sources for make-up since it’s an approximation of the human form.
Styling / Costume design
- This shows the details of how the costume is made, from the fabric to the fitting sessions with the model.
Art Direction
- This tackles the situation and pose the model would be doing. This is commonly mistaken with photography.
- This is accompanied with a composite (a.k.a. “compre” in local advertising parlance) of how the final image is going to appear.
Lighting Treatment / Photography
- The approach in lighting style and method in achieving the look set by the art direction.
Production Design
- This tackles the props sourcing and an idea of what the set / location would look like.
Post Production
- A guide for the selected image/s to be worked on
- The kinds of composition and clean up that need to be done.
Casting
- Who the model is for the shoot.

This pre-production organizer is the heart and soul of the shoot. This sums up the current progress and the checklist of things to be done before anything gets done.

This is one aspect of commercial shooting we strive to introduce into cosplay photography. This level of organization funnels creativity from a spray into a powerful hose targeted to achieve one image. When everybody is uniformly briefed about the concept, the team is put into one focus.

Taking these factors in, it may seem to be complicated for any newbie to start shooting cosplay, but it all boils down to solving one problem at a time. As each problem is solved, the process becomes clearer. When you finally come up with an image, repeat this method until you get the hang of going through the creative routine.

It took our team several years before we have developed a system of coming up with cosplay shoots, and it is still far from perfect. But the advantage of having one is following a logical flow of solving a creative problem of coming up with an image.

Sharing below some behind the scenes of our past shoots over the years.

Photo Gallery

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Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Rikku Re-Issued

When we found out Monika Lee was guesting during this year’s APCC, I just had to request for her to bring Yuna (Final Fantasy X-2) as part of her costume repertoire for that weekend. The idea of reviving the Rikku image was already brewing in my head the moment I found out she was slated to appear in Manila. But first we do a little throwback.

Back in 2009, one of our earliest collaborations in cosplay photography was Rikku, particularly the design from Final Fantasy X-2:

rikku_final

I was still experimenting lighting along with Gelo (our main Art Director) around this time, bouncing ideas left and right. This was the time when we were figuring out the best lighting combination that would yield optimum material for Gelo to use in post production. We were just learning how to make images that had high editing threshold. This was all prior to authoring Geekology. We we all sort of new in shooting cosplay, and haven’t really wrapped our heads around creating a system to streamline shooting, doing creativity exercises, etc… we were really just treating this as serious playtime. Heck, we didn’t even know the term “cosplay photography” had existed at that time. We were just concerned with shooting superheroes and characters we like.

rikku_final2

Hard to imagine this image was already six (6) years old, and quite the interesting revisit when we thought of re-editing this image again after all this time. Monika’s Yuna costume triggered all of this to happen. We just had to shoot her as Yuna since she was such a shoe-in for the character.

Hindsight is always 20/20, and looking back at this image brought out the “what-ifs” — that perpetual discontent over our work in the pursuit of perfection. Despite having learned better post-production processes which we tried implementing on the 2015 version, there were still more things I wished we could’ve done during the shoot.

Edit: And I just found the original BTS images of our Rikku shoot!

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Thanks to Cha Lico (Gelo’s sister) for taking all these behind the scenes images.

We’d be coming out with a solo image of Monika as Yuna soon. Here are some behind the scenes from the shoot we did with Monika this year:

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Production Credits

Make-up: Kris Bacani (Rikku, 2009) / Ara Fernando (Yuna, 2015)
Hair: Toni Santos (Yuna, 2015)
Styling: Raffy Tesoro (2009)
CG Imaging: Glenn Tungol (Celsius, 2009)
Art Direction: Gelo Lico (2009) / Raffy Tesoro (2015)
Costume Production: Badj Genato (Rikku, 2009) / Monika Lee (Yuna, 2015)
Digital Imaging: Gelo Lico (2009) / Mooo Digital Productions (2015)
Models: Alodia Gosiengfiao (Rikku) / Monika Lee (Yuna)

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Cosplay Shoot Breakdown: Gogo Tomago (Big Hero 6)

As promised over at my original FB post, here’s how we came up with our Gogo Tomago cosplay image.

While doing our research on Gogo, we stumbled up a peg we thought would be awesome to do:

After some consultation with Jay (Riot Inc.) he got inspired from the last scenes in the movie where the characters were going around the city. We froze some frames, particularly of Gogo’s and thought of wrapping our concept around that moment.

The original setting was in the evening, but we thought of making it twilight in our version just to add a bit more color into the scene. Dramatic clouds are always… well.. dramatic. LOL.

These were some of the raw images taken:

Image #21

Image 21 of 40 was the selected base image. All the rest of the takes were used as material to augment whatever body part we needed for the initial composition. We never bothered having Alodia put on the full regalia of the costume since it wouldn’t be used in post-production anyway. It was more important for us to preserve the arms rather having those covered with spinners or else we wouldn’t have any digital assets of the arms to work with.

As for lighting, I wanted to do a brightly-lit image with soft highlights on the side. Hence, all the lights were attached with soft boxes. We can have our usual sharp-shadow super hero look since animated movies like these look very “friendly” and have softer impact on the eyes.

The first phase of post-production was with Mooo Digital. They handled composition and clean-up work on the images we chucked out from the shoot.

After coming up with Alodia’s body composition, this image was then given to Riot Inc. to build the elements around. The spinners and helmet were also generated in post to give more freedom their placement around Alodia.

We looked at quite a number of concept art done for the movie to get the look and feel of the CG imaging and initial placement.

Riot rendered the background elements, some of the armor and spinners. It was almost ready off the bat when Riot turned it back over to us. Usually, it would’ve gone through Mooo Digital one more time for blending and cleanup. Riot did such a good job, that additional step wasn’t necessary anymore. I handled some of the last-mile blending / blurring and clean-ups.

The production team for this shoot.

Production Credits

Make-up: Ara Fernando
Styling: Hannah Kim
Costume / Props Production: Lyron Aquino
Art Direction: Raffy Tesoro
CG Imaging: Riot Inc.
Digital Imaging: Mooo Digital Production / Riot Inc. / Jay Tablante
Model: Alodia Gosiengfiao
Special Thanks to Penthouse Studios

Now for some behind the scenes photos.

Ara Fernando is Alodia’s go-to make-up artist for most cosplay shoots. Ara is also into theater acting, which is a big advantage when it comes to creatives, experience and especially time. Ara could chuck out a girl in and out of the “salon” in less than hour when pressed to perform. But for this afternoon, it was a pretty relaxed shoot.

Hannah, our resident stylist helped out putting Alodia in the costume. She can’t help it but have fun with the costume herself.

For all of our cosplay shoots, we only aim for one pose and would do little variations of such to provide material for post production to work on.

The guy on the left of Alodia is Raffy, our production designer. When not building sets for shoots, he does everything else in between… like showing Alodia the pose, and literally lifting her up every now and then. You would see that when we finish our Attack on Titan shot.

This shoot didn’t take much time since Alodia got the pose down pat. She is such a darling to work with.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Geekology 2.0 Book Signing @ The Philippine Literary Festival

Shameless plug by yours truly. It’s an honor to participate in the Philippine Literary Festival in any way this year. Would be doing a quick book signing for our Geekology book series. Well we only have two (2), so I guess that still counts? Hehehe.

More details at the poster. See you guys this weekend!

Here’s the full schedule for the activity entire weekend if you wanna check out works by other authors:

The official press release:

Matthew Quick and Meg Wolitzer in Raffles Makati

and National Book Store’s Philippine Literary Festival 2015

After a successful launch in 2014 featuring Amy Tan and Chang-Rae Lee amongst others, Raffles Makati and National Book Store present the Philippine Literary Festival 2015 headlined by bestselling and award-winning authors Matthew Quick and Meg Wolitzer from August 28 to 30 at the Raffles Makati. Admission is free for all events.

Xandra Ramos-Padilla, National Book Store Managing Director, shares, “We are honored to be working with Raffles Makati in hosting international authors and organizing the Philippine Literary Festival. The support from publishers, authors, panelists, and attendees for the festival last year was overwhelming. This year, the festival will have Matthew Quick, Meg Wolitzer, and the best Filipino writers and artists to share with us their stories. National Book Store is more engagedthan ever in giving readers a different reading experience by bringing their favorite authors closer to them which we have constantly been doing over the years. We hope that through this festival, more Filipinos will be encouraged and inspired to read and become our partners in building a stronger reading culture.”

“Raffles Makati continues the legacy of Raffles Hotels as being a haven for authors by supporting the literary arts. Famous writers like Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Conrad, among other noteworthy authors have stayed at a Raffles hotel. We’ve partnered with National Book Store, the largest bookstore in the country, to come up with the Authors in Residence series where the hotel is the official residence for visiting international bestselling novelists on a monthly basis. The Authors in Residence program culminates with the Philippine Literary Festival. This year, the festival offers a diverse selection of activities that will appeal to all book lovers. We intend to make this event an annual affair to look forward to in the city,” says Monique Toda, Raffles and Fairmont MakatiDirector of Communications.

Matthew Quick is the New York Times bestselling author of ‘The Silver Linings Playbook’, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. His other books include ‘The Good Luck of Right Now’ and ‘Love May Fail’, and the young adult novel ‘Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock’ all of which have been optioned for film. His works have been translated into 30 languages and received numerous accolades including a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention. His upcoming book ‘Every Exquisite Thing’ will hit shelves in 2016 and is being developed into film by The Weinstein Company. The Matthew Quick talk and book signing event will be on August 30 at 2 p.m.

New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer is the woman behind thecritically acclaimed novels ‘The Interestings’, ‘The Wife’, ‘The Position’, ‘The Ten-Year Nap’, ‘The Uncoupling’, ‘Sleepwalking’, ‘Surrender, Dorothy’, ‘This is My Life’, and the young adult novels ‘Belzhar’ and ‘The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman’. The Meg Wolitzer talk and book signing will be on August 29 at 2 p.m.

Readers can attend three days of book signings, discussions and panels about books and literature from top Filipino writers and artists. Join authors MariviSoliven, Ambeth Ocampo, Lualhati Bautista, Dean Alfar, Angelo Lacuesta, Alfred Yuson, Jose Dalisay Jr., Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, and Danton Remoto among others for talks and book signings.

The events are made possible in partnership with Adarna House Publishing, ABS-CBN Publishing, Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan, Anvil Publishing, Ateneo De Manila University Press, Meganon Comics, Precious Pages, Romancing Venus, Summit Books, Tahanan Books, Team Magazine, The Manila Review, The University of the Philippines Press, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, Visprint, Inc., Young Blood, Young Star, and Sweep.

All events will be held at the Raffles Makati with registration starting at 9 a.m. everyday. Admission is free. Only books purchased at National Book Store, National Book Store Express, and Powerbooks will be accommodated for the signing. Books by the authors will be available on site during the event. Sign up for updates and view the complete schedule at philippineliteraryfestival.com. Follow National Book Store on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@nbsalert). Tag #PLF2015 to join the discussion.

About Raffles Makati

Raffles Makati, belonging to the iconic hotel brand, is a 32 all-suite hotel that caters to the refined sensibilities of the sophisticated business and leisure traveler. Its impressive interiors were done by renowned interior designer company Bent Severin which is a tasteful combination of old world elegance, modern furnishings and impressive art. In fact, over 1,600 pieces of paintings and sculptures are found within the property, all of which were created by local artists.

Guests of the Raffles Makati enjoy gracious and charming service amidst luxurious suites with high ceilings; views of the city from floor to ceiling windows; colonial era touches such as wooden floors and white louvers together with modern décor; and splendid marble bathrooms. There are three types of suites to choose from namely the Junior Suite, Executive Suite and the brilliant three-bedroom Presidential Suite—all offering the distinctive Raffles luxury experience.

For a feel of Raffles tradition, the Writers Bar offers Afternoon Tea in a parlor-like atmosphere surrounded by leather bound books. With its history of being the favorite haunt of notable authors, the Writers Bar is the venue of book launches and readings as well.

About National Book Store

National Book Store, the undisputed category leader with over 170 stores nationwide, takes special pride in the institution’s role as a staunch supporter and promoter of education and reading. Serving as a partner in education and profession to generations of Filipinos, National Book Store continues to provide the best and widest selection of books, school and office supplies and other educational and professional products.

Here’s a video from last year’s event.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Geekology 2.0: Analysis of Archetypes

Author’s Note: Hindsight is always 20/20. There’s always something you’d end up skipping when you write things the first time around. So if you happen to purchase the 2nd book and been patient enough to read the text, you could all this an append to the Archetypes section.

Just a quick refresher from the book, an archetype is defined as the basis from which all character design comes from. They are either created by a single person or group of people, then introduced into the public as fact.

My first example from the book would be The Joker, and how his archetype is broken down to the visual elements you see. Any other clown not wearing the same clothes, or make-up simply isn’t akin to The Joker. Much the same way as how we know what makes Batman, well… Batman — by recalling the visual elements that reminds us of the overall archetype.

Characters are created through a variety of ways as vast as one’s imagination can offer. This oversimplified list is by no means an attempt to classify the only ways to come up with characters to a few methods. I suggest viewing this as something like a skeleton road map to understand how our imagination can come up with all sorts of creations specially to building archetypes. Something where we could get some points to jump off from to get the thought process started.

More often than not, as original as some characters may sound, at the heart of their creation, they would always be inspired by some other outside source.

References and Amalgams

Historical Reference

These are archetypes created from historical context — either from actual people or a mixture of several. One solid example would be Kenshin Himura (Samurai X or Rorouni Kenshin). The events in the anime was based from Japanese history to begin with, but Kenshin’s in particular was from this actual samurai, Kawakami Gensai who was known for his legendary swordsmanship skills during the late Edo period.

Romanticized ReferenceUnlike historical sources, these characters are built upon the foundations of older mythology and literature. Superman was partly inspired from biblical and mythological characters such as Samson and Hercules as Siegel and Shuster later on explained in interviews.

These are the characters whose archetype design is based on more established “templates”. The referencing can be a direct relationship, or an amalgam of other sources. Eventually as other characters are created, the established ones become the references. Bizarro is anchored to Superman and without the latter to establish the archetype, the character in question (Bizarro) doesn’t gain much foothold.

Generic Reference

These are characters born from a generalized set of parameters not akin to any particular person. We derive a persona from nameless traits describing a particular set or subset in society. In a sense, the character created from this method can either be a championed or stereotyped version.The Japanese school girl or the sailor fuku wardrobe in particular has spawned numerous characters based on its generic archetype design. You could see them from 90s arcade games (e.g. Rival Schools), movies (Gogo Yubari), the zombie anime (High School of the Dead) to classics such as Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The amount of referencing varies between character to character, and doesn’t have any strict requirement to follow. Furthermore, the discernment of a character’s source inspirations are at the discretion of the creator. “The Bride” in Kill Bill as portrayed by Uma Thurman is a homage to Bruce Lee, but the iconic tracksuit was just as far as the “The Bride” character references from him.

Character and Aliases

We also have established characters such as Superman and Batman eventually having gained secondary names and references:

The Caped Crusader
The Dark Knight
Man of Steel

It’s like having another layer of fiction encapsulating an already established one. This only happens when certain characters gain a level of popularity and cements their existence in pop culture.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Sailor Scout Pin-up: A Concept Analysis

Our Sailor Moon x Pin-up girls series have been on-going for quite awhile now, but I just thought of spending time and writing how the concept was created before I completely forget about them.

I’ve written a good deal about this in Geekology 2.0 (still available in National Book Store, shameless plug), so I’d be referencing some ideas from the book.

We wanted to give a different twist to shooting contemporary cosplay, and thought of using some historical homage to come up with something different. Alot of these characters were inspired by some form of history or past literature, and it’s just a matter of digging more of that connection and incorporating those into the current concept. It’s an attempt for us to introduce established characters in a new, yet still familiar environment.

If you’re savvy enough in social media, you’d come across content floating around on “Disneyfied” versions of other properties / franchises. It follows a similar logic.

A creativity exercise Raffy and I used to do is Mind Mapping. This is when you want to merge two seemingly disconnected concepts into one thought. Take Concepts A and B. For each concept, write down as many words related to it as you can. You can time yourself if you want. The 1st round of words you write are of a 1st degree connection for each concept. Expand the 1st round of words with other related terms about it, and start finding out if there are similarities between words you are able to come up with between the concepts. Words that connect the concepts is your concept bridge. From there, try to produce visual equivalents of that bridge, and see if you incorporate said elements into one final image.

The full length of the Mind-Mapping exercise could be found in another blog entry. I highly suggest brushing up on that before proceeding.

So what does Kurt Kobain got to do with Ghandi? Semantics (religious or musical affiliation) aside, both are connected to the word “Nirvana.” As absurd as a connection made, it is still a connection. You have to unlearn attaching meanings to the words, and just use them for what they are on a literal level. Then make your connections from there.

Photo Gallery

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Sailor Fuku

Literally translated to “Sailor Outfit”, such designs started appearing in Japan in the 1920s. One school in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Jo Gakuin claims to be the first to introduce the uniform based on the British Royal Navy. The fashion intent of these uniforms were to invoke military-style roots. Of course, it has come a long way since then in terms of variations and design sensibilities.

More history on the sailor fuku could be found here and here.

The Pin-up

The popularity of the pin-up as a concept actually had its roots more in function rather than form. These were images of popular glamour models of the time informally pinned up against walls as calendars or as advertisements in the days of burlesque. They were wildly popular during both World Wars and served as a “warming” memento of sorts for soldiers on the front lines. Artists such as Alberto Vargas were so associated with genre that people nowadays tend to think the terms “pin-up” and “Vargas Girl” mean the same thing. If one were to dissect the concept of pin-up, it would be the perception of women, sexuality and a public display of that time repackaged into a visual art form.

Gil Elvgren is another popular artist, where I based the “look and feel” of our Sailor Moon cosplay shots from.

Over time, execution became synonymous to the concept.

The Concept Bridge

Is there a connection between the sailor fuku and pin-up girls? If you apply the same word-mapping exercise connecting Kurt Kobain with Ghandi, you can establish a connection with a little bit of history-digging.

An execution of pin-up and sailor fuku designs draw their inspiration from the military. This became our take-off point in merging the two (2) ideas. What about the military aspect of both concepts could we use?

The pin-up girl look was a manner of execution, while the sailor fuku design was content. The obvious route for us was to use sailor fuku-inspired costume designs, but posed and treated like WW2 pin-up girl posters. The most popular contemporary sailor fuku costume design was of course, Sailor Moon.

The take away at the end of the day is not getting stuck within a particular character’s “world.” It’s about drawing upon the history / literature sources, and adding more of them into the mix for a new look.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Inspiration and Connection

As part of my blog revival, I drudged up some draft entries and thought of finishing them.

We wanted to pay homage to particular pop-culture icons, based on popular images best representing them or perhaps from official art.

There are lots of creative approaches to shooting cosplay, and there is a huge area for creative license and interpretation as most photographers have used. But then, by putting in these parameters based from an established piece, it trains the imagination to work in a sniper-like fashion. The art direction takes a familiar path, and from there you work on making the image a reality. Although it would be really difficult to nail down an exact copy of the original piece, familiarity should be there for people to make the connection almost instantaneously. That’s how particular cosplay work becomes recognized.

One iconic scene for me was Minmay being hoisted up on the platform in front of SDF-1. This was right before she sang “Do You Remember Love”, the movie’s title as well. For me, this was the strongest part of the movie since the changed the outcome of the battle.

Make-up: Jopie Sanchez
Styling: Hannah Kim
Art Direction: Allan Montayre / Jay Tablante
CG Imaging: Riot Inc.
Digital Imaging: Allan Montayre

There are so many Major Motoko cosplay shoots out there, but few have dared to do this, primarily because it doesn’t involve a costume at all. But this image is the official art you would see on the DVD covers. We just had to try it. Good thing a long-time model friend of ours was game enough to pose.

Make-up: Leo Posadas
Styling: Hannah Kim
Costume Production: Badj Genato
Art Direction: Noah Valdez
CG Imaging (New York City): 429 Studios
Digital Imaging: Mooo Digital Production / 429 Studios (New York City)
Model: Carla Abellana

Art Germ (Stanley Lau) is a popular comic book illustrator based in Singapore. He’s head of Imaginary Friends, an illustration studio doing work for Capcom, Marvel, DC, Microsoft, and various commercial gigs. He makes pin-ups of various characters, and this piece he did of Phoenix was quite phenomenal.

Make-up: Ara Fernando
Styling: Hannah Kim
Costume Production: Badj Galias-Genato
Art Direction: Gelo Lico
Production Design: Raffy Tesoro
Digital Imaging: Ghani Madueno
Model: Lindsey Joy

Make-up: Ten Franco
Hair: Charlie Manapat
Styling: Hannah Kim
Costume Production: Badj Genato
Production Designer: Raffy Tesoro
Art Direction: Javey Villones
Digital Imaging: Ghani Madueno
Model: Rhian Ramos

I am a huge fan of Jim Lee, and I always believed he was one of the reasons Marvel had a resurgence of popularity in the 90s. I collected the Marvel cards, and his artwork was all over the place.

Make-up: Kris Bacani
Styling: Raffy Tesoro
Costume Production: Badj Genato
Art Direction / Final Artwork: Angelo Lico
CG Artwork: Genald Tungol
Model: Alodia Gosiengfiao

I have been an avid player of Final Fantasy since FF III (or VI, if you’re in Japan) and as the graphics got better on every iteration, it made quite a jump by the time it reached FF-X — complete with a voice cast. On a interesting note, we even found an Al Bhed font to use.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

I’m Going Japanese (My somewhat 1st time experience in Tokyo)

Last time I’ve been to Japan was 11 years old. When you do the math, that’s about 2 decades back. I can hardly remember shit (except for those bright lights of Akihabara) and my Rockman (Megaman for you guys in the US). I’m sure lots of things have changed since then.

So early this December 2013, Raech and I took that crazy trip to Tokyo just for the heck of it. We stayed for five (5) days, and it wasn’t enough.

This is by any no means a comprehensive guide on going around in Japan, but this humble attempt it should give you an idea on how easy it is despite the initial daunting impressions.

Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

Of course there are several airlines servicing Japan from Manila. A quick rundown of we checked out were:

Philippine Airlines
Worst schedule if you’re tourist, but best if you’re a returning expat, since this maximizes your stay in the Philippines instead. Leaves in the afternoon and arrives as the last flight into Tokyo. Rates though are fairly constant even as you book later.
Delta
Leaves early morning, and you arrive around after lunch. This is best if you want maximize your trip. Not the cheapest, and rates go up quickly the later you book. A week before the trip would more or less damage you about $700 USD.
ANA (All Nippon Airways)
This is the best bang for buck option. Cheapest, but hardest to book. Make sure you buy your tickets through them months in advance. Leaves mid-morning, and arrives mid-afternoon.

There are others, but it was already a bit out of our budget.

There are several offers for tourists / foreigners traveling in Japan that aren’t made available for locals. This is something you have to take advantage, and more often than not, most arrangements are done prior to your flight or at the airport the moment you land.

If you plan to visit other cities asides from Tokyo, I would highly recommend taking the JR Rail Pass. This is only available for foreign travelers, and should be ordered online prior to your trip. They usually FedEx the claim stub to your house. You could then exchange this for the actual pass at the JR East Travel Centers.

Most Shinkansen trains leave from either the Ueno, Shibuya and Tokyo stations so you just have to double check where that particular train leaves.

Most international flights arrive at Narita Airport, which is Tokyo’s newer airport compared to Haneda Airport, handling mostly domestic flights. Narita is about an hour away or so from the city proper. Which means your transfers to and from the airport have to be secured the moment you arrive. Of course you could do this separately, but it would come out more expensive. Knowing the prices in Japan, any amount of savings in a trip is well worth the effort.

Your options to and from Narita Airport:

Keisei Skyliner
This is faster than the N’Ex, stops at the Ueno station, but doesn’t have that Suica Card packaged, which is a better deal than their 1-2 day passes just for the Tokyo Metro lines.
Narita Express (and Suica card package)
One of the most economical and convenient options to take. When you finally get out of customs and at the basement area, you could get this combination ticket either at the JR East Travel) Centers or the JR Ticketing offices (if the travel center is already closed).
When you get a round trip on the N’Ex, they immediately book you on the next available schedule unless you state otherwise. Then you’re provided with a claim stub to get your return tickets on the day you’re leaving Japan. You can exchange this on any major station (Shibuya or Tokyo) since their ticketing offices open early and close late. The N’Ex card has an expiry of 2 weeks, which is more or less the allowed stay per entry of a regular tourist visa.

These trains leave precisely down to the minute. Hence they got strangely timed departure schedules like, 12:49. And true enough the train does leave at that.
Airport Limousine (Bus)
If you missed the schedules for the trains, this is the next best option.
Taxi
If all other options fail (which I doubt they would), this is the last, and I mean the very last option to take. On average, a cab ride from the airport would set you back about P 24,000.00. Yes. P 24,000.00. So don’t take this unless you have no choice anymore.

If you need more help, Japan Guide has a more detailed system of getting into the city.

Tokyo Commute

The JR Yamanote line is the heart and soul of their train system. This is a circular line that goes around the major districts. All the rest of the lines stem out from this circle. Though there are several subway operators, most of the platform transfers are done without having to get out of the stations. This is where the Suica card comes in very handy. Instead of spending time buying single-journey tickets and trying to read the confusing map, you just swipe through and ride. Just take note of the balance at the end when you exit so you’d know when to top-up the card.

Accommodations

I highly suggest finding a hotel near any of the stations for maximum convenience. We stayed at the Washington Akihabara Hotel, which is just right in front of the Akihabara station. Average business hotels prices would start from $150 USD / night above. Fancy places such as the Tokyo Daichi or the Tokyo Station Hotel, would fetch up as much as $350 USD / night.

If you want to have a feel of classic Japanese B&Bs, try out the ryokans in the Ueno area. These are relatively cheaper (about $ 90 / night on average). On the bit of a downside, most are found further from the stations and have curfews since they’re run by local families.

Our Trip

Tokyo in five (5) days just isn’t enough. You would need a solid week (and I mean seven days) to get a good grasp of what the city could offer. In our limited stay, we only got around several districts:

Asakusa
This is the old district where you could still find antique shop-house style establishments. The main major attraction in this area would be Sensoji Temple. This is lined up with tourist trappy stalls ranging from souvenirs, cheap yukatas, caps and mung bean buns.
This also leads you to other nearby attractions like the Tokyo Skytree, which has an observation deck at 350M and 450M. Prior to this, Tokyo Tower was the highest point in Tokyo.
Akihabara
Also known Electric Town, this is the heart of all electronics, video games, and eventually anime. If you’re looking for any gadget, this is the place to be — Yodibashi Akiba. You could also find the Gundam Cafe beside the train station as well.
Shibuya
This is a major shopping district. This is also the place if you want to experience the insane X-crosswalk too. Best vantage point to take shots of all those people walking would be at the 2F Starbucks on one of the corners. This is also where you could find the famous Hachiko dog statue.
Harajuku
Best to check this place out during the weekends where you see cosplayers and girls in lolita outfits hang around the street up until the bridge crossing into the Meiji Jingu Shrine.
On the other side is Yoyogi park, which hosts several events over the year. Our trip was lucky enough to have the Earth Garden, which is like a mashed up organics market, food and music festival. Few times I get to encounter hipster-looking Japanese.

But on our last day, Raech and I decided on taking a bike tour around town. This is probably one of the best attractions we took during the trip. It’s just a shame we had to take it the day before we left.

Stay Connected

Roaming charges are a bitch in the bill. One good option is to rent out portable WiFi (you’d have to order for this days before your trip since they send it through the mail). This become as crucial companion since you’d need a data connection everywhere especially when accessing the maps.

Returning it is no problem as well. The package comes with a paid-postage self-addressed envelope. You just have to drop it off at any Japan Post office box conveniently located right beside the escalator going down to the N’Ex platform. It’s so convenient, it’s scarily to too convenient.

What Itinerary?

We never took any organized city tour and just went on gut feel. Asides Trip Advisor, we also used Japan Guide to know the local places. We just went there and discovered stuff on our own. That’s where Raech accidentally saw the Evangelion Store and much to her regret if you know what I mean. Hehehe.

Japan is such an awesome country to visit, and I can’t wait for our next trip.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Cosplay Photography Tutorial: X-Force Psylocke

This is the 3rd time we’ve shot a Psylocke cosplay, and somehow there’s always something we learned on each attempt. 3rd’s a charm, and this time it’s Linda Le, a well known cosplayer in the US.

A. Shoot Proper

This was a few days before San Diego Comic Con, and I was fortunate enough to find a studio within the Mira Mesa area (north of San Diego) to rent for the entire day.

The owner Dave, is just a cool and laid back guy to deal with. It feels like home shooting at his place.

The lighting setup as far as I could remember it. Hehehe.

I used four (4) strobes for this setup, and one (1) silver reflector. The main light (beauty dish) is hoisted on a boom so it can be tilted down with hitting the light stand, and give ample space for us to work in underneath. It’s supported with a small softbox fill light. On the upper left corner, you have a strobe with a regular reflector attached. Finally on the upper right, is a large softbox to provide a softer highlight on Linda’s camera right side. The diagram maker unfortunately doesn’t have the model in the same pose as Linda.

In my previous entry about the 70D, I talked about how important the location is in the overall lighting effect; this shoot is a case in point. Since the floors and walls were also white, they were acting as additional reflectors, although weak and softened. This was still enough to illuminate certain sections of Linda without the need of additional strobes.

This is the final shot we agreed on using, which is actually one of the earlier takes in the series

The strobe placed in the corner left (upper left in the diagram) provided that defined shadow effect on the floor. I would have to admit that was a happy coincidence, or else we would’ve had to replicate a shadow using her main body as outline, which is either a hit or miss. The smaller the light source vis-as-vis the subject straightens the light as it travels, producing a more uniform source. The softbox on the right side on the other hand is a larger light source, hence the light rays tend to scatter in various directions before it hits the subject. That produces a softer highlight.

How thick or thin a highlight is, regardless of light quality is also determined by the angle it is placed against the subject. The more a light is placed at the back, the “thinner” the highlight you get. The more to a side, the “thicker”, but it also runs the risk of affecting your main light if placed too much on the side.

B. Material Photography

After the con (and back in Manila), I started looking for viable backgrounds to place Linda in. It just so happens that an events venue was being torn down in our neighborhood (which I heard is being turned into a branch of McDonald’s as of writing). Over a short span of time, it became a skater’s playground, and a venue for students rehearsing dance routines every afternoon. The floor boards left behind quickly rotted because of the nonstop rains, and graffiti artists didn’t waste time marking their territory.

I also took the liberty of going around nearby areas looking for interesting graffiti painted on the walls as additional background textures.

The next challenge is, how do you produce the “Psyblade” effect?

For those who are familiar with audio and production techniques in radio, there is a term called a “foley”. It’s the reproduction of everyday sound effects enhanced in movies, or television by using substitutes. If there was something like that in sound, I figured there has to be a corresponding way in photography. Call it an illusion or what, but I would personally name it “visual foley” for the sake of discussion.

How do we realistically translate a drawn effect into a photographic medium? The Psyblade is basically made up of two (2) textures: a sharp blade end, and a wispy smoke trail. The blue-violet color could always be done in post, so that’s not a factor in looking for its visual foley counterpart. Bottomline, it looked like a swirling combination of water and plasma.

Few things came into mind for the wispy trail:

Cigarette smoke
Dry ice
Mosquito coil

All of which had the same properties of that kind of smoke; it’s the crawling trail versus puffed versions from other sources. When shooting for special effects, make the best of the situation, and produce as much material as you can by shooting in various angles or in this case, placing the smoke in various physical states.

It also became useful in placing the smoke in various sections of the image to further enhance her mutant powers.

You could also use splashed water in mid-air as material as well if you want to have more visceral feel on the blade edges.

As for the sharper end, one element right away:

A burning cotton ball (just make sure you have the proper protection and fire extinguishing gear prior to shooting)

The sharpness and shape of the blade could always be controlled in Photoshop through the liquify tool.

C. Post Production

Prior to everything, I had to make sure that my background shot, and Linda more or less aligned in perspective. This was achieved through good ‘ol trial and error. I basically shot alot of background bending my back in minute angles and just keep on shooting away. Painful, but somebody has to do it.

Though if you want to be scientific about it, you could always use high school trigonometry in solving for the angle of tilt, as long as you have the distance between you, the subject, and the height for your camera placement.

But such in this case, I guess I was able to find a lucky shot that more or less is within acceptable perspective when matched with Linda.

Basic composition test on Linda against the background

Compositon with recreated lighting effect in Photoshop

With sample color grading

We also sampled various hair shots from other takes and combined the ones we liked into the base image. The cut off arm and legs in the shot is A.J., our overall 1st assistant, and hair stunts guy. He learned all these things during the day itself. Hehehe.

It was up to Ghani’s innate talent in getting the hair wave like the one you’d find in the upcoming X-Force Psylocke Kotobukiya statue.

D. End Result

Make-up / Styling / Costume Production: Linda Le

Art Direction: Joe Dy

Digital Imaging: Ghani Madueno

Model: Linda Le (Vampy)

Shot in DK3 Studios, Mira Mesa, San Diego.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Singapore and ICDS 2013

It’s an honor being invited once again to guest for the International Cosplay Day celebrations in Singapore. Each year the events grows bigger, and I hope this continues on.

A day prior to the festivities, I had the chance to work with a cosplaying couple, Elina and Orvis on a cosplay shoot of Batman Beyond villains, particularly, Mr. Freeze and Inque.

Both of them work at the props and costuming department in Universal Studios Singapore, and you could see it in the quality of the stuff they made for this shoot.

It was also cute to note, Ara’s niece Aia was also into cosplaying and attended the event as Ranka Lee. I did a couple of snaps of her in it as well during the shoot.

Orvis has an awesome Mr. Freeze costume! Retro-futuristic feel.

And finally Elina as Inque. Most of the material shots for her liquid form would be done in Manila.

That same evening, we head to the *SCAPE Warehouse and started setting up for the event. It was still quite a full day / night. We finished setup around 2AM.

Alodia prints for sale!

The usual banner. This has been around for quite awhile now, since ICDS 2012.

Team reunion! Gelo Lico came down from KL just to shoot and hang around with us.

Alodia signing at our table that afternoon.

What makes this event unique is their Cosplay Chess segment, which is personally the main come-on for this convention. It’s part chess game, part play, and all fun. Gives you the chance to see cosplayers “duel” is out on stage and stuff.

Alodia doing the awarding ceremonies for winning cosplayers.

We love Singapore food courts and hawker centers! When you’re in Singapore, skip the fancy places, trust me. The best stuff is found here. Had to catch up with Alodia over lunch the following day before my flight for Manila that afternoon.

She loves taking pictures of her food.

I’m so looking forward to next year’s convention.Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Shooting Special Effects

It may be boring for a good number of people, but this just brings out the geek in me. For several days now, Carlo (our digital imager) and I have been working on shooting material for future cosplay shoots. We deduced several elements that are commonly found in our cosplay images (flight, smoke, ice, sparkles, fire, water, etc…) and set out to produce an image bank we could use over and over.

Carlo much to my surprise, has extensive knowledge in special effects production design asides from his monster post production skills. He was based in several other studios all over the region (Singapore, Malaysia, etc…), this is what he picked up along the way.

The approach to coming up with cosplay images for us is beyond to just shooting people in costume. For those who have attended my talks, and heard me babble like a broken record about this, I never failed to repeat that exploring things outside of photography is best way to learn photography. I’ve gone as far as sitting in dress-making classes, and thinking of taking up make-up classes this year. Learning to do special effects is something I’ve always placed in my bucket list. To know the practical science is one, and shooting it is another.

Raffy and I have been doing this on a sporadic basis over the years, but we’ve limited innovation to what’s just needed for the current concept. I’m taking a different approach this time around and anticipating images as they come long so we don’t have to repeat reinventing the wheel so to speak. This should cut down on the shooting time for one idea altogether.

Yes, I am a die-hard fan of the Mythbusters.

Here’s Carlo (our Digital Imager) and my boys setting up for the next stunt.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Jubilee, the final image

Some time ago I posted behind the scenes from our Jubilee cosplay shoot.

Well, here’s the final product. This was combination of several images and empty background options. Ryder thought of combining the first running pose and against an optional oblique angle background, which resulted in a unique perspective of Jubilee dashing with her powers out.

The light effects were 50% CG and 50% practical photography effects. For the lights, I got an illustration board, and punctured it using a flat screw driver, creating crossed-star patterns. I then covered a strobe with it, aimed towards the camera, and fired.

We then lifted the starlight material in Photoshop and placed it in the final layout. The smoke was old shots we had as well, and it was made out of smoke coming from mosquito coils (katol) and a smoke machine.

Of course, there’s no 100% perfect pose off the bat for this one. Bea had to repeat the poses with lots of options of facial expressions and slight body movements. We also had her hold her position and the coat was separately flown, so we could get material to merge with the desired image we would choose as base.

Make-up: Ara Fernando
Styling: Hannah Kim
Costume Production: Badj Galias-Genato
Props Production: Edralin Manila (X emblems) / Kim Imao (visor)
Art Direction / Digital Imaging: Ryder Aquino / 429 Studios
Model: Bea Benedicto
Original Artwork / Character Design: Dustin Weaver

It was just that geekily giddy feeling when your model actually comes out looking like the character you envisioned.

This is the the cover of XMEN: Nation X #2 (2009)

The artist who did the original cover also featured the image in his blog. How cool is that? 🙂

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Behind the Scenes with Jubilee

Thanks to a nifty Canon 700D and an intern for the summer, we get to have some behind-the-scenes images for this cosplay shoot. Our usual BTS guy Aly was out on a family vacation, so she had some big shoes to fill.

We shot behind Raffy’s compound in San Juan. This was a homecoming of sorts, since we really shot in his garage, room, etc… way before we were doing our shoots in Edifice Studios.

It was quite the hot and humid afternoon (like most days during these summer months), so you could just imagine how hot it must be for our model walking around in a yellow trench coat. We had to wait out the afternoon until it was quite tolerable to hang around. Even then, we were putting 3 fans on Bea just to make sure she look good for the part at all times. There was the occasional retouch, but her make-up held on.

Been doing studio work for the past few cosplay shoots, so this is a welcome return to something familiar that we haven’t done for quite awhile now. I actually love the challenge of lighting up an entire area. I don’t mind doing something like this again for the next cosplay concept.

Jubilee was one character I’ve been wanting to do for the longest time, but haven’t really met the right model for it, until this opportunity came along.

I met Bea by coincidence in a print-ad shoot I did for BPI some time back. I guess I got too caught up with the shoot before I realized she would have been a good candidate for Jubilee. It was only when the ad came out when I connected the dots, and made the decision from there. I was still flip-flopping around the idea if were to seek her out, but I had nothing to lose in asking, right? I went out on a limb to find out who she was, given that my only lead was her first name, and that I worked with her in a print-ad.

In the end, it was a pleasant surprise she actually agreed to this shoot, given we only met once, and it was for work even.

Her resemblance was quite astonishing.

That’s my super assistant Hannah going through the wardrobe.

This is my crew setting up the lights in that stairway which we’re going to look like somewhere in NYC.

First time I get to use my McGyvered monitor rig with the cam.

Our lovely model Bea being fitted with the signature pink visors by our make-up artist, Ara

Ara was all too concerned with her extension bangs.

Doing some posing tests before we had her put on the coat. I wouldn’t want her melting unnecessarily.

Overall, the shoot lasted about 4 hours including make-up, wardrobe and putting eight lights in the scene. Then we had hotpot in Raffy’s kitchen for dinner. It was an awesome way to cap this shoot.

Bea by the way is a fashion / beauty / horror-flick blogger, so do check out her page too. Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Cosplay Shoot Tutorial: Vanille

Make-up: Ara Fernando / Styling and Costume Production: Jessica Ouano / Art Direction: Jay Tablante / CG Imaging: 429 Studios / Digital Imaging: Ryder Aquino / Model: Jessica Ouano / Special Thanks to Phottix and Borj Meneses

One of our sponsors, Phottix presented a challenge. Given the number of lights we use in cosplay shoots, would it be possible to utilize the ultra portable setups of Phottix to replicate the same effects? I mulled about it for a bit, then shot them back an email with a wishlist of stuff I might need for a shoot like this.

Check out how we did this shoot after the jump.

Of course, being the obsessive-compulsive, I listed down more gear than I would actually use, and just wanted to make sure. From their end, due to the equipment’s popularity, not all were available for the shoot. So the final list of gear we had at our disposal was as such:

One (1) PPL-400
Three (3) Mitros Speedlights
One (1) set of Hydra 8 reflectors
One (1) soft box / strip box
Two (2) beauty dish reflectors

Weather is a friend, foe and monkey wrench all rolled into one. Outdoor shoots like these are reliant on good sun and timing. On the day of the shoot, we were blessed with sunlight, and a partially overcast sky towards the afternoon. The hard part about shooting in this situation though is getting cut short every now and then whenever the sun would hide behind patches of clouds. You just can’t get the proper consistency all the time. All you could do is wait and be alert when the opportunity to shoot comes.

Thanks to Borj and friends for taking these behind-the-scenes images of the shoot.

I’ve always wanted to do Final Fantasy cosplay shoots, but costume design was one of the factors that held me back. Some were just too complicated given time pressures we had. But I was lucky enough to have met Jessica Ouano, a local cosplayer who already had a Vanille costume made a couple of years back. She was gracious enough to have it brought over from Cebu (since she’s based there) by her brother.

The biggest challenge here is finding that perfect balance between the strobes, speedlights and the sun. The latter being a wild card, things get unpredictable. As a rule of thumb though, I usually measure for the strobe’s power and then adjust for natural light using only the shutter speed settings. My aperture is kept steady since that is the only factor that strobe lights are concerned. That way, your strobe-lit areas are ironed out, and the natural light becomes the overall fill for the rest of the image. A good dash of patience would also help.

The location we chose is the lahar area within the Clark Development Zone property. This was coordinated through my good friend Borj, who is one of the professional photographers in the area, and a regional contact for Canon Philippines as well. He was kind enough to take time off from his day job, and accompany us in the sand quarry / lahar area for the day.

You could also make your own lighting diagram and share it with the rest of the community.

This lighting setup approximates what we used during the shoot. Given the PSD file I downloaded didn’t have Phottix-looking products, I had to opt to using the traditional icons you would see in a studio setting. The PPL-400 carried the brunt of the lighting chore, while the Mitros speedlights were used for fill and highlights. I chose a beauty dish, since it can produce hard shadow lines on a model’s face, duplicating the same effect of a bright sunny day. Why not use natural light then? Well, this is one light I can control. A bit on its left is a strip box setup armed with a Mitros.

Positioning highlights can be tricky. The “thickness” of the highlight depends on the angle where the light is hitting your model’s sides. To make the highlight “thinner”, you had to move the light more to the model’s back and make it face you. The downside is, there’s an increased chance of flaring, especially if you’re using a wide focal length. You could however place the lights further out, but that would diminish its power significantly. They would hardly make dent against sunlight. If you place the lights more on the side, it may come to a point that it’s no longer a highlight, but interferes with the effect of your key light. I used a Hydra reflector and a second beauty dish to maximize the output from the speedlights.

The first hour proved to be premature in the shoot. Sunlight was just too strong for the strobes to counteract. We had to wait until it was about 4:00PM before we got good registration on the model’s body. Not to mention, the sun was more yellowish by this time giving skin tone a bit more life.

The sun by the the way is behind the model to her left, which was a welcome coincidence. Not only that it helped the case for the highlights, but it also provided that “back flare” look I wanted to achieve for the final finish of the image. This had to be tempered down with an extended hood care of strips of illustration board and my palm.

Of course, this is just 50% of the final image. The Clark location provided the best base backdrop for Vanille, but we needed elements to make it appear it was Gran Pulse. Given our penchant for collaboration, we tapped 429 Studios as the CG partner to provide us the digital assets to add into the background. I sampled various sky shots during the shoot itself and got the best formations of clouds and blue portions.

Ryder then cleaned up and composed the image accordingly.

The awesome guys in 429 studios did the pillars and Cocoon to be added in the background

This is the original image

Asides from the sky I took as material, I also used samples from my past works to get the right cloud formations

A full length video of this tutorial would be made available during the DPP 7 Anniversary event in Bonifacio High Street, so do check out the Phottix booth there! I think they’re giving away the DVD with my face on it, unfortunately. Hahahaa.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

SDCC 2018: Preview Night

Cosplay Shoot: Supergirl and Superman

Cosplay Shoot: Psylocke

Cosplay Shoot: Yuna

Ahri Cosplay Shoot

Cosplay Shoot: Starfire

Tokyo Game Show

Cosplay Shoot: Cindy Aurum

Image Gallery

Cosplay Shoot: Harley Quinn

Cosplay Shoot: Chillin Like a Villian with Lord Drakkon

Cosplay Shoot: Sailor Moon

SDCC 2016 Cosplay Shoot

Video: Harley Quinn Cosplay Shoot

The Jinri Experience 3: Ruin Your Childhood (Behind the Scenes)

Ruin Your Childhood

Asia Pop Comic Con 2016

Ghost in the Shell

Cosplay Image Breakdown: Chun Li

Elements of Image Impact

Deconstruction

Reconstruction

Final Result

Model Portfolio: Jinri

Shooting Cosplay: A Creative Journey

Rikku Re-Issued

Asia POP Comic Con: A Late Post

Cosplay Shoot Breakdown: Mikasa Ackerman (Attack on Titan)

Cosplay Shoot Breakdown: Gogo Tomago (Big Hero 6)

Geekology 2.0 Book Signing @ The Philippine Literary Festival

SDCC 2015 Photo Dump

Geekology 2.0: Analysis of Archetypes

Sailor Scout Pin-up: A Concept Analysis

Geekology 2.0: Techniques in Cosplay Photography

Inspiration and Connection

Emma Frost: A Concept Revisit

I’m Going Japanese (My somewhat 1st time experience in Tokyo)

Cosplay for a Cause: Typhoon Yolanda

Cosplay Photography Tutorial: X-Force Psylocke

Singapore and ICDS 2013

Geekology @ The International Cosplay Day Singapore

SDCC Adventures Day 0: Cosplay Shoot!

Cosplay Shoot: Sailor Mars

Printing with Jo Avila

Shooting Special Effects

International Cosplay Day Singapore 2013

Jubilee, the final image

Cosplay Photography Tutorial with Jay Tablante

Behind the Scenes with Jubilee

Cosplay Photoshoot Tutorial: Vanille (a Phottix teaser)

Cosplay Shoot Tutorial: Vanille