PhotographyBanzai.com

My friend and fellow photographer Kings Cosplay set up a photoshoot at Starved Rock State Park in Utica, IL. Though we had our fair share of issues such as part of the park flooding, we did manage to get a decent amount of time to take photos. Besides getting some photography in, I enjoyed the exercise and scenic views! I brought a pretty simple camera kit. The Nikon D600 along with a 28mm f1.8 and 70-210mm f4 lens. I also brought a single flash, but only used that for around 5 photos. My go-to for most of the event was the telephoto. I like the photos out of that ~$200 old used 1980s telephoto lens just as much as anything else. The lens is weirdly shaped, ugly, and with old school screw-drive AF, but does the job well. 

I recently joined in on a two-day photoshoot Kings Cosplay had scheduled with the local model Ari Jade. The theme was race queen with most of the secondary subject being motorcycles. Here are a few highlight photos: Day one equipment: Nikon 28mm f/1.8g lens Two flash with a stand, umbrella, and a 6×8″ diffuser. The first day was a bit rough photo wise. All we initially had to work with was a home garage and by the time we got out to a downtown parking garage later in the day it was really dark, so the background wasn’t usable.  The main issue I didn’t properly compensate for was the sodium vapor lamps the parking garage used, which produces monochromatic light. I also tried gels on my flash, which didn’t have a strong enough orange to match the garage lamps. The parking garage photos were best in monochrome. The garage lighting didn't work out well.  Day two equipment: 28mm f1.8 lens 70-210mm f4 lens Two flash with a stand and large 42″ brolly box softbox umbrella. I also had...

I attended Anime Central 2015 on May 15th and 16th. I have a few general hallway style photos as well as quite a few from photoshoots. Photo links: Facebook Gallery Here are a few highlight images from the convention: I tried to stay pretty mobile camera equipment wise as usual with conventions. I brought the Nikon D600, 50mm f1.8g, and two Yongnuo i-TTL flash with wireless triggers. I used the flash quite a bit, mostly when I had helpers to hold them.  Lightstands would have been helpful, but it’s added bulk I don’t want to carry around. In the future, I’d like the find something even smaller than those mini-lightstands, but so far I don’t see anything on the market that would fit the bill.  I think the photos turned out pretty decent considering the limited equipment and time. I hope everyone who attended ACEN had a fun time.

It’s difficult dealing with a large number of photos. Over the years I have accumulated a lot and I’ve also deleted a lot. Though I’m sure not as much as some people, right now I have around 1.25TB. Before I go into more specific details about my personal quest to get things organized and backed up to some degree, I wanted to mention the main purpose of this article. To get things organized into the most logical format possible, it was difficult finding something that would work, at least on Windows. After some experimentation and searching I wound up using Exiftool . It’s a somewhat simple command line tool that can do batch processing on images and source EXIF data in that process. Other tools I found didn’t work as I had expected, or were a hassle to use. In Windows, you download the standalone EXE from Phil’s Exiftool website , extract the EXE, rename it by removing the (-k), and copying it to the C:\Windows directory for ease of running from the ...

Two friends and I recently attended a gaming tournament that centered around the game StarCraft II . We were only able to attend that Saturday and Sunday, driving all the way from Illinois. StarCraft II is a real-time strategy game that is popular in the professional gaming scene. This is the first gaming tournament I’ve been to and I feel it was worth the trip to try something new and just see what professional gaming is about first hand. A cool event!  This specific event was connected to the company RedBull that are famous for their energy drinks and sponsoring of non-traditional and extreme sports. The event location was well laid out and the live video production team they had was impressive. From a convention photographer’s perspective, I really enjoyed the high production values of the tournament. I also thought that the event staff I had interacted with were friendly, polite, and helpful when I had questions or needed something. Overall, it was a worthwhile experience for m...

I was able to attend Anime Central on the 16th and 17th. Most of my time spent was with private photo sessions, but I did take some hallway cosplay photos when I had free time. Facebook General Gallery Facebook Lolita Fashion Show Gallery Facebook Photo Session Favorites Gallery A few highlight images: I decided to focus on camera equipment and not lighting for this convention. A Nikon D600 with a 28mm f1.8 lens and a D7100 with a 50mm f1.8 lens. I also used a small reflector a small handful of times when I was able.  The vast majority of the photos were taken with totally natural light and edited in Photoshop to my preference. 

Though I’ve used Photoshop in some fashion since the early 2000s, I’m always learning or re-learning things about it. To improve the speed of editing, there are a few things that make a big difference. I’ve been trying to incorporate the keyboard more into the editing process because it does speed up editing a lot. I use Photoshop CS5, so if something doesn’t work for you then there might be a difference in how things are done for your version. Holding the space bar down will allow you to drag around the photo while keeping your current tool. There is an application level setting that you can change to have the scroll-wheel perform zoom and it doesn’t change your current tool selected. I always enable that whenever I need to (re)install Photoshop. The clone stamp tool is my go-to tool for editing cosplay photos. It’s easy to clone out harder to manage spots and areas with this tool compared to the others I’ve used. It takes more effort to use than the other related tools, so I try to u...

I was around Anime Milwaukee on Saturday the 15th for a few hours. I didn’t have plans to attend, but on a whim, I was able to attend with a few friends that had planned on going. Check out the photos below. Facebook gallery As for equipment, I used the D600 and 50mm f1.8 lens exclusively. I had brought along a small wireless flash setup, but didn’t end up using it at all.

I decided to put another one of my books on this website. I wrote this back in 2010 – 2011. I’ve evolved as a (convention/cosplay) photographer a lot since then, but it is still worth a read. Check it out on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4g0A7eC As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases!  I took this photo at Otakon. Description: Learn all about the exciting subculture that is convention photography! Straight from the experiences of a long time convention attendee, He has spent years improving his skills in all aspects of photography and how that relates to the convention scene. From tips and techniques to the best practices of cosplay photography, everything is here for your reading pleasure!  Whether you are interested in conventions in general or want to get into either cosplay or photography, this book is a great fit to help you further your goals or just expand your knowledge on the subject. 

We recently had a moderately sized meetup at a local garden. One of the photographers there also does videography and decided to put together a video featuring all of the photographers at the event.  The videographer is Charles R. and he goes by the handle “Hikikomorisama.” You can see more of his video work here .  EDIT: On the off chance cosplayers or photographers see this... know that you need permission, likely in the form of paid access to the garden. Especially true with a group. Over the years they had issues with this, so please respect the garden and its staff if you consider visiting with the intent of photography.  I was interviewed in the video.  Video created by Hikikomorisama. I’m featured around the 1 minute mark ( direct link to that time here ). Well done! I’ve tried a few convention scene related interviews in the past, but nothing with that level of production quality.  Here is the photographer interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19nHd-NCtlQ