I’m proud to present our next Gen Con subject for 2024, Mike Burd! Mike brought two cosplays to Gen Con for 2024: the android 2B from Nier Automata and the Viera White Mage from Final Fantasy.
The Supporter
Those who follow Distant Era’s work may recall seeing Mike Burd from our Gen Con 2023 portraits. We came to know Mike last year as one of the kindest and most helpful among three groups of similarly very kind and helpful workshop participants. Mike participated in two of those three 2023 workshops, where Mike supported and encouraged each of the other subjects and complimented their cosplays. This year, as we photographed Mike’s two sessions, every time someone passed by in costume, Mike called out to them, “I love your cosplay!”
This is just to paint a picture of who Mike is and how positive it feels to shoot with Mike. Mike brings out the best in everybody, which makes for a fun, positive environment where we’re free to play while making the best work we can.
Here’s a gallery of Mike hanging out with fellow cosplayers, including last week’s subject Indy in the top left photo from 2023, Brownie from the week before in the top right photo, and then finally a candid shot of Mike during our session, waving at a cosplayer passing by, as Mike called out, “I LOVE YOUR COSPLAY!”
Variety
Earlier in the summer, when Mike Burd told me the cosplays slated for this year’s sessions were improved versions of last year’s characters, I looked back on the 2023 portraits and considered what I might do differently, or better. I still liked what we made last year, so any improvement might be so minimal as to go unnoticed. So, rather than try for some nebulous goal of “better,” I decided to go wider, introducing as much variety I could in our twenty-minute mini sessions so that Mike ended up with something very different from last year, but hopefully equally cool!
2B
Mike’s costume changed a little bit from last year, one of the improvements being the sword, which Mike had forgotten at last year’s session. Earlier in the day, we’d photographed Brownie Knight’s Mystique, first on black (to emphasize the white costume) and then into a bright white umbrella backdrop to blend into it.
Black and White
Mike’s 2B costume was stark black and white, and the contrast really struck me. I wanted to go for contrast with Mike’s 2024 portrait of 2B, so we started on black, to emphasize 2B’s white accents. Then we switched to the white backlight from the umbrella. As with Mystique, these were among my favorites from the session, as the black costume and the white light create such great contrast. Where Brownie’s Mystique blended with the light in a cool way, Mike’s 2B stood stark against it. I think I even threw a haze filter on my lens at some point.
Red All Over
After what felt like a successful experiment, I swapped out the background to white to try for the opposite contrast from the original black background. We did some poses on that background, and then I added a red gel for a whole other kind of contrast.
It’s strange to think we accomplished all of this in a twenty or thirty minute session, but the changes weren’t long in this case. Moving in front of the umbrella took no time. The backgrounds were cloth, easy to swap.
When Mike selected a final portrait for me to do my detailed edit on, it was one of the white ones. I didn’t guarantee compositing on these sessions because compositing takes me forever, but I felt the white was a bit too simple, so I asked Mike for some references from Nier Automata. I put a similar background behind the character and then blended the two by hand, and here we are with an in-world character portrait that didn’t take too long.
Viera White Mage
Mike Burd returned on Saturday with the Viera White Mage character from Final Fantasy, who had some new additions from last year.
With every subject this year, I’ve made sure to photograph the whole costume in a broad, simple light. I love using restricted, specific light, but I remind myself that the subject may want to see all the details of their costume, at least in a few shots. So our sessions usually begin with a handful of photographs against a background. When I’m editing, I usually forget why we did this and kick myself for taking easy shots, but sometimes—as in the case with the Viera White Mage—these come out nicely. Mike’s favorite was one from this early part of the session. I added some overlays and light beams in my final, detailed edit.
As we continued to shoot, we used blue gels behind Mike in order to give the character a contrasting background. Some of my favorite looks came near the end, however, when I went to that super specific lighting I love to use, probably a small beauty dish with a grid attached. I should pay more attention to these things, but I’m improvising as I go, going with what works, and I’m trying to move as fast as I can. I do know that in the midst of these final shots, I captured some that I loved, and I noticed that in my haste, my finger had slipped on a dial that opened the aperture further than what I’d initially intended—but that little tweak was just right for the kind of portrait we made. A happy accident.
Imagination, then Improvisation
It seems appropriate that Distant Era sessions at Gen Con are like any role-playing game campaign I run: there’s a period of careful planning and considerable forethought, notes, and mulling over ideas; then there’s the event itself, in which the plan becomes a suggestion, and the true importance is what works in the moment, with the other people in the space, improvising as best we can to make it the best experience we’re capable of, given whatever parameters are in play.
Shooting with Mike Burd was once again a complete delight, and I am grateful to Mike for reaching out prior to Gen Con this year and booking Distant Era. Without this year’s subjects and their encouragement, Distant Era may not have returned to Gen Con for 2024. I look forward to following Mike’s Burd’s cosplays year after year, as these looks grow and improve and as Mike tries new ones out!
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