Finished the Graffiti Park photos! That was fast. ^_^ I’ll upload them over the next few days. Thanks to Katherine Wenske for shooting with me and to Anne Gagnon for coming along and making sure I didn’t fall or get tetanus on this shoot. ♥ I can’t wait to go back to this location in the future. As soon as I left I was thinking of more shots I wanted to get.

© 2013 A.L.P Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Sooo this is the first time I’ve attempted making a composite since that one time I had to in high school. So yeah, don’t judge me too harshly. Anywho. Enjoy.

© 2013 A.L.P Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Any use of my photography for commercial purposes and photo-manipulations are strictly prohibited. Reposting is allowed, provided credits and links. If you’d like a photo removed, please speak with me.

Cosplay by Dedlocke Fyre Cosplay.

Stock photo courtesy of http://eirian-stock.deviantart.com/

Third and final round of my photos from Anime Matsuri 2013. All the photos are now up on my FB and Flickr. ALL the cosplay credits can be found on my flickr page. I’m too lazy to put them in right now.

Can’t wait till A-Kon 24. Enjoy!

(facebook.com/Amanda.L.PetersonPhotography & flickr.com/photos/alp_photography/)

© A.L.P Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Any use of my photography for commercial purposes and photo-manipulations are strictly prohibited. Reposting is allowed, provided credits and links. If you’d like a photo removed, please speak with me.

The Misadventures of Ed Martinez: Laments of a Cosplay Photographer

Is it a problem of the age of the internet or is it just a lack of respect? I suspect that later.

distantshutter:

It was first brought to my attention early in the day that a handful of cosplayers post-Anime Matsuri were up in arms in regards to the issue of a photographer’s image gallery of cosplays from the convention, where prints were being sold.  The general consensus of the matter from what I could gather was that people were angry that profits were being made from their hard work and for a moment, I could feel this intense brain pressure as my head exploded.  I’m gonna ramble, but please, try to push through and understand, because it’s a pretty serious subject to me and I’m sure others feel the same.

I’ve been doing photography for a little over six years now, maybe four with the intent to actually improve upon my skills and in this time, I have come to accept that cosplay photographers are one of the most under-rated, often over-looked role in the cosplay community, despite the fact we are the engine that allows you to promote yourselves. We’re casually thrown aside the moment someone else comes along and people deem them superior (whether it be better equipment, better knowledge or a unique editing style), we’re a hotly discarded commodity in a crowd that’s becoming increasingly over saturated.  There’s so many cosplay photographers now, it’s not as easy as it used to be to keep track of names, particularly now, more than ever, now that more commercial, professional photographers are entering into a field many of us had for a long time viewed only as a hobby of passion.

People may see you in a costume at a convention, but we help you sell your identity to the world, because that still shot immortalizes that costume and that location forever.  Let me briefly explain a day of last A-Kon.  I woke up at 6 AM to confirm that my equipment was charged and ready for the day and that everything had been backed up.  By 10 AM, I was in the dealer’s room line for an hour to briefly check it and shop for one or two things I could afford for myself, my special loot of the convention.  The rest of my tightly budgeted allotment would be for food/drinks throughout the day.

By 11, I was in my first photo-shoot.  I had planned one small lunch break for myself, but a friend requested a shoot and happily, I obliged.  I continued shooting photos until 6:45 PM that evening in 90-100 degree, humid, weather.  This had been a non-stop shooting session.  By the end of the convention, I had dehydrated myself to the point that my body was physically shaking at times.  I would have one meal each day (dinner around 8) and would rehydrate during that time.  During this convention, I had three no-shows and one cancellation.

At the previous convention, Oni-Con, sharing the photography area in front of the stage with an unprofessional “media-agent,” a camera lens had taken a dive and lodged itself into the DSLR body.  Unable to afford the 1000 dollar bill on the dated camera (then a 50D), I was forced to follow a YouTube video’s advice and forcibly snapped the 50mm off the camera’s lens mount, destroying the already broken lens.  It was one of the most heartbreaking and dramatic moments of my life.  The camera since then had been temperamental and was prone to having ERROR messages if I leaned too hard on the lens, which completely de-railed one shoot.

In December of last year, I obtained a new camera and a new lens.  This convention prior to the lens damage and camera damage at the time, had promised to promote me on the website and access to one guest (my only request that year was to meet Nobuo Uematsu a few minutes before he performed just to handshake and get a brief photo) and the badge to the convention for free coverage of their entire event.  I had no private sessions that convention and spent one whole day crouching by a stage in main events because nothing was on time.  My knee was shot, I had sake spit on me during the performance (and the next day, evidently) and limped down the street in freezing weather to a crowded hotel room.  I paid my own travel and hotel as well, just for the privilege of contributing to a convention I then, loved.  Many of their promises were empty and never fulfilled.  I had to track down a PR person and put them on the spot to make my one simple request even happen.

I have been quiet for quite some time on my misgivings with some elements of the community.  I need the reader to understand the financial burdens of a cosplay photographer.  To travel from my hometown of El Paso to a central Texas convention, Dallas, for example, there’s a 90 dollar fee from the Greyhound bus ride (traveling in groups sometimes mitigates the cost), which is then followed with a 250-500 dollar hotel bill (assuming I’m alone) plus the cost of food (20 a day is a cheap estimate) and entry into the convention (25-50 bucks).  You’re talking about an estimated 200-400 dollars a convention for an out of town photographer.  It’s easier on local photographers, I’ll admit, but I live in an area with ludicrously small conventions that show no sign of ever growing larger.

My camera was 1,600 dollars.  My flash was 700 dollars.  My lens was another 1600 dollars.  It uses two batteries plus a grip (200 dollars) and memory cards which can range from 80-200 dollars on their own.  I want you to understand that your cosplays each may cost 200 dollars+, but this gear is slowly obtained over many years and will eventually break over time.  I wanted people to understand that our equipment is not comparable to a cheap 100 dollar point and shoot or a hand me down pocket camera. It’s a highly precision, sensitive device that has to be maintained and cleaned, including a delicate sensor and mirror inside.

For far too long, it’s bothered me that people don’t understand the rights that a photographer retains over their property.  I need the reader to understand that our works are scrutinized, subjected to debate, picked apart by other photographers and dismissed by others as not meeting their standards.  The general belief is that if a cosplayer is photographed, they are automatically given rights to that photo to do whatever they would like with and this is simply not the case.  Just because you’re in the photo doesn’t mean you inherently possess rights to it.  We give you those rights for giving us the time, however brief to photograph something we found interest in.  We own those photos, not you, but it’s our generosity that lets you take them for free.

Personally, I and several other photographers post the photos to image sites such as Flickr and Facebook and we invite the cosplayer to use the photo as they would like, provided they credit us.  Cosplayers for the longest time have simply taken these images, scouring the internet for images of their costumes for the personal pages/memories and the common mistake is that we are the same as the casual congoer who isn’t trying to build a reputation with our peers or other cosplayers.  Thousands of images each convention are simply taken by people all over and used for any and all purposes, undocumented, unreported, without attempt to contact the photographer.  It’s an implied freedom of the image and for the most part, most people don’t care, but we’re photographers, not some wayward attendee.  We do care, even a little bit where our images end up and at the minimum would at least like a small amount of credit attached.

I originally hated the idea of watermarking photos, but after finding my images circulating deviant art and other pages without credit, links or any appreciation towards my time, equipment and work, I bit the bullet and began destroying (in my opinion) my photos with watermarks, trying to make them as small as possible to retain the original intent of the image.

Up until this time, I had been completely fine with being the disconnected observer who provided free services while asking for nothing in return.  I know some photographers ask for donations via PayPal, or other things, but I’ve always found the concept to be like begging.  I never ask for money and even if people tried to offer me money for photos, I’d probably push it back at them.  I once was given a cake for my photos and that’s probably the extent of what I’d be willing to accept, mostly because it was made for me and would spoil if I didn’t take it.

But then, I heard about these cosplayers that were up in arms over this photographer possibly making profit from prints.  I was furious and outraged.  From my understanding of the situation, the images were put on in a gallery with a third party site that offers the option to print photos for individuals.  Many photographers outside of the cosplay side utilize these, especially in event-type photography.  The website offers the option to print, but of course, they won’t do this service for free-they have precision equipment as well.  A print company doesn’t utilize in cheap Kodak EzBake Printers that you put some cheap 12 dollar paper into and moments later it inks out a 4x6 or 8x11 print.

These are massive multiplexers with calibrated systems.  They have to pay for bandwidth for the website, the employees, the electricity, the water, etc.  The photographer might make a 3-5 dollar profit, but generally, the company takes almost all of the money.  3-5 dollars go to the photographer (that’s a generous estimate), maybe 7-11 dollars to the company.  The photographers are stiffed so harshly that printing this method is extremely costly.  It’s provided in the event some stray person wants a photo of themselves and saves the photographer a large hassle.  Try selling a print on deviant art and you’ll understand what I mean about getting cut out of the money.

Now, it’s not uncommon for cosplayers to want to support their hobby or lighten the financial burden and often they’ll approach a photographer with the request for rights to sell the photo as prints to fund their hobby and more often than not, a deal is worked out or usually, the cosplayer is given what they want, no strings attached.  These cosplayers turn around and sell prints for 15-25 dollars at the highest end, sometimes 5-10 in a more realistic depiction and these are printed from their home photo printers.  The photographer, once again is usually giving these for free out of respect to the cosplayer, or taking a small share of the profits.

Is the community so greedy and so heartless that they’d mob the photographer with pitchforks for making an attempt at trying to recoop the losses on their thousands of dollars spent in equipment, travel expenses, food, gas, etc? The truth is, they won’t. I saw the site in question and it was a gallery of the entire convention. If it was just one popular cosplayer being exploited, I’d be the first one in your corner (this is what the paparazzi does to celebrities every day). But this was a huge gallery and to me it was aimed with the intent of “If you like my photo of you, feel free to buy it.” There’s an option to download a small resolution image. They knew it was going to be downloaded and shared. They weren’t trying to exploit cosplayers.

It’s truly outrageous and offensive to me that the community would be so cruel to someone who took their time to show up and take their picture.  How selfish. I’m not trying to attack anyone, I’m just asking the community to objectively look at our situations, as well. Part of me feels that even talking about such a thing will generate some ugly backlash for me, but I felt I needed to voice my opinion.

I’ll continue to do what I do for free, because I love cosplayers and the community, even though sometimes, you make my head and my heart hurt, but what I take back from each trip and each encounter is what drives me forward.  I don’t expect fame, I don’t expect piles of cash, but I do expect a little respect and courtesy to myself and others who are doing what they do, probably because they feel exactly the same.  I look forward to seeing everyone at A-Kon and Anime Expo and all the amazing costumes that I know you all will bring and I’ll do my best to capture what I love and respect.

Round 2 of photos from Anime Matsuri 2013.

© .A.L.P. Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Any use of my photography for commercial purposes and photo-manipulations are strictly prohibited. Reposting is allowed, provided credits and links. If you’d like a photo removed, please speak with me.

Cospalyers:

Gaige & Syaoran - Kikala Cosplay (www.facebook.com/kikalacosplays)

Sakura - Pocky Fairy Cosplay (www.facebook.com/PockyFairyCosplay)

Kero/Cerberus - Lily Lighting Cosplay (www.facebook.com/LilyLightingCosplay)

Tomoyo Daidouji - Danielle Dagger Thomas (http://kailana-sama.deviantart.com/)

Dark Phoenix - CAJ Cosplay (www.facebook.com/CAJCosplay)

Black Cat - Amaya De’Morte (www.facebook.com/amayacostumes)

First set of photos from Anime Matsuri 2013.

Cosplayers: Pocky Fairy Cosplay (www.facebook.com/PockyFairyCosplay)

Chibibotan Cosplay (www.facebook.com/ChibibotanCosplay)

Tess Cosplay (www.facebook.com/cos.tess)

Holly Gloha Cosplay (www.facebook.com/HollyGlohaCosplay)

Amaya De’Morte (www.facebook.com/amayacostumes)

More photos to come tomorrow! Be on the look out.

© .A.L.P. Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Any use of my photography for commercial purposes and photo-manipulations are strictly prohibited. Reposting is allowed, provided credits and links. If you’d like a photo removed, please speak with me.

What with Anime Matsuri Convention this weekend and today being Throwback Thursday, here’s a re-edit of a photo of Ms. Yaya Han back at Anime Matsuri 2008!

© .A.L.P. Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Any use of my photography for commercial purposes and photo-manipulations are strictly prohibited. Reposting is allowed, provided credits and links.

Finally finished with all my photos from All-Con Dallas 2013. Thank you to everyone who let me take their photos. I’m surprisingly pleased with how the photos came out consider how upset I felt about them at the convention.

Any use of my photography for commercial purposes and photo-manipulations are strictly prohibited. Reposting is allowed, provided credits and links.

For the full set of photos as well as cosplayer credits please visit my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Amanda.L.PetersonPhotography

That being said, tomorrow’s supposed to be Throwback Thursday but now I have all these before and afters from All-Con. Which would you rather see?

Modeling and cosplay by Holly Gloha (www.facebook.com/HollyGlohaCosplay)

© .A.L.P. Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Any use of my photography for commercial purposes and photo-manipulations are strictly prohibited. Reposting is allowed, provided credits and links.

So it’s a little late but here’s this week’s Throwback Thursday photo. This photo is of Dedlocke Fyre Cosplay from Anime Fest 2010. Not only does Ms. Fyre look amazing, I really love the way I reedited this photo (ie I use Throwback Thursday as an opportunity to re-edit old photos that I love or edited badly in the past). Anyhow, enjoy!

© .A.L.P. Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Any use of my photography for commercial purposes and photo-manipulations are strictly prohibited. Reposting is allowed, provided credits and links.

I always forget about you Tumblr peeps. Sorry!! So here’s something just for you. These are two photos I took back in…. 2008? I tracked down the originals and re-edited them both to my liking. Lately I’ve been doing “throwback thursdays” on my facebook page and I’ve really enjoyed revisiting some old photos that I had no idea how to edit back in the day but I can now edit to my heart’s content. So here are two photos of Ms. Rachel’s Naruto cosplay.

Model: Rachel / imaeletrogirl http://imaelectrogirl.tumblr.com/

Photography: A.L.P Photography https://www.facebook.com/Amanda.L.PetersonPhotography

The Blog That I'll Never Give a Real Title to: More Cosplayers Selling Posters, Please!

burlyadopter:

In the past few years, the number of cosplayers selling posters and prints of their cosplay efforts has ballooned from a very few to very many. This has been met on social media mostly by reactions that range from mildly bemused surprise to outright disgust.

I am here to say that this is one of the best, healthiest trends in society in general we have seen in some time.

Now before anyone thinks that I am championing this trend because I take pictures of cosplayers, let me assure you that no photographer ever makes any money to speak of off cosplayers’ prints or posters. Some photographers get paid a flat fee for a shoot that might get used for such merchandise, but most are friends of the cosplayers who do the shoots out of friendship and for mutual promotion.

No, the reason this is a good thing is that it gives women a path to express their beauty and creativity, in a way that was, until even just a few years ago, solely open in pornography. Before the girl next door started selling pictures of herself in cosplay, the only two ways to make money by being pretty was traditional modeling and porn. Each has a whole slew of problems, and anyone familiar with the modeling industry will tell you it isn’t really any better than the porn industry — at least, for the models.

So, if a woman isn’t twig thin and tree tall, there was the amateur adult industry path available. And yes, I understand that even there, one has a range of what constitutes “adult” modeling. I also understand that the line between artistic nude and adult nude is a very poorly defined one. But frankly, even in the traditional modeling world, most models aren’t interested in taking their clothes off. So, nude, of any stripe, is rare among models in general.

Now nerdy girls can both get recognition for their creativity and their beauty (something that is even more in the eye of the beholder in cosplay than in either modeling or porn) in a way that is very empowering, and make some extra money while doing so.

Try to tell me that this is not a very healthy sign — in a world absolutely flooded with pornography, the fact that nerds and geeks and fans of all kinds are gladly willing to pay for content that is no racier than the Betty Grable posters their granddads had is wonderful. We should do everything we can to support this trend.

Will it result in some drama as some cosplayers with a more traditionally “beautiful” look outpace some of their friends? Sure, but if you can’t be happy for a friend’s success, you need to look up the word “friend” in the dictionary again — and stop at the word “bitch” while you are at it.

And before anyone throws out the completely unfounded, misogynistic horseshit concept of “fake geek girls,’ please refrain from doing so, as it will keep me from having to track down your home address and beat you with a moron stick. That particular piece of bigoted, elitist swill has died as far as I am concerned.

No, let’s forget all that and celebrate the fact that we, the geeks and nerds of the world, are actually making it safer and more accepting for women.

I have to say that the person above makes some really amazing points. And makes me consider this trend in a way that I had not thought of it before. So that’s something to consider. But I have a side.. rant to make. As a cosplay photographer I find this trend ever so slightly… troublesome. Whenever I see a cosplayer selling prints, I wonder if the photographer knows and had given his/her permission. Recently a photograph of mine appeared in a magazine and I wasn’t even asked if I was ok with it. The cosplay/photographer relationship has always been kinda weird and has become even more unbalanced now that there are sooo many new cosplayers and soooo many new photographers. It’s hard because most of the time we are your friends and you’d hope friendship would breed respect… but sometimes it doesn’t. Just because the photograph is of you doesn’t mean you have sole rights to the picture. In the past few months I’ve seen my photography published in places I wasn’t aware of, some photo manipulations, my watermark removed, credits removed and photographs entered in contests that essentially take rights for the photo (the cosplayer gave up the rights for the photo because they didn’t read small print and by doing that they gave up my rights to the photo… I’ve also seen cosplayers give up rights to photographers photos by posting them on a personal website that was hosted through another company and I read the fine print while the cosplayer did not). I love that the cosplay community is booming! I love seeing so many new amazing faces around. But… what with the boom and everyone’s want share and publicize their cosplays it really has me considering possibility of consent forms to protect myself legally and keep cosplayers from coming to me after the fact and denying my rights to a photo I’ve taken. It’s something I’ve thought of for years and when I took my photography class this summer my teacher was insistent I start using them. They’ve always seemed like such a hassle and I do consider most of the people I shoot my friends… But maybe it’s time to start. With the cosplay community becoming so much more professional maybe it’s time for the photographers to become more professional as well. So yeah. Photography rant. What do y’all think? Would you sign consent forms to work with a photographer?

- A.L.P Photography

Well… since I suck at updating my DA account, I decided to just put up a photo set for all y’all on tumblr so you nice people don’t have to wait. So without further adieu, here are some of my favorite photos I took at Ikkicon 2012 in Austin, Tx. Enjoy.

More of my photos from Ikkicon can be seen on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Amanda.L.PetersonPhotography

Do not alter or redistribute. Do not post to photo sharing websites (i.e. photobucket, fickr). If you are pictured in the photo, you may use it for you personal social websites. If you would like a photo taken down, please do not hesitate to speak to me.

Another photo from Ikkicon. I don’t generally do black and whites for cospalyers but this just seemed right. I really love the hard lines in the picture. They make me happy. Enjoy!

Ikkicon 2012 - Spicy Wolf by ~ALP-Photography

Cosplay by Firecloak

The entire Ikkicon set can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alp_photography/collections/72157632449376358/

Do not alter or redistrubute. Do not post to photo sharing websites (i.e. photobucket, fickr). If you are pictured in the photo, you may use it for you personal social websites. If you would like a photo taken down, please do not hesitate to speak to me.

catchans:

Another shot from Ikkicon taken by A.L.P photography.
For more photos of Mami and detailed construction notes visit www.catchancosplay.com

Look at the lovely Catchan. ^_^ I really liked this shot of her.

Camera Nikon D40
ISO 400	Aperture f/4.5
Exposure 1/60th	Focal Length 40mm

Camera Nikon D7000
ISO 200	Aperture f/1.8
Exposure 1/250th	Focal Length 50mm

Camera Nikon D7000
ISO 800	Aperture f/5
Exposure 1/320th	Focal Length 52mm