Recent Katsucon anime conventions have been taking place in the Gaylord hotel in National Harbor, a dream location for cosplayers and photographers alike. Beautiful lighting, garden setting, and plenty of indoor temperature controlled space all make cosplay photo shoots possible in middle of freezing February.
I was not mentally prepared to take photos. It took at least 30min of gawking before I remembered to take out my camera. Please contact me if you want a link to your site/cosplay profile!
Classic
I spent most of the time gawking at the Sailor Moon shoot. I should have taken more photos of the various sailor scouts but you can probably find them online. Sailor Mercury was one of the best and totally in character as a shy, bookish girl (someone even lent her a book to pose with). and the Sailor Moon / Tuxedo masks were just very sweet. I like the classic Sailor Moon pose with the crossed arms below. Link to new Sailor Moon series here: http://www.crunchyroll.com/sailor-moon-crystal
Game Fun
Vincent was a bit out of character but managed to organize some fun photoshoots for Final Fantasy series, including this can can dance number.
2014 Favorite Series
Two of my favorite recent anime series are RWBY and Yowapeda (crunchyroll stream). I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of people who showed up for the Yowapeda photo shoot (including someone with a full bike too). It felt like we were in the middle of Interhigh competition. Who knew that all the three top teams were so popular as cosplay characters too!
Love the detail on the scythe and the bad-ass attitude too.
Maki-chan smiled for his pose and handed me a business card. Follow them here: https://www.facebook.com/ShimapanCosplay
DC Universe
Not everything has to be Japanese anime related. Check out this group of batman universe! The lighting is a bit off because it was getting darker outside.
Go Go Gadget
Inspector Gadget outfit was genius. I remember liking the live action movie when it came out in theaters (long long time ago). I wish I didn’t cut his leg off by accident in the pic. It was a bit crowded in that space so I must have just aimed without checking for accidental cropping.
I did not get the name of this anime with incredible detail on the armor. The facial expressions and the pose look really fitting too (even though I’ve never seen the show). I have to find someone to ID this anime!
Misc Tips
I liked the idea of handing out business card with contact info to photographers. Hey, it helped me figure out where to send a photo. The other way is to post photos and ask on forum, which may take a while to ID.
I couldn’t find tips on how people get organized for those group shoots, but I marveled at the fact every group had a very good leader who made sure people got organized and also had fun. The Sailor Moon one was super coordinated, with people doing different outfits of some of the scouts. So when you called for “Sailor Mars” grouping, there were cosplayers dressed as Mars in different uniforms, casual wear, formal wear, and sailor outfits. I wish I took a pic of the Doom Tree duo (demon form with face paint and colorful hair).
The final fantasy group put together many situational photo shoots: Aeris sleeping among flowers with Cloud looking on, Emo looking Cloud/Zachs, dudes flexing muscles, can can group dance, etc. They definitely had a lot of fun being in character and out of character.
In Action
I searched for some katsucon videos and thought I’d share a few of my favorites. There is something more real about videos because it captures cosplayers in action. Hm maybe something to try next time.
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