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EminenceRain

Cosplay Photographer, Cosplayer
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Cosplayer | Photographer | Gamer | Artist


Welcome to my dA page. I don't update this page much, most of my work goes onto my new Facebook page. Please go over there and give it a like to follow my work.




Journal Entry:


My photos are up from Anime Expo. It's on my Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/media/set/?se…



There's over 400 photos of some really good cosplays. I don't know all of the cosplayers so please feel free to tag them!


End Journal Entry



2015 Conventions

Katsucon 21
PAX East 2015
AnimeBoston 2015
Sakura Matsuri (NYC) 2015
Fanime 2015
Anime Expo 2015
Otakon 2015
BlizzCon 2015
Another Anime Con 2015 (Maybe)
AnimeUSA 2015 (Maybe)





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Cosplayer | Photographer | Gamer | Artist


Welcome to my dA page. I don't update this page much, most of my work goes onto my new Facebook page. Please go over there and give it a like to follow my work.




Journal Entry:


I made a new Fanpage over on facebook. I've been posting the latest works over there. Please come over and check it out. I'm still keeping my dA page but will post to it infrequently.

End Journal Entry



2015 Conventions

Katsucon 21
PAX East 2015
AnimeBoston 2015
Sakura Matsuri (NYC) 2015
Fanime 2015
Anime Expo 2015
Otakon 2015
BlizzCon 2015
Another Anime Con 2015 (Maybe)
AnimeUSA 2015 (Maybe)





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Cosplayer | Photographer | Gamer | Artist


Welcome to my dA page. I don't update this page much, most of my work goes onto my new Facebook page. Please go over there and give it a like to follow my work.




Journal Entry:


KATSUCON 20, FEBRUARY 13TH - 16TH, 2014   The Great Snow Con

Katuscon 20 Photo Gallery

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the long long delay in posting an update. My birthday is coming up shortly (depending what time zone you're in), but I wanted to put up my con report on my favorite convention of the year I always look  forward to : Katsucon! Held in Washington DC area. Also I'll post a quick synopsis of the other cons I went to at the end of 2013 but didn't get around to posting an update about.

As most attendees know, this year there was a major snow storm that blew through the Mid-Atlantic area of the US which caused alot of flight cancellations, delays in travels, or completely canceled trips. I normally fly out to Katsucon every year from Boston, MA but this year I decided to go by car since there is no way I would fit my Warring Kingdom's Xin Zhao  costume into a  suitcase. 

(BTW, here's a WIP photo from prior to the con, I am still working on the spear for AnimeBoston and Pax East)

I left early Thursday  morning around or before 9AM. It was snowing out but only light flurries, it didn't seem so bad at first for the first hour of the drive, but once I got into Connecticut that's when it really got bad. The snow was accumulating quite a bit on the road and started to fall heavily in large clumps. I rarely saw any plow trucks on the Connecticut highways as I did in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The road condition was quite treacherous but as a New England native, driving in snow was something I was accustomed to and my car was up to the task. However, I saw many vehicles plowed into snowbanks on the side of the road, probably lost control. What astonished me was how some people were so wreckless, speeding along at high speeds in these conditions. They were endangering other people (I almost got side swiped by a truck speeding pass me) by taking such risks. Also there were people who drove almost up to other car's bumpers which was just asking to rear end someone (6 inches of slush on the road = sliding to stop, dur). I was confident in my driving but had to constantly watch out for other people's thoughtlessness. After getting out of Connecticut, I started seeing clearer roads in New York and New Jersey (I guess all those tolls I pay does pay to keep the roads clear!), however I hit many potholes on the highway, and they were HUGE potholes. From New Jersey to Maryland, it was a pretty fast drive as I was going up to 70-80 MPH. Getting closer to Washington DC however the roads were built up with slush again and then as it started getting darker, snow started falling again. After 10 hours of driving I finally made it to Katsucon! There were a few freaky moments driving as I carefully kept the car in control through the piles of snow on the highway making it a memorable drive lol ;)

The shoots I had scheduled for Thurday had to be canceled due to the storm, so I walked around taking photos, chilling out and greeted friends that made it on Thursday. Fortunately, the majority of people I know made it safely. I got to meet BGZ Studios, an excellent photographer whos cosplay photography I follow. He has some really nice photography equipment!

On Friday, I had an early morning shoot with my friend Xelhestiel in her Thranduil costume from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug movie. There were alot of good photos for me to use, which I'll post up one onto my gallery soon:



Afterwards I got into my own costume, Warring Kingdoms Xin Zhao, from League of Legends: 


I spent most of the day greeting most of my friends and fans, answering questions about armor constructions, working with worbla, and catching up on old times. Kamui was a guest at Katsucon and I got to speak to her briefly, she complimented on my armor work and I complimented her on  hers. Later  I was asked to be filmed by MLZ Studios / Cosplay Videographers and Beatdown Boogie's videography:





It was an honor to work with such talented videographers! I hope to create costumes worthy of their videography work in the future. I spent the rest of the night chilling out with fellow League of Legends cosplayers talking about our love and hate of League. 

On Saturday, I had a quick shoot with Andrea of her Anna cosplay from Frozen. Afterwards I got into Xin Zhao for the group gathering and then checked out my friends League cosplays, they were also very amazing to see in person. This year I decided not to attend WCS and Masquerade, instead I just wanted to socialize so walked around alot and hung around with old friends and new friends just derping around for fun. I was quite happy getting to see everyone again after a few months without a con to go to. There were a few people I didn't get to see but I hope to see them at their next con to chat, hangout, and catchup with shinnanigans.  There were a huge number of great cosplays I saw but didn't had my camera with me (operating a camera in armor is not practical). It was another great Katsucon this year and glad I made the long drive through the snow for.

Sunday morning I spent most of it packing up, but I learn I should of packed up last night and put things into my car in the morning as I forgot how backed up the elevators get on Sundays. On top of that the elevators in the garage broke down, only one of the group of elevators work which meant a large group of people trying to funnel into 2 elevators. There were many unhappy congoers but everyone was cordial and politely prioritized people who needed the elevators to go in first. After making 2 trips to my car, I whipped out my camera and started grabbing as many hallshots of cosplayers as I can before going home. I couldn't leave emptyhanded without photos!

My friend Laurel of Enchanted Cupcake Cosplay: 


Loved this one, I'm an Avatar fan XD


I thought this was GORGEOUS:


I got a shot of Kamui:




Anime USA, September 13th - 15th, 2013

AnimeUSA 2013 Photo Gallery

This is a smaller con set in downtown area of Washington DC. The location is beautiful, very scenic for alot of photography. It was smaller this year in attendance, I'd image due to the fact it is set in September right after DragonCon. Traditionally AnimeUSA is set in the early or mid November period, normally the last con of the year for me. I brought my Commander Heathcliff cosplay, complete with Holy sword and shield. I also did a couple of photoshoots. 

Knights of the Blood by EminenceRain

Photoshoot with Morgan in her Luna costume from Sailor Moon:
Luna, Sailor Moon by EminenceRain

Photoshoot with Becky as Luka, Sandplay | Singing of the Dragon:




Another Anime Convention, October 18th - 20th, 2013

I didn't cosplay at all for this con, it was a small convention near me but I was surprised how quickly it was booked out. It may have to move to a larger venue soon if its growing that fast. I went to this convention entirely as a photographer, bringing all my photography  equipment. I didn't do any hallshots, this was more of a hangout con rather than a cosplay con as it currently is but may evolve in the future. Here are some photoshoot work:

My friend Laurel, Enchanted Cupcake Cosplay


Megan and Casrissa as Panty & Stocking:


Emma as Rabi En Rose:


That sums up this journal entry. Next con is AnimeBoston. I'll see all my friends and fellow cosplayers there!

End Journal Entry



2015 Conventions

Katsucon 21
PAX East 2015
AnimeBoston 2015
Sakura Matsuri (NYC) 2015
Fanime 2015
Anime Expo 2015
Otakon 2015
BlizzCon 2015
Another Anime Con 2015 (Maybe)
AnimeUSA 2015 (Maybe)





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Cosplayer | Photographer | Gamer | Artist


Welcome to my dA page. I don't update this page much, most of my work goes onto my new Facebook page. Please go over there and give it a like to follow my work.




Journal Entry:


I finally wrapped up all my photography work for Otakon 2013, the albums for the hall photography of various cosplayers is up as well as my cosplay photoshoot album:




Overall it was a good con, I didn't get to enjoy most of it with my friends due to my busy schedule. But I did run into  a number of my friends and got to talk for a while as well as  work with my friends on their photoshoots. I had scheduled 8 shoots for the convention, out of which 6 was done. Two had to be involuntarily canceled due to snaffus. 


Thursday:

My flight left out of Boston in the afternoon, while waiting for my flight I had the pleasure of meeting one of my friends and chatted for a while. It's pretty cool how many cosplayers I meet at the airport waiting to get on their flight, sometime I even find out they're from my area too to my surprise. I arrived in the middle of the afternoon in Baltimore and got a cab to my hotel by the convention center. After cooling off, I ran off  to line up to get my badge in the pre-registration line, it was surprisingly shorter than expected and was inside the building. It turns out to be a good idea because heavy rain and thunderstorms hit the area suddenly with a massive downpour. After getting my badge, I ran into some friends in my hotel and chatted for a short bit then I went about to see if I can find a nearby store that sells umbrellas. I needed to get my photography gear to my first scheduled  shoot but couldn't do so in so much rain. Fortunately the rain stopped and I grabbed my gear  from my hotel and headed over a hotel a few blocks away where the cosplay models were waiting. After cutting half way through the convention center I was told by the staff that I couldn't do that and was directed all the way back to the entrance which then I took the long way about to  get the shoot location. Fortunately I made it with enough time to take some shots. To my surprise a photographer friend, Ken, was the other photographer taking photos. His photo, from my understanding, had gone viral from the shoot! 

Photo of Sunsetdragon in her Rainbow Dash Galla cosplay from the shoot.

I was unable to finish the shoot as the hotel staff asked us to stop oddly enough. So we wrapped it up (I was told that the next day the hotel didn't had a problem  with any other photoshoots). I ran  into more friends as I head to my next shoot and briefly greeted and chatted with them. Unfortunately due to scheduling snaffus my next shoot was not able to make it. So I got something to eat and prepared for the start of the convention  the next day.

Friday: 

I woke up and got my photography equipment ready, I had the opportunity to do a shoot with 2 cosplayers I admire greatly, Nobody & Nobody. They were cosplaying as Irisviel  and Saber from Fate / Zero, one of my favorite anime (I plan  to Sir Lancelot sometime in 2014). They were a joy to photograph and joke around with and are highly photogenic. It did turn out another photographer (actually 2)  had already used the location  I was using so I had to change my original plan and use different backdrops and lighting styles to make sure our photos are distinct and different. Quite a number came out well, although I think next I'll try a few new ideas as well. I look forward to working with the two beautiful sisters again.



In the afternoon I got into my Naraku cosplay I had been working on for about a month. Everything went well until I put on the back bone structure and moved around the hotel room. Needless to say there was much smacking things and not fitting through the door and halls easily. A couple things broke as a result so I unmounted the back bone structure and just went with just the armor. I had not 100% completed the cosplay and rushed through a few pieces, but I hope to get all of it done for AUSA.


Random hall shot of me in my Naraku with some Pepsi 

I walked around the convention space meeting up with friends and chatting with them for awhile and also getting photos of me taken. In the evening I went back to my room to have some dinner then prepped my photography equipment, which is just cleaning lenses and recharging batteries. I had a night shoot scheduled with my friend DanielleBeaulieu in her female Taric cosplay, from League of Legends. I enjoy nightshoots and lowlight photoshoots because of the control I have over the lighting, there was a lighting style I had in mind for a few months that I wanted to do with Danielle but never had the opportunity to do til now. It was quite hot out but fortunately she was willing to bear with it for the shoot. Quite a number of the photos came out spectacularly. I can only imagine how many people will now try to copy this style for  their cosplay photography ;)



That ended the night and I retired to my room, recharged the batteries for tomorrow's busy shoot schedule. I didn't get any hall photos from Friday as being in armored cosplay makes holding a camera and light units difficult and potentially damaging to my cosplay. Also wearing makeup tends to get it smeared onto my camera.

Saturday:

Originally I was going to wear my Prince Dimande cosplay I brought but after considering how busy my shoot schedule was and how hot it was outside, I decided to hold off on that. 

My first shoot was with my friend Nobody as Mikasa from Attack on Titan. It was an outdoor shoot, the lighting was diffused from the clouds and I didn't bring any screens or reflectors  to the convention to modify the lighting. The photos came out alright, I wasn't satisfied with them but little could be done about the circumstances.

My next shoot unfortunately didn't make it due to miscommunication. So my Saturday morning started quite poorly and was putting me in a negative mood. I almost wanted to  just stop and just chill out for a while but needed to stick with the schedule I agreed upon with everyone and do my best to honor that agreement. I know I would regret it later if I broke an agreement.

The afternoon shoot I had ran into a bit of a delay and I was starting to think my Saturday was just going to be terrible with everything going wrong, but fortunately things worked out and I was able to do a one hour shoot with NintendoFanGirl


I played around with painting the scene with lighting some more in this shoot and the results were quite pleasing.  This shoot came out quite good and I was happy with the results as  well as the cosplayer.

Afterward I had to rush to my next shoot  as I was  about 10 minutes late. My cosplay model was Spectra Cosplay fortunately he was able to wait and we did a shoot on the balcony area of a hotel to get a cityscape background in the shots. It was pretty good experience,  I did't do many cityscape shots before and learned abit about editing skyline and cloudscapes. It's something that I  will be interested in exploring to add to my photography skills and techniques. 

With my photoshoots finished up and feeling better about my Saturday, I went back to my room and rested. Completely exhausted! The Masquerade  was going to start soon so I grabbed my camera, flash unit, and telephoto lens and  headed out. Surprisingly the masquerade crowd was probably half the size it was last year. There had been talk about how the Otakon  skits had been dropping in quality, I wonder if that was the reason why there were fewer people going this year. I sat out  about 100m from the stage and configured my unit to use the infrare beam to assist focus. There were probably more dance skits at Otakon than any  previous years, the one that blew everyone out of the water is likely the Voltron dance skit where all sorts of break dancing was being performed. There was also some cosplayers who were spinners as well including a levi-wand and a hula-hoop performance. I left after the skits were done to get some hallshots of cosplayers at the convention hall.

Sunday was pretty much dedicated to hall photography and chatting with my friends before they leave. 

Notable cosplays :

Chocalina from Final Fantasy XIII-2. I had never seen anyone do this cosplay!


Not sure who the character is but he was with a Fire Emblem group so I'm assuming its from that series. His armor work looked flawless, he informed me that it was all made from foam too.

There was an AMAZING Songbird from Bioshock Infinite on Friday that I unfortunately didn't get to photograph.

All in all another good Otakon with good all around cosplays. Fortunately this year it wasn't over 100 degrees Fahrenheit as it had been in the past but it did get cloudy and wet quite a bit. I did wish I get to hang out with more of my friends though.

Current AnimeUSA plan is to cosplay Naraku after I redo some of the armor and back structure, and do a Knights of the Blood group cosplay from Sword Art Online with some friends. I'll see you guys at AUSA for those that are attending!




End Journal Entry



2015 Conventions

Katsucon 21
PAX East 2015
AnimeBoston 2015
Sakura Matsuri (NYC) 2015
Fanime 2015
Anime Expo 2015
Otakon 2015
BlizzCon 2015
Another Anime Con 2015 (Maybe)
AnimeUSA 2015 (Maybe)





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Cosplayer | Photographer | Gamer | Artist


Welcome to my dA page. I don't update this page much, most of my work goes onto my new Facebook page. Please go over there and give it a like to follow my work.




Journal Entry:


ANIMENEXT 2013 REPORT

June 7th - 9th, 2013

This years AnimeNEXT was surprisingly better than last year. Given the mismanagement by the organizers last year, I suppose anything would be an improvement but almost everything went more smoothly than usual. Also there were a surprisingly good number of cosplays for a con of this size. Many cosplayers and attendees braved the tropical storm and torrential rain to participate in the festivities. 

I arrived around noon after about 5-6 hour drive to Somerset NJ, through quite a bit of rain and wet weather. The hotel was filled with many attendees and cosplayers hanging out waiting for their friends or taking shelter  from the rain. Needless to say, many Friday photoshoots were ruined for many people due to the bad weather. This con, I only brought my new Prince Dimande cosplay I had finished and originally intended to make for Fanime. Commander Heathcliff wasn't packed because of the bad weather and my schedule was too tight to do photoshoots and change in and out of it. It wouldn't be worth the hassle to get into the armor and walk around for an hour  or so then get back out to  prepare my photography gear to do shoots.

My first shoot was with RAWRenu in her Burlesque Sailor Jupitor. She is part of AnimeNEXT's Burlesque troop and part of their show Friday night. We found some nice furniture in a hotel as spot for us to do our photoshoot. I liked many of the photos that came out of it, although shooting indoor under low-light does give my camera some auto focusing trouble which I hope to  remedy when I upgrade  to the Pentax K-5 IIs.


Afterwards I went to grab my badge, fortunately the line was non-existent and got my badge immediately. Then I ran around quite a bit to get some hallshots of cosplayers  that braved the weather to get here on Friday.

My next shoot that evening unfortunately was canceled due to scheduling conflict. It was difficult to find a good spot to  shoot by that time as everyone was packed inside and there wasn't really any good space to shoot. One of these days I'm going to have to borrow people's hotel room in this kind of situation.  Anyways, that gave me the opportunity to get more photos of cosplayers in the con.

Saturday, I had a full schedule and I got into Prince Dimande. It was quite well  received by many fellow Sailor Moon cosplayers and fan. Although I need to restyle the wig as I didn't like how it looked over when I wore it. Thats what I get for last minute wig styling and not checking how it looks before the con. My first shoot was with my friend and fellow cosplay photographer,EnchantedCupcake, in her Princess Serenity cosplay. Because of the storm the night before, the sky was still cloudy thus providing us with alot of overhead diffused lighting. Diffused lighting is wanted but because it was overhead it casted unflattering shadows across the face. So I had her tilt her head up into the sky alot of shots to counter it, much to her discomfort. I also use some white reflectors, the effectiveness of which was decreased without direct light. I decline to use my flash units because I would had to decrease my shutter speed and raise my f/stop but in the future with a new camera and ND filters that would be more of an option (although I do dislike the flattening effect of direct fill flash). Anyways, there were some good shots that I was able to edit into rather great  photos.



I was planning to get more shots indoor and somewhere cooler but the heat was starting to get to me and she had to meet up with some friends. So we ended our shoot there. 

Afterwards I had the opportunity to shoot with my good friend, Xelhestiel, who's perfection in cosplay I admire (also she has a lovely singing voice). She was in her fabulous Michiru (Sailor Neptune) swimsuit cosplay. To say she look gorgeous in it would be an understatement. The photos will tell how great she look. We got to do a poolside shoot and I setup my equipment for some soft light to be bounced into the shot. The results were quite stellar after the edits were done.



Lastly, I then had a shoot with friend, Lomelindi88, in her Ping from Mulan cosplay. I had some extra time and scouted some good locations for our shoot outdoor. The armor was perfect for some cool action oriented poses. Also she brought a Mushu plushie which made an excellent prop. Bringing props to a photoshoot makes the shoot alot more dynamic given us more options to try.



When we finished I headed off to check on the Masquerade line to see if it started yet (one of these days I really need to try to get a  press pass to cons so I dont have to wait in line and get a good spot to shoot from). It turns out it was in the process of starting, so I ran around for a bit to take more photos of cosplayers before returning to get in line. This year line organization was alot better than last year which was non existent. It was clear that this year they did not intend to repeat the same mistake as last year as there were quite a number of staff on hand organizing the front and back of the line. The also appear to be communicating with each other and the attendees which was something noticeably absent last year. After a delay we were able to get into the Masquerade (I don't think I've ever been to a con where the Masquerade started on time). The MC were the same as in previous AnimeNEXT, although my friend didn't get to co-MC this year despite doing a great job last year. AnimeNEXT has a distinction in my memory as the con with the most dance skits. Again this year there were quite a number of skits involving dance or dance battles, maybe its a NYC/NJ thing? In any case they were still entertaining to watch. During Fanime's Masquerade some of my shots couldn't focus in low theatre light at long distances, so I decided for this con that I would try out my new Metz flash unit's spot beam function  as a focus assist using its Infrared beam. I was quite please with how many shots were easily in focus that I may try this other lowlight situation for focusing. One of the things that surprised me was how supportive and pleasant the audience was as this years masquerade compared to the previous. People actually stayed all the way up til the end for the award announcements. Typically I'm use to the vast majority of the seats being empty after the last skit was performed. I wonder what was so different about this year? 

After the Masquerade I got some dinner and prepared for my next shoot but had  to cancel because it was getting very late  due to the delay with the starting of the Masquerade. So I got read for the AnimeNEXT Dance (rave). One of the things I enjoy to do at the con is go to the con rave and break  out my LED poi and do some spinning.  Many of the larger cons over the years have banned that due to potential physical  harm it may cause to by stander. Its understandable given that I have witness some newbies with poi almost hitting people and people not paying attention and walking into spinners who would normally be a safe distance away. Fortunately AnimeNEXT still allows poi spinning and glowstick stringing and it is one of the reasons I still go to this con.

Sunday I packed and took more hallshots. My shoots scheduled for the day  was also canceled. I spent a few hours getting more photos before heading home, I had no intention of spending anymore time outdoor and getting a tan or sunburn. I really like having light skin ;) I'll probably be back year if my budget allows me after Fanime.


End Journal Entry



2015 Conventions

Katsucon 21
PAX East 2015
AnimeBoston 2015
Sakura Matsuri (NYC) 2015
Fanime 2015
Anime Expo 2015
Otakon 2015
BlizzCon 2015
Another Anime Con 2015 (Maybe)
AnimeUSA 2015 (Maybe)





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Featured

Devious Journal Entry by EminenceRain, journal

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