In the fashionable splendor of a barren wasteland

Moving away from the uncontrolled wilderness of a controlled convention space to the controlled space of the wilderness.

Cosplay photographers, at least in this part of the country, have been moving away from the convention-centered orientation of cosplay photography, toward planning independent shoots in a variety of locations.

it's no surprise that photographers would move toward private shoots.  Conventions are a hard place to take pictures.  Too many people moving around, no significant control of backdrops, lack of privacy -- conventions frankly are a horrible place for photography.  Private shoots eliminate most of these issues, and offer some exclusivity to boot.  There's also the fact that the right background can give the right feel to a photograph of a character or costume.  And that means inspiration to make a good shot.

In the specific case of this shoot, the desert backdrop is a great substitute for the world of Gurren Lagann, barren of humanity.  In Southern California, we are blessed (or cursed) with living right in the middle of a massive desert.  A desolate wasteland -- just like the post-apocalyptic setting of Gurren Lagann.  So we went out and found a local vast expanse of rugged and unforgiving terrain -- Red Rock Canyon State Park.

Setting up shoots like this is not a trivial matter.  There's a lot of pre-shoot logistical work to do, people to get together, matters to arrange.  At the shoot, we've got to manage our time carefully and leave as little to chance as possible.  It's taken some practice, but we've learned a few things.

Start with getting everyone together and picking a day.  Here, we use modern social networks.  LiveJournal and Facebook are our primary tools, but we also use good old-fashioned internet forums.  And of course, there's always email.  In this case we were approached by the cosplayers, and we all agreed that it sounded like a fun idea.  Eventually we picked a weekend and went out to the park.

Even so, our scheduling problems weren't over.  Something like this is an investment -- we had to drive two hours to get there, and spend a couple hours getting into costume.  All that, and the prime shooting time, sunset, only lasts about an hour -- the legendary "Blue Hour."  Planning is crucial.  For instance, with this shoot, we failed to leave ourselves enough time to handle getting into costume.  While we had enough time to finish shooting, it was _just_ enough; we were finished just as night was starting to fall at our venue.  Had getting into costume taken any longer, we would've been in trouble.

We had to rush.  The moral?  It always takes longer than you think.

Thankfully, at Red Rock, we only had a small group, so we were able to keep everything moving along.

There's a lesson here:  for private shoots, flexibility and mobility are paramount.  If you can't keep the group size down, then split people up, get them moving, keep them engaged.  The thing about mobility is that it lets you change pictures around quickly and follow your ideas.  You can shift poses and backgrounds practically on a whim.  The pictures end up better, and the cosplayers have more fun.

One of the unexpected realities of cosplay photography is the problem of finding an appropriate location to shoot at.  Security guards are trained to be suspicious of anyone with a camera, it seems.  This makes knowing the rules of the shooting venue and your own rights important.  For example, in most public places (ie: not private property), it is generally legal to take pictures for non-commercial purposes without need for permits.  This makes public parks and similar really great places to do cosplay shoots.

Unfortunately, some parks just aren't very appealing to look at.  The more places you know, the more places you can pick from.  Advance research is a good thing.  And such information yearns to be free, and locations beg to be used multiple times.  (So post your good pictures, and tell us where you took them.)

But really, it's all about the shooting in the end.  And the ability to control the elements leads to great payoffs.