Blue Valley Vineyard Shoot (Part 2)

For the January D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots meetup at Blue Valley Vineyard, I decided to wear my 1780s maroon round gown. It is one of my favorite dresses that I have made, but I had not worn it out to an event in a while.

I accessorized with a silk cap from Fashions Revisited, a black beaded necklace that I made (a similar one is available in my Etsy shop), a vintage brooch that used to belong to Mike’s grandmother, and shoes from American Duchess.

There were a lot of photographers relative to cosplayers at the event, which meant I worked with a somewhat larger number of people than normal. I was super impressed with all of the beautiful photos people produced.

I started out working with Alicyn. She took advantage of the soft light available in the main room of the vineyard building.

Blue Valley Vineyard Shoot (Part 1)

Mike and I were excited to be able to attend the January D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots meetup at Blue Valley Vineyard. It is a pretty winery in northern Virginia with a number of different places inside and outside to shoot.

It was a blustery, cold winter day, so Mike opted to stay inside and shoot with a speedlight. I went as a cosplayer. I will share his photos of other cosplayers in this post, and follow up with pictures of me in the next post. There were a lot of photographers relative to cosplayers that day, so Mike only ended up working with four people, including me.

Here is a group shot by Tony Kazmierski.

The first person Mike worked with was Sierra in her Flapper Jasmine costume. She had some lovely details on her cosplay that worked well with grey and blue tones.

Photo Shoots at MAGFest 2020

We did six shoots over the three days of MAGFest that we attended. Each one was a little different, which presented some interesting challenges and learning experiences.

On Thursday we shot with Sara in her Mario Kart Princess Peach costume.

We started out with a setup using a pink background light, projected onto a cream wall next to some escalators. (I posted a photo of the tiny space we were working in two posts back.)

My Costumes at MAGFest 2020

I decided to go with a theme for my MAGFest costumes this year: Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain. They are two characters from the Batman universe who were best friends in the pre-New 52 continuity. Right now I have two cosplays of Stephanie Brown’s costumes and one of Cassandra Cain’s. I am hoping to make a couple more at some point (namely, Stephanie’s version of Batgirl and Cassandra’s Black Bat).

On Thursday I debuted my new Spoiler costume, which I had finished in December. I think it is a really cool look, with the purple and black. However, with the full face mask it is a bit hard to wear at a con. The visibility is not great, and the mask gets warm. Nevertheless, I was still happy with the result, and I like the photos we got.

We started with some “standard” photos in front of a stone wall inside. This wall is very popular with photographers at MAGFest and Katsucon, but on a Thursday it was not that busy.

MAGFest 2020

Our first con of 2020 was MAGFest, which kicked off the year on January 2nd. We went for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (saving Sunday for rest and recovery). We did not have a large group that we were attending with, but we ran into plenty of friends throughout the weekend. The days were full of photo shoots, playing board games, socializing, and shopping.

Thursday was a relatively quiet day. I wore my new Spoiler costume (more on that in my next post), we did one shoot with a friend (I will share photos from our formal shoots in a future post), and we played a couple games with our friend Dimitry.

A selfie with Sara right after we finished our shoot on Thursday. It was warm enough to do photos outside!

Woodlawn Mansion Shoot 2019 (Part 2)

Following up on our last post, here are the photos that Mike took and I edited of other cosplayers at the December D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots meetup at Woodlawn Mansion. There were fewer photographers than cosplayers at the shoot, so Mike worked with twelve people (not including me). That was a lot of edits to do, but I like the results!

Marianne as Unseelie Mrs. Claus

Woodlawn Mansion Shoot 2019 (Part 1)

Last December, D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots hosted a meetup at Woodlawn Mansion, which is an historic house museum in northern Virginia. The land was originally part of Mount Vernon, and was given by George Washington to Lawrence Lewis, Washington’s nephew, and to Eleanor Parke Custis, who was married to Lewis. The couple built a Federal-era house on the property. The plantation was later sold to Quakers who made a point of running the farm with free labor in the years before the Civil War.

Given the time period of the house, I knew I had to wear an early 19th century costume. Plus, since the shoot took place only a couple weeks before Christmas, I decided to aim for red and green colors in my ensemble. The result was a fun, “Christmas Regency” look.

My bonnet is by 1800s Millinery Shop, my reticule and chemisette are by Very Victorian, and my shoes are by American Duchess. I made my earrings (available in my Etsy shop here), my dress, and my spencer.

Here are some photos that Mike took of me, and I edited.

PAX Unplugged 2019

Last December, Mike and I went to the third annual PAX Unplugged convention in Philadelphia. It is a fun con focused entirely on tabletop games, such as board games or Dungeons & Dragons, as opposed to video or computer games. It is not a cosplay-focused con, although this past year there were more folks wearing costumes based on various RPG series, such as The Adventure Zone or Critical Role. But the overall number of cosplayers is pretty small.

I went with very simple costumes for Friday and Saturday (and opted for street clothes on Sunday). On Friday, I wore a casual Mulan-inspired outfit. Mike and I did just a few quick photos in the upstairs lobby of our hotel, rather than lug photography equipment into the convention center.

Shoot with Rey Dot Ham Cosplay

Our friend Amelia of Rey Dot Ham cosplay moved out of the DC area recently (*cue sadness*). However, before she left, she reached out to us to ask if we would do a photo shoot with her, and we were super happy to oblige! She brought two costumes, Jean Grey/Phoenix and Starbucks Mermaid. We took the opportunity to experiment with gobos combined with colored lights, which created some cool effects.

Wagner House Weekend (Part 2)

In my last post, I shared photos that Mike and I took in shoots we had scheduled during our friend Vanessa’s event at Lakewold Gardens. On Saturday night, Vanessa organized a lovely dinner to close out the weekend. She arranged for a delicious buffet, live music, and plenty of time for conversation and card playing.

Mike and I did not do formal shoots during the dinner, because we did not want to spend the evening working. But we agreed to take a group photo before dinner and some quick shots afterwards. We did the latter photos in the front hall, which was pretty small and dark. We were able to compensate by setting up one speedlight and aiming it at the low, white ceiling. That worked as a nice bounce.

We looked like a fabulous rainbow!