A little less than a year ago, I decided to clean up this gallery. I had closed my cosplay photography website for six months, it was the last place I still had pictures up and I could not look at them anymore.

It took me quite some time to be able to take a camera again.
Then some more time to think of cosplay photography as something I wanted to try again.
I think the decisive factor for me was joining Objectif Costumes. The association itself has some problems (mostly poor planning), but looking at cosplay pictures with a critical eye made me realize I still had something to bring into the mix.

I installed Lightroom, began to sort my pictures, re-processed old photoshoots :
Naruto
Harry Potter
Anthy (Utena)

Back in July, for Japan Expo, I had planned to come and help at the studio we had, but did not think I would do some photoshoots myself. I had brought my DSLR for the first time at a con in more than a year and a half, but I only wanted to do backstage photos. But somehow, I ended up doing four photoshoots in two days, which was little compared to most of the photographers, but quite an achievement for me.
Franken Stein (Soul Eater)
Sasuke (Naruto Shippuden)
D Gray Man
Euphemia & Cornelia (Code Geass)

I had a photoshoot planned at the end of july, so I bought myself a new 50/1.8 lens. The point was to have this favorite lens of mine again, since losing it was one of the events that had made me question my photography skills. The photoshoot was postponed (until october), but I had my portrait lens back, and it was a big thing.

A week ago, I was back from the first con of the autumn, Paris Manga, with pictures from the con itself, but also from an improvised Resident Evil photoshoot

Finally yesterday I went to "Harajuku Festival" (an event held in a park in Paris) and took pictures from the con, and again a small photoshoot, with character from Macross Frontier this time.

The next step will be that photoshoot in october.
It will be a Naruto photoshoot, with some people from our old 2005 group - which had been my very first cosplay photoshoot, and was a great memory.
The circle will be complete, and I think I will be back for good.

To the few people who have been following me here, bye.
I'm closing this gallery, and removing what's left online of my crappy pictures from the public eye (my photography website has already been closed for a few months now).
I keep this account, just because there are a few real artists here I want to follow.

In the last few months, I have been wondering why I still take cosplay pictures.

When my website opened, six years ago, I was one of the few cosplay photographers who had one. Sometimes, I would be the only one to post any pictures of this or that event, of this or that costume. I did not care my pictures sucked, because there were close to no quality pictures available. The only professionnal-level cosplay protographer (D.Fender) had no website on his own, and even if he'd had one, he did not take everyone.

I gradually got better equipment, and got better at taking pictures as well. I got involved in 2bcosplay, and it furthered my enthusiasm as well as my involvment in the cosplay community. I even got back to cosplaying, bought myself a sewing machine, learned how to sew properly. When 2bcosplay closed, it was just a small contrariety, really, I soon took more pictures than ever. I was happy, my photos still got better.

At a con in november 2004, I lost my faithful Sony P-72, my 3 megapixel compact. A month and a half later, I got a D-SLR as a Christmas present. Poisonous present, if you ask me. I had to re-learn everything, and it took me months to be able to takes pictures I found okay - not good, just okay.

And while I struggled with real photography, new, better photographers came, and each with their website because with all those php tools it's become so much easier to set up one. I quickly renounced to compare myself to them, because they were so much better than me and had so much better tools, I could not catch up.

In the last year, there's been an explosion in the number of photographers with a D-SLR. Now when you attend a con in Paris (which are the only ones I can still go to, because of my baby), there are a dozen people with a big camera at the foot of the scene and in the alleys. Which means I'm just one photographer among the others, and obvioulsy not the most dedicated one. Hey, I generally go to cons just for one day, and I want to see my friends, and chat with them ; so I take less and less pictures, and it's out of habit, I don't really try to make good ones.

And it shows. Horribly. My pictures suck, I haven't updated my website in ages because I'm ashamed of what I take. Around me, everyone gets better, and they're so much more passionnate than myself, while I just take my camera with me out of habit.

I hesitate a lot about one thing : taking my camera with me to Japan Expo. I know there will be great costumes, and as a cosplayer I like to keep traces of this. But I also know I'll just take pictures because I feel I should, and when I do this, I never like the result. And it makes me feel insecure about my skills, which leads me to be even more reluctant. I'd managed to get better, but now I'm getting worse and worse each con I attend. So I hesitate, because it would be a big waste of time to try to cover the JE cosplay - considering there is so much more to do at this con, and there are so many people I'd like to see.

Maybe I should stop pretending I'm a real photographer, and buy myself a small compact camera I can blame when my pictures suck.

Since I damaged my 18-55 zoom (it's not really broken, it's just the fixation) I had to buy news lenses.
On friday afternoon I went to Boulevard Beaumarchais (where all the good photography stores of Paris are), and bought two :
- a 50/1.8 lens for portrait (new) ; I'd wanted this one for quite a time, since I lacked a wide aperture for background blur and it's not really expensive (paid 118 euros).
- a 24-80/3.5-4.5 zoom for everything (secondhand) ; I was very happy about this one, it was about the price I wanted to put in my new zoom (250 euros) and with a wider range I expected for the price.
I tried them out this week-end and they work great - I'll post some pictures soon. I'm thrilled by the 50mm lens results, I already did some great shots with it ^^
On saturday, I brought back the dress I had to fix a bit for Rendez-Vous (the play I've done the costumes for) ; I made about 150 shots during the play, testing the limits of my camera a bit (that's extreme conditions, light-wise), and some are very, very nice
*loves her 300D*