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I will be offering Turbo Shoots Saturday 2/18/2017 at the following times and locations (Click this text for more information on how Turbo Shoots work)
Katsucon: Saturday 2/18
Katsucon: Sunday 2/19
Starting at the Gazebo follow the red arrow on the map to find me and bring your friends! Free to shoot and purchase only the images you want (click for more information and to register for text updates)
Katsucon Day 1 Sample Gallery
I recently got to shoot this amazing Gilgamesh cosplay from my friend Shadow Drive Cosplay (https://www.facebook.com/shadowdrivecosplay) while at Matsuricon 2016. I met Rogue at Colossalcon this past year and we had a great time shooting there, so I was excited to see what he was bringing when he contacted me to book a shoot at Matsuricon. Admittedly, I am not familiar with Fate/Zero, but when we looked up reference images I knew my lighting style would really work well for what he wanted. I did some test shoots for some particular effects before the con and when it came time to shoot I was ready to roll! I think we really got a great feel for the character in our shots and (as always) it was great to shoot with Rogue again. Check out his page, send him some love and tell him The Portrait Dude sent you!
I got to shoot and hang out with the always amazing Wreck It Ronnie at Matsuricon this year and we rocked a quick ten minute session with her Korra. Ronnie always does fantastic work and this time was no exception - she even brought some cool material and spun it to give a waterbending effect in real life! I love when the cosplayer goes the extra mile with their vision, and it really inspires me to do the same with the images we create. Check below for her "You Shot That Where?!" session where I show:
My vlog from Rocky Mt. Con is up over on my Youtube channel! This is the first of many vlogs as I go to conventions and shoots so keep an eye out for lots of new content coming from them!
A few months ago my good friend Jessica contacted me and discussed the idea of me coming to the Ohio Renaissance Festival with her group to get pictures of their D&D characters (which they made costumes of) with the castles and people and overall feel of the festival. I had done this last year with Brittani Ginoza as her female Captain Hook and it turned out awesome! That time I went solo, but this time I was able to bring my wife along. I had only been to one Renaissance festival the previous year, and she had never been so we were both pretty excited about the opportunity.
We made it to the grounds without incident and got to look around a bit while the rest of our party got there and grouped up. I will say the bathrooms this year were greatly improved over last year (the wife was impressed!). Silly side not (BUT IMPORTANT!). We purchased a flower wreathe for her at one of the vendors, got the group together and started to wander around, keeping an eye out for cool spots to shoot later on in the day when the sun wasn't directly overhead (HORRIBLE lighting to shoot in). We looked at quite a few of the shops, bought some food (dear lord the turkey legs are everything I thought they'd be!) and found a cool spot to start snapping pics that was in the shade and out of the way.
I have gotten used to the curious stares over the last three years of doing this as I get my lightstand and single softbox set up, and this was no different. Even though there was a show going on ahead of them many people turned to see what was going on. Once I had my calibrations locked in we were able to blast through the first couple sets of pictures fairly quickly and keep walking till we got to the castle (which was FANTASTIC!). It made a perfect backdrop for many of our shots. Again, we drew the attention of some onlookers and I saw more than one person sneaking pictures of our group with their cell phones, and who can blame them? They looked amazing!! As we were wrapping up at the castle, our Rogue noticed an archer had been watching us do our shoot and ran to give him one of my cards. He came back and I grabbed a couple of super quick shots of him in front of the castle, which was pretty awesome.
After that we had one of the vendors come out of his booth and asked to see one of the pics I had just taken. I showed him and he offered to let us use his chainmail for some shots if we wanted to because he liked my lighting setup and how the shots were turning out, which was incredibly flattering. We were on our way to one of the events, though and didn't get to make it back to take him up on his offer, which kind of sucks because he had some great work!
We wrapped up the shoot, grabbed some more food, checked out some shops (ate a ton of pumpkin cookies that our Rogue was thoughtful enough to bring) and parted ways. It was an absolutely fantastic day for all of us, the wifeoo had SUCH a good time (and even bought some great elf ears!). We also got to talk to the awesome Karneval Masque Atelier and got a couple of cool shots of the wife wearing some of their great products. I would love to do some product photography with her work, it has so much detail and texture that my lighting and style just really works well on. Below is a gallery of some sample images from the shoot on my Facebook, so check it out! Thanks for reading my rambles, keep being awesome and peace guys. Till next time *bows*
Every year I look forward to being able to work with the Florence Freedom to help provide great cosplayers for the various themed nights. This time out we had Superhero night at the park! We had a fantastic crew show up, had a great time with the fans and had an absolute blast. If you want a real fun filled evening for your family and are local to the Florence, KY area make sure to check one of these nights out!
(Click the banner above to see more of Knightmage's awesome work on his Facebook Page!)
When Knightmage and I were planning on shooting at Cincinnati Comic Expo and he asked what I'd like him to bring, almost before the question was out of his mouth I said "SINISTERRRRRRRRR!" lol. Ever since I saw his preview pics I knew I wanted to shoot this. My lighting style and his airbrushing style have always made a terrific one two punch, but THIS. This was different. I have loved reading the Xmen as long as I can remember and was really freaked out by the Mr. Sinister character. it seems for years he is always pulling the strings in the background on so many of the milestones in the Xmen. On top of that one of my favorite podcasts (Jay and Miles Xplain the X-men: http://www.xplainthexmen.com/tag/mister-sinister/) have more than a passing interest in the character of Sinister and mention him on a fairly regular basis. We set it up, got a quick five minutes (if that) and these were the results. Enjoy! (Video to come with the originals, editing process and light set up to get some of these effects so keep an eye on my blog for part 2 coming soon!)
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When Sora's Silly Styles contacted me to book a shoot at Matsuricon 2016 and said she was bringing Edea I had to do a double take. I have NEVER seen anybody cosplay as her, and actually used to play FFVIII quite a bit back in the day. I knew exactly where I wanted to do the shoot and knew that I wanted it after dark so the lights of the bridge would be prominent. Unfortunately instead of the normal slow rotation from one color to another (absolutely PERFECT for getting just the right complimentary color) they had the bridge where it had all the colors at once along the line of lights, which is still pretty to the human eye, but definitely NOT what I had in my head for the shoot.
When we met up for the shoot she said that some people had tried to high five her prop and had almost broken a couple of the spokes, so I assured her I could work with that and we headed up to the bridge to get set up. After speaking with a few of the photographers huddled at the convention end of the bridge they said they had been spoken to by the hotel who owns the bridge about doing photography on their end and were asked to stay on the convention side. The bridge typically has people walking back and forth CONSTANTLY during a convention and I knew that wouldn't be a problem with my shooting style because unless you are within five feet you aren't going to show up. We set up, grabbed the shots and sure enough right as we were finishing up we had a guy in a suit from the hotel come and basically kick us off saying the hotel didn't allow professional photographers to shoot on their property. I could have pressed the point that I am NOT a professional photography (and hate being called that actually but that's a story for another day. I'm actually a professional data anaylst if you want to get technical about it, photography is a hobby) so we packed up and headed back to the convention center. I showed her back of camera on some of the shots and we were both pleased with how the quick shoot turned out (9:32PM - 9:45PM from the EXIF data on the images).
I knew I would have to do some post anyway to fix the spokes for her and also really wanted to capture the normal glow of the bridge so decided to take my time on this one and really make the images pop like the vision I had for them in my head. The bridge lighting not being what I wanted and the spokes were just hiccups that were easily dealt with, but took some time so this edit session was right around an hour for the set of images she selected. I got them done, and kicked them up to her gallery (you can view them below). Now that I have a really solid editing laptop, I have got into the habit of recording my editing sessions for this type of case where I want to generate some content for you guys from the ridiculous amount of not so fun editing work that goes on behind the scenes. I have had a lot of people say they like seeing what goes into a shoot so I will be doing more of these in the future! Below is a time lapse of the editing process to fix the spokes, add some punch, and basically make what we shot match what was in my head. I am very happy with the end result and my client has not stopped posting about her shiny new pics ;) (THAT makes me happy to no end guys). To know that you appreciate the hours and hours and hours that go into a shoot after the fact - from setting up galleries, uploading samples, editing, processing, uploading.....it takes a LOT! It truly means a ton that you all like what we do and appreciate it so thank you *bows* Enjoy the edit and the finals and if you want to see the normal speed edit with audio commentary let me know below! If there is a demand for stuff like that I will start doing full sets as well. Until then keep being awesome to one another guys, peace. Dude out.
Bridge during daylight from the outside. We were on the left side shooting towards the right.
You get some onlookers during a shoot and because of how I shoot I don't even notice them till I get back and start editing. It's pretty funny to see what goes on in the background of a shoot!
View the full image gallery here!
If you want to see more from Sora's Silly Styles check her out!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SorasSillyStyles/
Storenvy: http://sorassillystyles.storenvy.com/
Tumblr: http://megan-sora.tumblr.com/
@sorastyles on CosplayAmino
I didn't think I was going to be able to make it to Matsuricon this year, but after some plans shuffling around I will be there Friday and Saturday and will be bringing my Turbo Shoots as well. Turbo Shoots are a perfect way to get awesome pics if you:
(NEW TO TURBO SHOOTS? CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO FIRST)
First the prizes!! If you bring the most people with you and win you get the following:
The rules are simple:
In the instance of a tie both groups win the prize. If more than two groups tie.....we'll talk about it there and figure something out based on the situation hahaha.
β(UPDATED 8/20/2016) LOCATIONS!
SATURDAY AFTERNOON - 1P-2PM
Go to the crossroads hallway right by the main registration room (there is a Starbucks sign nearby) and go to towards the main convention center towards the large, open room with the escalators where you can pull up and drop people off at the entrance. Turbos will be at the bottom of the escalator nearest the Registration room (pics below I can't words good LOL).
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2016-08-20 09_11_50-Columbus, Ohio - Google Maps
SESSION 2: SATURDAY AFTERNOON - 6P-7PM
Atrium Room - Meet at the top of the escalators, in front of the elevators (i.e. take escalators up and walk over to elevators). Unless something changes Turbos will be held near the elevators along the wall.
IMG_0522.PNG
First and foremost of all The Matsuricon page has the official construction release on what is supposed to be done for the con. Please refer to that for up to date information. Below is just pictures I took myself and my observations and is in no way meant to supercede the official page. Also some handy links to get you started:
Now that we have that out of the way here is what I found:
PARKING:
FOOD COURT (UPDATED 8/18):
ATRIUM STEPS AND HALLS:
GUEST SERVICES AREA:
HALLWAY TO MAIN CONVENTION CENTER (THE SKINNY HALL):
FINAL WORDS:
If you need a map of where something is at the con check the Matsuricon map page as well as the new Matsuricon 2016 app (iOS and Android compatible). It will save you a ton of time, trust me.
β
Turbo Shoots at Matsuricon
Also if any of you want pictures in your costumes, but don't want to book a shoot, or don't have time I will be offering my Turbo Shoots at Matsuri (One Session Friday and two sessions Saturday). If you aren't familiar with Turbo Shoots click the banner for more details and make sure to register so you will receive text notifications of time and place of the shoots. There is no cost to shoot, and you only purchase the images you like.
That's it for now guys! I hope this helped you be a little more prepared for Matsuricon and I for one am looking forward to a fun weekend shooting cosplay photograph, hanging with old friends, making new friends and (as always) hatching them Pokemon Go eggs as I walk all over the frickin place. Fire up your Incubators and 10K eggs people, Matsuricon is upon us!
If you want to follow me on social media for my shenanigans (technically since I am a guy would that be HE-nanigans? Hmmmmmm) you can find me at the following places:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theportraitdudecosplay/
Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat - @theportraitdude
Have fun, be kind to each other, enjoy the weekend and be excellent to each other guys. If you see me come say hey!!
See ya soon, enjoy and peace nerds.
- Dude out
Gen Con 2016 is a wrap! I want to say thank you to the many, many, many amazing people I got to shoot with and hang out with this weekend. You truly made it memorable and I had a blast with you all. I know why you're really here though - THE PICTURES HOBBITSES!! Click the banner above or link below to get taken to the events page and put in the keyword for what you are looking for. I will be picking 10 or 15 of my favorites to edit up and post a gallery on Facebook (which will be included in this post when I have it done). Check out the galleries and, as always if you want to purchase the full rez JPG of the images (with a print release for personal or selling prints at your table) all the pricing is in the galleries. Thank you all again for making this one of the more memorable cons this year - you guys rock!!
http://www.theportraitdude.com/gencon2016
(NEW TO TURBO SHOOTS? CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO FIRST)
So I figured for one of my favorite cons why not have my first Turbo Shoot contest here? The rules are simple:
I recently had the pleasure of working with Cosplay Culture Magazine for their coverage for both Megacon (Orlando, Florida) and Colossalcon (Sandusky, OH) for their Special Summer issue (on newsstands Friday, August 5th, 2016). This is my first (but not last) time working with the magazine to provide convention coverage and I absolutely loved it. Alan was fantastic and I had such a great time in Orlando and Sandusky shooting people doing what they love to do. If you'd like to see more of the shots that didn't make it into the magazine click the banners below and put in the keyword you are looking for (listed on the page when you click through) to check them out!
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If you play PC add me up! My Battle.Net ID is:
PortraitDude #1434
First of many, many, many features from C2E2 with Project-Nerd. Many thanks for the sponsorship for the trip and the...
Posted by Wes Smith on Wednesday, March 23, 2016
https://www.facebook.com/theportraitdudecosplay/
This is our first Comic Book Cosplay Video. This is a stylized cosplay video slideshow with four superhero cosplayers...
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER - LOCATION TO BE TEXTED MORNING OF THE SHOOT
Sample: Individuals | Sample: Groups |
I will release on my Social Media (Just look for @theportraitdude on Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram Story) and via SMS the morning of (Register for SMS notifications by filling out the form at the bottom of this post (CLICK HERE TO REGISTER). Here is what you get:
Here are some sample of what you can expect from one of my rapid fire shoots. All of these pictures were taken within 4 minutes.
Group that wants to knock out some FAST individual pics? This entire gallery of TWELVE Batman villains (36 final images) was taken in 20 minutes.
Registration:
If you'd like to register for Katsucon 2016 SMS Turbo Shoot updates fill out this form:
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βKatsucon 2016
National Harbor, MD • February 12-14, 2016
This will be my first year at Katsucon and am now accepting bookings for photo shoots.
Single Photo Session $50 (Half Hour):
- Session is half an hour long and can have one or two people for your shoot.
- You will receive your choice of 5 hi-rez retouched images and a print release via website download.
- You will also receive watermarked thumbnails suitable for sharing on social media.
- Files are delivered and stored through your own directory on my web site.
If you are interested in shooting multiple costumes over multiple days:
- Single Costume: $50 (One costume either Friday or Saturday or Sunday)
- Double Costumes: $95 (Two costumes either Friday or Saturday or Sunday morning)
Group Photo Session $35 per person (One Hour):
- Session is one hour long and needs to have at least three people for your shoot.
- Each person will receive your choice of 7 hi-rez retouched images and a print release via website download.
- You will also receive watermarked thumbnails suitable for sharing on social media.
- Files are delivered and stored through your own directory on my web site.
Sample of the selection process:
http://www.theportraitdude.com/selecting-your-images
(Directory Sample: http://www.theportraitdude.com/clientfiles)
- Booked sessions get first priority in retouching.
- You will receive an email with your preliminary (unedited) previews within 2-3 after the con.
- Payment is required up front via Paypal to secure your slot.
(I am sorry, but I don't take cash at the con).
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*FLAILS* That's what I did when a friend mentioned one of my shots was topping Reddit in /r/ cosplay right now. Check...
Posted by The Portrait Dude - Cosplay Photography on Wednesday, January 20, 2016
This year I will be using my new website to kick out notifications when pictures from Ohayocon are online. This includes...
Posted by The Portrait Dude - Cosplay Photography on Thursday, January 14, 2016
Sneak peek at my new website www.theportraitdude.com! If you shoot with me you will be checking this page out a LOT...
Posted by Wes Smith on Tuesday, January 12, 2016
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When I was contacted a few months ago to be the photographer for an upcoming shoot involving a lot of members from the Spiderverse, little did I know that it would eventually end up with over fifteen people on the roof of a parking garage in downtown Columbus on a HOT day getting some of the most amazing (or maybe even spectacular hahaha) shots I have got to date. As the group started to take shape over the past two months I got pretty excited because in addition to some top notch Spiderman cosplayers that I knew, I saw characters that don't get enough love such as Sandman, HobGoblin, Carnage and Scream would also be represented.
Location was a big concern so everyone started scouting and while a couple of suggestions were made nothing ever really clicked as "This is the place" until I parked for Matsuricon in the basement of the Front Street Nationwide parking garage. During the convention I had a friend show me some pictures that he took with his cell phone on top of a nearby parking garage and my jaw hit the floor. IT WAS PERFECT!!! I have always loved parking garages so I went to the top and once I saw the skyscrapers right next to it and potential for shots I started shooting some video and taking panoramas to show the group. I uploaded the scouting shots to the group and everybody agreed this was the spot to do the shoot.
We picked up some people, we lost some people due to schedules, adulting and other such things (as you do in a shoot this big), but still ended up with a very strong showing of heroes and villains alike. The morning of the shoot as I was prepping my gear, going over my checklists and listening to my jams getting ready I had no clue how many people would actually show up (you know how Facebook events are) but I knew that we were going to have a blast. When I arrived at the parking garage I looked around and nobody was parked up top so I turned my radio off and hear music and laughter so I followed that. What a great way to start a shoot! People had already started to get there and get their gear on, talk to each other, play music and have a good time. We gave it a little bit to make sure we have everyone who was coming and started shooting.
Since I don't shoot large groups much I had them set up to shoot one at a time, looking back if I am the only photographer I think we could have three or four groups nearby working on getting their poses and location lined up and when I am done with one move to the next so there is less waiting around time for all the cosplayers. Nobody seemed to mind too much (though it was insanely hot that day - ESPECIALLY on the roof, everyone did fantastic and we made it through the day without anyone melting so I call that a win!
Gallery for the SpiderVerse shootShot at: Colunbus, OHRead the full blog post at http://www.wesleysmithphotography.com/blog/2015/12/spiderverse2015
Posted by The Portrait Dude - Cosplay Photography on Tuesday, December 8, 2015
At the end of the day I had an absolutely fantastic time with everyone and am so thankful for such a great group of friends. Check out their social media pages below, send them some likes and let them know The Portrait Dude sent you!
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Blitzkrieg Cosplay as The Punisher
https://www.facebook.com/Blitzkrieg-Cosplay-517567675007545?hc_location=ufi
Kimberley Kemp as Mary Jane
https://www.facebook.com/kimberley.modelling
Spiderman Big Time (Blue Variant)
http://instagram.com/inmyzonewithsean
Black suit/ Symbiote Spider-Man
http://instagram.com/robertsonfire
Superior Spider-Man
https://www.facebook.com/andrew.mastorovich
Future Foundation Spider-Man
https://www.facebook.com/Mercenary-Deadpool-of-the-North-732749406788126/
Hobgoblin
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flash-photo-casual-cosplayer/242242465962390
Female Spiderman - Dark Nightingale Cosplay
https://www.facebook.com/Dark-Nightingale-Cosplay-681064238706396
Male Spiderman - Dancing Mad Cosplay
https://www.facebook.com/Dancing-Mad-Cosplay-1508847012695728
Venom, Carnage and Scream - Dark Iron Productions
https://www.facebook.com/DarkIronProductions
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Follow The Portrait Dude on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theportraitdudecosplay/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theportraitdude/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/theportraitdude
Snapchat: @ThePortraitDude
Here in the States the Fourth of July is a holiday when you know there is going to be an amazing light show as we celebrate Independence Day together. With modern cameras getting less and less expensive and smart phone cameras getting better all the time there is no shortage of people trying to capture the wonder that we all feel when we see that first trail explode in the sky. No matter what your camera of choice, there are a few fundamental tips that will really help you make the most of your images and put your blurry, grainy and shaky pictures from last year to shame.
Step 1 - Prepare The Day Before The Shoot
Shooting in low light requires a little planning, so don't wait till ten minutes before the fireworks start to grab your camera bag and run out the door and expect to get the amazing shots you see other photographers get. Here are some steps to take the day before to make sure you are prepared for your shoot.
Step 2 - The Shoot
Need some inspiration? I have collected some great shots here on my Pinterest board for you to check out. Check out how some of them use obstructions (trees, buildings or people) as part of the image itself. Also I included a couple neat shots that you can only get by breaking the rules to get your gears turning.
Shooting fireworks with an iPhone
For you iPhone photo fans out there here are a couple things to make sure you aren't left out of the fun. I have rounded up a few really good articles to check out about how to shoot fireworks with your iPhone so if that's your thing here you go. They have some great iPhone specific tips, tricks and apps to use to get the most out of your iPhone.
Thank you for taking the time to check this out and I hope it helps in your shoots.
Wesley Smith
Portrait Artist
The Portrait Dude
http://www.theportraitdude.com
[email protected]
With supermoon (aka perigee moon) weekend upon us I know that there will be tons of people dusting off their cameras and heading out to get some shots of this celestial event.
supermoon (plural supermoons)
Basically when the full moon happens when the moon is at it's closest to the Earth. Because it is closer to us it can appear up to 14% larger and up to 30% brighter than normal. If that doesn't sound like it would be that noticeable you should take a look outside tonight because it will be noticeably brighter. I'm talking REALLY bright. It was bright enough to be rather distracting to the group of photographer friends and I who had originally got together to experiment with some sparklers art last night, but as soon as the moon poked up over the tree line everyone immediately was grabbing their tripod and moving to get a better angle. It was a pretty cool experience, we all had a blast and I ate WAY too many smores so it was a good night all round.
Okay so now we know what the supermoon is, we know it's very distracting to photographers (hahaha) we need to know how to photograph it! Here are some great tips I have found from around the web as well as a link to my Supermoon board over at Pinterest for some great ideas on how to use the supermoon to make some great memories.
Suggested Camera Settings. Keep in mind these are only to get you in the ballpark and you will need to do some fiddling to get the result you are looking for, but this should help save you some time getting started. If you aren't sure what a particular item is click it to see a great article over at http://digital-photography-school.com to read more about it. The first step is to set your camera to MANUAL mode
Once you find a spot to shoot here is a quick checklist to get you started:
If you need inspiration for cool supermoon pictures head on over to my Pinterest board to see what other people have done when shooting the moon. Another cool article on the Supermoon is over at The Huffington Post.
Thanks for taking the time to check this out and I hope it helps in your shoots. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with so feel free to find me on Facebook and keep in touch.
If you would like to request information or to book me for a shoot feel free to Contact me, I would love to hear from you!
Wesley Smith
Portrait Artist
Wesley Smith Photography
http://www.wesleysmithphotography.com
[email protected]
740-988-8441