Anime North 2012 - About and My Favourite Images

Wow, it's been a while since I posted last, not without good reason though. About a week ago at this time I was returning from Anime North 2012 in Toronto. While there I had a booth in an area called Photo Alley in which I setup to take photos of the cosplayers at the convention. I also managed to slip out for one of the group shoots on Saturday.

Alright so let me explain this whole process. Around January I found out about Anime North (May 25th to 27th) , the biggest anime convention in Canada (to my understanding), from my client and classmate Bronwen Robbins. On a whim I decided since I was getting into cosplay photo I thought how cool it would be if I could set up a booth and take photos of people in costume. I figured if I used the fashion/portrait lighting I could offer something maybe a little different then what people normally get for images from these events. So I contacted the organizers and they were actually creating an area for the first year for photographers to do just that, and it was free if you weren't planning on charging attendees. Wonderful! So I planned and tested for months before and and fit as much gear as I could into my two suitcases. Off I went.

So I arrived the night before and picked up my badge at preregistration (I got my exhibitor badge the next day). Then came the day I set up, met some of my neighbours and it was on.

This is the front of Photo Alley, you can see the divider sheet in the background which became my backdrop for the weekend.

This was my meagre setup (compared to the others).

The white on the ground was originally supposed to be my backdrop, but because I had no way to hang it it became my floor map for setting up. It worked out perfectly as I prefer to have a black or day background to start as the colours show up better. 

The show was great even though I didn't get to see much, there were so many awesome people that I met and that were in my area. Before I get to the photos I just want to thank Sarah Mersereau for setting up and running Photo Alley, Thomas Tran, my neighbour in the area that watched my gear when I was out and I his, and Marc Bonifacio, who came all the way from L.A. and took some time to come show me his home made 3-D camera setup. I also want to shout out from to all the other photographers in the section, especially Droo Photography, Convoke and Red Carpet who showed me what is really possible in that space and how to leave a good impression. And most importantly I want to thank all the wonderful people that stopped into my booth for a photo, and all the awesome people that braved the heat for the Final Fantasy shoot on Saturday.

Ok on to pictures.

I released these images on Facebook already, but these are from the Final Fantasy group shoot( a shoot in which cosplayers from a particular series all meet with a group of photographers for pictures) on Saturday. Some of these I edited the backgrounds clear of cityscape and other distractions in Photoshop, just to have something different. I'll start with those.

And these ones I liked just because they make me smile or laugh.

And now I present a selection of my top 10 booth photos in no particular order to give people a taste of what I created and sent people.

And I'm in no way saying the others weren't good, these are just a few of my favourites and most likely the ones I'll use in marketing and such.

Well it was a blast, I hope I can come back next year and take more great photos!

-Larry M. Holder 

A Post About Colours and Cosplay

Hi there folks! I'm just posting to let people heading to Anime North in Toronto this weekend that I will be on sight and I will have a photo booth in Photo Alley. What I'm mainly posting for is to showcase some colour selections for my background for those interested in having me do shots for them. So, as follows based on testing are the best and brightest colours you can pick from.

Now keep in mind these might not be exact, I'll have to run some tests in the TCC when I get there, I sure the lighting will differ slighting in that building. That being said, it will be pretty close, so if your going for a certain look in your photo, colour makes a big difference. I'll be more then happy to select for you, and I do have other colours on me, these ones just stand out the best. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone there and having a great time myself. Also, I should mention that this colour is a smaller highlight in the background compared to my studio work, but still really adds something. In fact, here are few "regular" photos I did outdoors using this setup and post process. 

It didn't much show up in the first image due to the fact that it was a blue colour and a bright sunny day, but it's still a fun and sort of interesting image.

That's all for now, see all you convention goers in a few days!

-Larry M. Holder 

Practicum At Hemmings House Pictures

Hey everyone, I know I've been a bit quiet as of late on the online front and not been around much at all for shooting as well. There is a good reason. For the last few weeks I've been putting in practicum hours, for my course, at Hemmings House Pictures in Saint John. First let me talk a little about Hemmings House. Hemmings House is an award-winning film and photography production house, they service everything from television series, documentaries, concert tours and corporate ads. Though I've had the absolute privilege to work with fine photo artists like James Wilson (http://wilsonstudio.ca/) this school year, it's been great to get some insight on the more commercially heavy side of the business. Plus, other then my short instructional videos, I have been able to record and learn valuable video shooting techniques with my DSLR working with Hemmings House. My main contact and mentor in this process has been Mark Hemmings.

He's provided with great experience building opportunities so far, from shooting B-roll for documentaries, set-up for lighting, manning the slate during filming, shooting behind-the-scenes pictures, and other small tasks all important to running a business of this type. All and all, it has been and continues to be a great experience in learning every facet of this industry I love. Please check out their website, it's great stuff.

http://site.hemmingshousepictures.com/home.php

And for an extra bonus, here is the behind-the-scenes shot we picked for their use.

Thanks for reading, and I will have more stuff up soon in preparation for my trip to Anime North next week.

-Larry M. Holder 

    

Almost Forgotten: Fashion Window Displays

I almost forgot to post these images! These were images of the Diploma Fashion students and Bronwen Robbins' window displays that were put up around the downtown in various shops. It's a very cool thing to have your piece hi-lighted for the public to see beyond your typical crowd. It's also very cool of the local Fredericton businesses to be so open to this process. That's why without even thinking I jumped on the challenge of shooting through glass windows and provide the best quality images for these fine people. Therefore, I prepped myself before hand, I shot with my macro 60mm lens because it's tac sharp and with the addition of a circular polarizer filter I was in the best position I could be to start the process. My results? Not the perfection I wanted, but still a really good effort. Some of these were impossible to shoot during the day, so I had to come back on a different day after dark. For those of you interested in ever doing this, a tripod is necessary and I also highly recommend a shutter release or trigger. That will insure you don't shake the camera in any way while taking the photo with the slow shutter speeds your going to need. Ok, enough tech talk, on to the pictures.  

One last note, I actually couldn't decide on which image of Mandy Fraser's window to include (as they both have strange reflections I couldn't do much about) so I put both of them on the same canvas.

That was incredible experience, thanks again to the Fashion studio for letting me do this.

-Larry M. Holder