Infrared Testing

Here's some photos from a photo shoot this past weekend with Alison, as well as a photo from one of the after-show shoots from Brooklyn Indie Market: Steampunk III with Staci, wearing Berit New York and La China Loca.

As you can see, I got to try out my infrared-modded Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI.

Steampunks In My Car!

Still uploading photos from Brooklyn Indie Market: Steampunk III's fashion show, but I'm done with pics from the Gary Numan concert!

New York Comic Con & Anime Festival

Well, the first mega-convention of New York Comic Con and New York Anime Festival is over! Crazy weekend overall! I ended up missing a few panels due to last minute schedule changes creating a couple of conflicts, while a few other panels were cancelled the last minute. I didn't have any scheduled photo shoots, which was a good thing in the end, I think, since it was so crowded, especially on Saturday.

Overall I just focused on panels and hallway shoots. Still going through photos from Sunday, but Friday and Saturday are now done with.

You can view the photos on my Flickr, but here's a few samples:

Buying Another Camera

So I decided to purchase another Canon Rebel XTI, but with a different body color. I'm going to have this one converted to do infrared and ultraviolet photography. The conversion process is $350 for just infrared, but for an additional $50 I can have it also do ultraviolet, so why the hell not?!!!

I was going to just use my old camera, but I'd rather have a backup in case my Canon 5D Mark II malfunctions.

Speaking of which, I'm still finding issues with the 5D's LCD giving me false readings. I've adjusted the LCD's brightness to match what the photos I get are like on the computer screen, but I still get off-colors and brightness. So for the time being I'm trying to uder-expose shots if possible, until I can see if there's some sort of firmware update.

Taking A Momentary Breath

Photography has been a little bit crazy lately...

I just finished covering the Triton Festival held by Vampirefreaks this past weekend. It basically went from Thursday night to Monday morning. I clubbed on Thursday, since that was the pre-party, but snapped photos like crazy from Friday to Sunday. Sadly due to the conflicting time schedules I never made it to the second annual The Bank Reunion :(

The Triton Festival was great! A lot of bands I liked, as well as some new ones. The only sad thing is I spent a good portion on Saturday night talking to one of the guest performers who sung along on one of the acts for like 15 minutes... however on Monday, I finally recognized her and realized that the woman I was talking to, Miss FD, used to go by the stage name, Frightdoll, and was someone I had loved the music of from years back, so now I'm kicking myself for not having pieced it sooner and taken a pic with her :(

Exhaustion, that's what it is... Really, no joke! Saturday morning I was so tired that I parked my car and didn't realize where I parked when I left my house on Saturday afternoon to go back to the festival. I spent ten minutes walking around trying to remember where I parked my car.

I still have Sunday's photos to go through and upload.

Geek Girl University & Triton Festival

Lots of photos to be taken this week, starting off with Geek Girl University. Nothing like a school-themed burlesque show to kick off the week!

This weekend is the three-day Triton Festival (from VampireFreaks) in Brooklyn (Brighton Beach), followed literally right afterwards by the 2nd Annual The Bank Reunion in Manhattan! There's also a pre-party for Triton Festival in Manhattan, so I'll probably make it to that too, since I scheduled myself to be off on Friday.

Fashion Show Photos Are Up! Strike A Pose!

Photos from the 2nd Annual Sugar & Spikes Rock 'N' Roll Fashion Show at the Knitting Factory|Brooklyn are now up on my Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/knightmare6.

Trademarked? Possibly!

Spent this morning going through the legal jargon of the U.S. Trademark Office to file my trademark claim for "Knightmare6" for section 41 (goods & services). Hopefully it goes well. Using their search engine, I didn't discover anything similar to my claim, so hopefully it'll go well. Just have to wait for them to conduct their own search and then their ruling.

One of the fields on the application asked for earliest usage, so I did a quick Google search and discovered one of my earliest uses of the "Knightmare6" handle was back in June 13th, 2000, on someone's guest book, LOL!

Google search... that bitch be scary sometimes!

Sugar & Spikes

Sorry for the lack of update, but been pretty busy running around. I'm still waiting to hear back from either the Nokia Theatre or Sony Music about getting a photo pass for the upcoming Dir En Grey and Apocalyptica concert next week, unless the venue will just allow DSLR cameras for that showing, as they sometimes do...

Tomorrow night I'll be covering the Sugar & Spikes Fashion Show at The Knitting Factory. Of course this is the Brooklyn location, not the old location in Manhattan. I haven't checked out the new location yet. My friend's band, Hate In The Box, will also be playing, so check them out if you attend!

Also just finishing up some pics from a shoot this past weekend on the sands of Coney Island :)

Saturday Is Done!

Finally finished with the photos from Saturday of AnimeNext! Now onto Sunday's photos!

Aside from that been playing some Transformers: War For Cybertron and Crackdown 2 on my Xbox, when time permits :)

AnimeNext 2010

Sorry for the lack of update, but I've been grinding on photos from AnimeNext since it ended. I took WAAYYY too many photos, LOL.

Saturday was the longest day for me, as I was pretty much shooting non-stop from 6am to 8pm. That's fourteen hours! I also shot two events, the Cosplay Burlesque performances on Friday night, as well as the Hangry & Angry Fashion Show on Saturday. Still unsure of how many shoots I did total, but I had a few no-shows, a few reschedules and a couple of shoots that were added on later. Met a lot of new people, as well as hung out with friends who were there. Ran into a few faces I didn't expect to see. A few people recognized my alias, as soon as I gave them my card, so I'm happy about that! :)

Anywho here's a few teasers with more on my Flickr. Remember, I'm still on Friday's photos!

Just to point out, this was my second time using my Canon 5D Mark II, and after getting the pics back, I can still see I need to do a little more fine-tuning on my end. The LCD of my camera shows the pics to be way brighter than the pics actually are, so I ended up adjusting my F-stops and ISO based on that, which in the end, gave me much darker pics. So now I know, and knowing is half the battle! Yo Joe! ;)

Movie Review: "The Karate Kid" (2010)

Got to check out a special sneak-preview of "The Karate Kid" yesterday from work and I was surprised at it being a pretty good movie. I went into it not hoping for much.

The acting for Jaden wasn't too bad, though at times he came off as a whiny little brat, but then again he's also a lot younger than Ralph Macchio 's character, Daniel, was. I enjoyed his acting for the most part, at least until the end, when a few lines felt forced, but this was after this version's "sweep the leg" moment.

A lot more frenetic, blurred choreography sequences than I was hoping for - mainly used to hide Jaden's lack of martial arts, while he did do many of his own sequences, he's not perfect for having only so much time to train.

I actually enjoyed the music selection for this! I know it's close-minded to think this, but I was seriously expecting a lot more hip-hop, but the movie had more pop and instrumental music than anything else. The few hip-hop/R&B songs were well-chosen, more of the lighter varieties, which I don't mind.

Pacing-wise, there are some slow moments, all during the training sequences. Like any U.S.-produced movie in China, you'll get a lot of scenes depicting the beauty of China's landscapes. I don't think this is primarily the studio's fault, so much as it is for the assistance of China's film commission. Still, it made the movie a little slower and longer in parts that it didn't need to be.

I gave the movie an 8/10 overall.

Also, guess who showed up :P

Geek!

Tonight I attended Geek Girl Productions' video game cosplay burlesque event, Players, at Public Assembly in Brooklyn.

It was fun, got to meet some of the performers, some of whom I've been trying to keep in contact with to do some shoots later this month at AnimeNext.

Tonight was the first time I used my Canon 5D Mark II! Figured it was time to break this baby in, after sitting on it for months. All was well, except I ran out the door and grabbed the wrong camera lens! D'oh!!!

Still got some good photos though :)

1st Annual Steampunk World's Fair

Still going over photos from the Steampunk World's Fair, but I think I'm halfway done with my photos now... I think...

You can see more photos from the convention here.

Steampunk World's Fair Overview

The Steampunk World's Fair was insane! A lot of great events!

I ended up taking just under 3,000 photos. Got to see a great band, Unextraordinary Gentlemen, who I didn't know was going to be there until I actually saw them! Met up with some new friends, as well as old ones. Did many photo shoots, as well as attended many presentations and panels.

Only down side was the end of Saturday night when my camera battery died. This was my back-up battery, while my main battery was still recharging back in my hotel room. Of course it died during the performance by Cosplay Burlesque and The White Elephant Society :\

The only other downside was being woken up by Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band at 4-5am in the morning on Sunday... awesome. Not.

I stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel which was nice, but the only downside was I needed to pay for wireless internet in my room, to which I said, "Fuck that!" Luckily they had a internet cafe that was free for guests in the lobby.

Now I'm slowly going through the photos. I was going through them in order, but the designers from Sunday's fashion show already started asking me about them, so I'm trying to finish up their photos first before I handle the regular photos.

Here's some quick previews:

Sakuri Matsuri

Checked out the Brooklyn Botanical Garden this past weekend for their Sakuri Matsuri celebration, or what was left of it, since the cherry blossoms bloomed earlier due to the fluctuating weather this season.

Did two shoots, but aside from that I didn't snap any photos of the cosplayers. Kind of tired of shooting the same cosplay outfits, heh.

The two shoots I did were related to the Kuroshitsuji series. The first one was for Lisa and the second one was for Donna and Christine. Lisa's shoot was her in her Ciel outfit, while Donna and Christine's group was the characters in kimonos.

Birthday Week Vacation

This past week I had off from work, since my birthday was on Tuesday, so I took the week off, which is the norm. Last Sunday I did a photo shoot in Central Park with a bunch of cosplayers with the theme of Ballet Stories.

On Monday I helped out my friend, Jennifer, with some portfolio shoots, primarily in Coney Island.

Photo Shoot Sunday

Here's a quick sneak peak from today's shoot with the lovely Christina and Somie

The Wonderneath

Saturday night I ventured into Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to take some photos of "The Wonderneath" performance by members of Lady Circus and Kai at The House of Yes.

Awesome performance by everyone! The seating was tightly-packed though, but the show was great all around! :)

Saturday Hijinks

Woke up early this morning and made my way to Coney Island to hit the beach. I wanted to see if I could catch any migrating cetaceans or pinnipeds in the water. When I got there it was cold as hell, despite bundling up, and the wind was blowing so much that the temperature was probably below zero. After five minutes of this, I just gave up and headed home.

Tonight I plan on attending Sextacular! Sextacular!, so hopefully I get some good pics of some performances.

Still going through the photos of last Sunday, but here's another photo from the shoot:

Great Energy

Today I shot a lot of great models, despite a lot of cancellations. Loved shooting Kennedy and Caitlin. The two of them had such great energy! Would definitely love to shoot them again in the near-future!

Here's a quick teaser pic:

2009 Year-In-Review

I attended a record amount of conventions... which isn't actually that much, but considering the last convention I went to was nearly a decade ago in the basement of a church... This year was intensive for me! I hit the New York Comic Con, AnimeNext, Mokucon and New York Anime Festival. I also hit the press day for the "Brooklyn Botanical Garden's Sakuri Matsuri.

Cosplay photography aside, I also got the chance to do a lot of photo shoots this year, both from meet-ups, as well as private shoots. Met plenty of great people, photographer and models (some cosplayers, others not, others both).

A lot of activity this year on my FlickR, which I was happy for! Got to do the concert photos for The Azoic and September Mourning, as well as studio photos for Cruel Black Dove and Blacklist.

Blog Added

Did a lot of searching for blogging scripts, but hopefully this will work properly for me... only time will tell!

EDIT - Guess not! I had set it up to update via RSS, when Blogger decided to cancel the feature unless you utilize their services to buy a domain name. Oh well, I'll still use this, but I have to visit their site to update :\