Fey Character Portraits from the Gala of Everlasting Change, Part 2

This week, we continue to look at fey character portraits from The Gala of Everlasting Change live action role-play event held in early September, 2022. The session was shot onsite at the event in a small bunkhouse on a campground. The details of the event and the photography setup are summed up in part one, but here’s a brief refresher:

The Gala of Everlasting Change was a live action role-playing game event created by Nathan Pease that occurred in Yorkville, Illinois on September 10–11, 2022. In this event, the fey/faerie courts of autumn, winter, spring, and summer met to engage in politics and tricks and decide who will rule their various courts. The participants play various members of these faerie courts over the course of an afternoon and into the evening, interacting with one another and engaging in meaningful moments of role-play as these characters.

Distant Era photographed portraits for the gala in fifteen-minute mini sessions. Anyone who wished could be photographed and could purchase their portraits after the gala if they wished. These portraits were commissioned by the subjects as their selections from the session.

In our first post, we saw the Harrowhawk the leshy and Eirwin Mirafiel, fey from the courts of autumn and winter respectively. This time, we present a second portrait commission of Brie’s character Eirwin, as well as Gwanwyn, a fey of the spring court created by Coco, and Cladhaire, a shining summer fey created by Meredith.

All three subjects were photographed against the same background, though Gwanwyn (center in the gallery) was photographed with a different, harder light—the familiar, and very specific beauty dish I often find myself drawn to—which focused the light on her face and pushed the rest of the portrait into shadow. In those shadows, we layered in some subtle, painted flowers, like spring coming out of the darkness of winter. Coco crafted an intricate look for Gwanwyn, with color themes of pink, blue, and green—even her eyes are mismatched blue and green if you look close enough. These themes were emphasized in the color toning of the image so that the portrait balances on that (roughly analogous) color harmony.

In the second Eirwin portrait (leftmost in the gallery), she wears the crown of the winter court, as she was appointed the queen of that court at the end of the event. According to Eirwin’s player Brie, Eirwin’s family’s domain is the transition from autumn to winter, so while her first portrait shows her among gently falling snow, the second shows her as the queen of winter, with ice and frost patterns forming around her.

Cladhaire (rightmost in the gallery) is a bubbly summer fey with a penchant for gossip. Editing toward the themes of the characters, as a fey of the summer court Cladhaire’s portrait features warmer tones than the others, especially in the skin tones. Her portrait is brighter than the others as well, suggesting the hopeful brilliance of summer days—perhaps also the enchantment of summer stargazing; highlights glow where light touches skin, and the saturated colors on her face and golden crown conjure thoughts of vibrant flowers and fireworks. The leaf patterns on her dress sparkle in the shower of summer radiance in which she stands.

That’s it for this week’s selection from Distant Era’s portrait work on The Gala of Everlasting Change event. There are a few more yet to come, which we’ll show off in the coming weeks. For now, part two of our gallery of portraits from the event…