Fanime 2012 is over—what a great con! Hope everyone had a fun time and made it back home/ to real life without setbacks. Thank you to everyone who made it to our Cosplay Photographers “Ambient Light” panel, it was a great turnout. The hour went smoothly and we had some great audience questions afterwards. As always, if anyone has questions regarding photography, please don’t hesitate to ask either me or the Cosplay Photographers group on Facebook. Special thanks to Richard and Tim for organizing the panel and inviting me to speak on such a great topic. Cosplay photoshoot photos will be posted this weekend—most likely on my Flickr first. But I’ll be cross-posting notices to Twitter and Facebook also. Thanks for your patience, guys!
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Fanime 2012 is over—what a great con!

Hope everyone had a fun time and made it back home/ to real life without setbacks. Thank you to everyone who made it to our Cosplay Photographers “Ambient Light” panel, it was a great turnout. The hour went smoothly and we had some great audience questions afterwards. As always, if anyone has questions regarding photography, please don’t hesitate to ask either me or the Cosplay Photographers group on Facebook.

Special thanks to Richard and Tim for organizing the panel and inviting me to speak on such a great topic.

Cosplay photoshoot photos will be posted this weekend—most likely on my Flickr first. But I’ll be cross-posting notices to Twitter and Facebook also. Thanks for your patience, guys!

Fanime is next weekend! Here’s the photoshoot lineup. This is definitely my most eclectic con schedule ever-! FRIDAY Hatoful Boyfriend (1) 9:00pm—- Fate/Zero (3) SATURDAY Team Fortress (1) 10:00am—- Sailor Moon (2) SUNDAY 10:00—- [ Guest co-host at Ambient Light panel hosted by Cosplay Photographers — FB Event Page ] 12:00—- Kuroshitsuji Circus 1:00—- Kobato Kari (2) 2:00—- My Little Pony (10+) 3:45—- Sengoku Basara (3) 5:30—- Highschool of the Dead 6:30—- (secret) MONDAY 10:00—- Chevalier D’eon (2) 2:00—- Supernatural === I’ll be tweeting from the con, please follow for live updates! :) @masakocha View last year’s Fanime 2011 Photoset
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Fanime is next weekend! Here’s the photoshoot lineup. This is definitely my most eclectic con schedule ever-!

FRIDAY

Hatoful Boyfriend (1)

9:00pm—- Fate/Zero (3)

SATURDAY

Team Fortress (1)

10:00am—- Sailor Moon (2)

SUNDAY

10:00—- [ Guest co-host at Ambient Light panel hosted by Cosplay Photographers — FB Event Page ]

12:00—- Kuroshitsuji Circus

1:00—- Kobato Kari (2)

2:00—- My Little Pony (10+)

3:45—- Sengoku Basara (3)

5:30—- Highschool of the Dead

6:30—- (secret)

MONDAY

10:00—- Chevalier D’eon (2)

2:00—- Supernatural

===

I’ll be tweeting from the con, please follow for live updates! :) @masakocha

View last year’s Fanime 2011 Photoset

Fanime-con is fast approaching!

I’ll be attending all day Sat/Sun/Mon, and my photoshoot schedule is officially full for this Fanime. I also have an announcement for a special event on Fanime Sunday, TBA within a week. Please check back for that!

View last year’s photos here:

2011 Fanime photoset

If you’re northern California, this convention is totally worth a visit. The cosplayers are really fantastic~!! The fun goes down on May 25-28 at the San Jose Convention Center.

Short cosplay shoot from this past weekend’s Cherry Blossom Festival. This year was timed perfectly to catch the blossoms!

Kurusu Syo from “Uta no Prince-sama”
Cosplayer: BunnyTuan
Assist: Erskine

Source: Flickr / chibi_masako

hnaoto-sf: Behind the scenes and backstage with Masako Photography before the gouk Fashion Show! Preview from yesterday’s event!
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hnaoto-sf:

Behind the scenes and backstage with Masako Photography before the gouk Fashion Show!

Preview from yesterday’s event!

Source: Flickr / chibi_masako

The Japanese clothing brand h.NAOTO is holding the first U.S.A. fashion show for their “gouk” line at next weekend’s Cherry Blossom Festival. Saturday, April 14th— 3:00 at San Francisco Japantown If you’re in Northern California, please come out and support the introduction of their new line and the expansion of Japanese fashion in the United States. This is a really exciting time! I’ll be doing backstage photo coverage for the show; please watch my twitter for live updates. Final photos will be posted to Facebook. Don’t forget to check out h.NAOTO USA’s Facebook and Tumblr and support their awesome clothing!!
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The Japanese clothing brand h.NAOTO is holding the first U.S.A. fashion show for their “gouk” line at next weekend’s Cherry Blossom Festival.

Saturday, April 14th— 3:00 at San Francisco Japantown

If you’re in Northern California, please come out and support the introduction of their new line and the expansion of Japanese fashion in the United States. This is a really exciting time! I’ll be doing backstage photo coverage for the show; please watch my twitter for live updates. Final photos will be posted to Facebook.

Don’t forget to check out h.NAOTO USA’s Facebook and Tumblr and support their awesome clothing!!

Silly photos are the best!

Cosplay from “Sailor Moon”

cosplayers: Callesto, Daydreamernessa, Exastra, Meru, Sparklepipsi

Masako Photography

Happy April, everyone! The sakura are starting to bloom here in San Francisco, a reminder that the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival is coming up soon. Celebrating its 45th year, the festival will be held over two weekends: - April 14 & 15 - April 21 & 22 The Grand Parade on Sunday, April 22— Most notably, the Grand Parade that cosplayers are invited to march in will be on this last day. This is also when the “Anime Contest Awards” and “Anime Talent Show” will be held. The parade starts at SF Civic Center and ends in Japantown—I’ll be photographing at least the Japantown portion. This festival is a huge celebration of Japanese culture, and it’s great fun. Check out the festival’s official website for more info: http://www.nccbf.org
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Happy April, everyone! The sakura are starting to bloom here in San Francisco, a reminder that the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival is coming up soon.

Celebrating its 45th year, the festival will be held over two weekends:

- April 14 & 15

- April 21 & 22

The Grand Parade on Sunday, April 22— Most notably, the Grand Parade that cosplayers are invited to march in will be on this last day. This is also when the “Anime Contest Awards” and “Anime Talent Show” will be held.

The parade starts at SF Civic Center and ends in Japantown—I’ll be photographing at least the Japantown portion. This festival is a huge celebration of Japanese culture, and it’s great fun. Check out the festival’s official website for more info:

http://www.nccbf.org

San Francisco’s Japantown in 8-bit wonder. :D Check out Google Maps— Are you part of the video game today? (Click on “Quest” for the pixel map)
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San Francisco’s Japantown in 8-bit wonder. :D

Check out Google Maps— Are you part of the video game today? (Click on “Quest” for the pixel map)

The art-sharing site Deviantart has featured a photo of mine as a Daily Deviation! Congrats to the featured cosplayer gbright1—she did a fantastic job on her cosplay of Mai from “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Avatar, MaiAbove is a test shot taken just before the final Daily Deviation shot. This was a pretty unique setup, and hopefully the following detail will provide insight into what made the bottom DD photo more successful. We were on the stairs of a building opposite a steep ditch. There was a good amount of foliage serving as a backdrop for the shot since the branches of the trees were already at our eye-level. This trick in perspective increases the effect that she’s “flying” towards the viewer. I decided to move the frame up because the asphalt road didn’t fit with the Avatar series’ depiction of the fire nation environment. Also, this helped with the “flying” effect.It was a windy day so we didn’t have to wait long for a gust to blow by. The cosplayer is not moving—her lunging posture with one leg in front gives the illusion that she’s in motion and running to attack the viewer. Overall, there were a bunch of elements working together to make this photo more than just a cosplayer standing on stairs. Figuring out tricks like this in cosplay photography helps immensely, especially when you have scenery and location limitations.
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The art-sharing site Deviantart has featured a photo of mine as a Daily Deviation! Congrats to the featured cosplayer gbright1—she did a fantastic job on her cosplay of Mai from “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Avatar, Mai

Above is a test shot taken just before the final Daily Deviation shot. This was a pretty unique setup, and hopefully the following detail will provide insight into what made the bottom DD photo more successful.


We were on the stairs of a building opposite a steep ditch. There was a good amount of foliage serving as a backdrop for the shot since the branches of the trees were already at our eye-level. This trick in perspective increases the effect that she’s “flying” towards the viewer.

 I decided to move the frame up because the asphalt road didn’t fit with the Avatar series’ depiction of the fire nation environment. Also, this helped with the “flying” effect.

It was a windy day so we didn’t have to wait long for a gust to blow by. The cosplayer is not moving—her lunging posture with one leg in front gives the illusion that she’s in motion and running to attack the viewer.


Overall, there were a bunch of elements working together to make this photo more than just a cosplayer standing on stairs. Figuring out tricks like this in cosplay photography helps immensely, especially when you have scenery and location limitations.