Last week, we shared portraits from the second of the Gen Con workshops and discussed expression. Two weeks ago, we introduced the first of the three Distant Era costumed photography posing workshops at Gen Con. Before that, I talked a little about the busy week in Indianapolis running the Distant Era workshops.
Only a few words this week—I’ve been burning the midnight oil every night to get these ready. After a few brief words of explanation, let’s look at some portraits!
The Big Workshop
Saturday is the day of the cosplay parade and contest at Gen Con. Thus, Saturday was the biggest and most popular of the workshops, with nine participants. That’s the comfortable limit for how many we can have and still give everyone time to experiment and play.
Photography and Editing
With nine costumed participants, we needed to keep things moving while ensuring that people still had time to practice and try new things. As usual, I shot directly into the computer so we could see the results as they came in. This way, we can collaborate, stay on the same page, and be certain we have pictures we’re happy with.
As soon as I went home three weeks ago, I started working on the images. After editing nineteen subjects’ portraits in twenty days (twenty-two, counting Elizabeth’s light test portraits), I’ve barely left the house as I strived to get all of them finished before the end of the month. I did get to practice some techniques I learned this year (shout out with gratitude to photographer Chris Koeppen for his lessons on light and haze!). I even learned some things during this mad rush, but those discoveries can wait for another blog I’m a little more awake for. Let’s get to it!
The Cosplays
What a range of costumes we photographed! I’m always astounded by the variety of cosplays and the different fandoms they represent. I’m also surprised, being in a fantasy industry, how many are new to me. Every year, through the cosplay workshops, I become more aware of what’s out there.
I want to emphasize how wonderful the participants were. I’m grateful to each of them for bringing their awesome energy, their patience, their kindness, community spirit, and willingness to play, share, and learn. It was truly a pleasure to work with them and I’m in awe of their inventiveness, talent, and passion.
MIDDLE: Fearne from Critical Role; an original cyberpunk-inspired character called “Hunter-Killer M91”; the Maiden in Black from the Demon’s Souls game.
BOTTOM: A pair of roaming Dungeon Master adventurers with their own mini adventure that you could play on their board; a demon who was also taking the workshop as a photographer.
The MVP
Once again, Elizabeth was the most helpful assistant possible. Even more so for this workshop where everything at Gen Con ran late. Elizabeth was instrumental in filling in latecomers on what had been discussed. I could therefore continue to photograph subjects and keep us on schedule. Here she is in her Nightmist cosplay from the Sentinels of the Multiverse card game.
Alternate Expressions
Here are a selection of alternate takes from the third workshop in which the participants play with some of the other expressions and character actions they developed.
And the Winners Are…
On Saturday night, we ran into our photographer friend from workshop one. On the first day, he told us he’d had some reservations about getting down in front of the parade and taking pictures, but by Saturday night he was able to let go of that fear and had taken some killer images. As he showed us his coverage of the costume contest, we happened to see some participants from workshop three onstage claiming prizes! At the very least, our Waukeen won the Best Professional Costume category and our Fearne won first place in her category (Games in General) as well. Last year, another participant from our workshop won second place in the overall contest and first place for her category (Critical Role). I’m honored to have had the opportunity to photograph such exquisitely costumed stars!
Thus concludes our three features on the three costumed posing workshops for Gen Con 2023!
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