It’s a couple of months late, but here we are! My Katsucon photography report for 2023!
For those of you who are not familiar, Katsucon is an anime convention that is held in the East Coast around Valentine’s Day week and weekend - this convention celebrates Japanese culture, and is very well known for it’s location at the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel and Convention Center. The windows, marble flooring, fountain atrium with restaurants and shops, and the scenic view of the Potomac draws hundreds of fans from the East Coast and beyond.
My first experiences of Katuscon were when I cosplayed with my friends. Each year the convention scene gets bigger and bigger with beautiful and unique costumes and cosplayers. I’ve even observed over the years that photography got more popular, and this year was my first official convention photography experience since launching my professional business.
I will say that I was EXTREMELY intimidated knowing that I would be showcasing my work to hundreds of people on Facebook. Many have already booked their photographers and cosplays weeks and months in advance, but I figured that the least I could do is try. There were bound to be cosplayers looking for photographers last minute, and while the competition and rates seemed fierce, I couldn’t deter my drive and motivation to get my name out there.
You know how many photoshoots I actually booked AND held?
ONE.
Now for many of you who have been following me for a while, this may come to you as a shock. “But you advertised so much on the group pages!” “But your work is so good!” “Your rates are reasonable!” Believe me… I KNOW. While there are a lot of factors that do come into play for why I did or didn’t land on successful bookings, it didn’t mean I was going to give up. Regardless of the numbers, it didn’t matter; what did matter was how I was going to work and grow in this environment and community. I was eager and ready!
I promise I’ll talk about that shoot later in the blog.
My strategy was to start my photography early in the morning and then stop in the evenings to allow myself to eat, rest, and have fun with my friends. (I have to have balance in all the fun after all!) I find that my biggest strength was doing photoshoots in the daylight, and when everyone came out to play… Played, they did! I was in awe of the beautiful and creative costumes that I encountered while wandering around the convention center; some seemed even intimidating to me that I was too bashful to ask for a photo! I guess I was just that mesmerized or something, but there was something that had taken ahold of me to make me stand stiff. There were some cosplays that I had to follow with the crowd just to take a quick snap.
Throughout my times in the convention center, I looked around and observed many of the photographers that were there. Some had backpacks with equipment (I had my black and white Hello Kitty Zumba bag that seemed to suffice), some had flash and lighting materials, some even had HUGE lenses for their cameras that made me question my life decisions as I added to my “Wish List” in my imaginary Amazon list in my mind. I did have the opportunity to meet a few photographers whose work I’ve admired from social media such as Lady Chappelle Cosplay/Photography. They gave me a lot of great tips and advice for how they operated their equipment and business, and I took every bit to heart and consideration. I’m very thankful to them for taking their time and energy to answer my questions; I certainly learned a great deal. They also gave me inspiration of what I can do for my future projects later in the year.
Both Friday and Saturday naturally wore me out from walking around a large venue with the cameras and backpack. I’m very thankful that I was able to purchase a harness for my close and long range Sony cameras - it was a game changer compared to having both camera straps around my neck! Another game changer was bringing my laptop and hard drives to transfer all of my memory cards to back up. One thing I want to change for the next convention event is to be proactive in talking and interacting with other cosplayers to ensure that I get their social media handles to credit them. I made this mistake and regret not doing that (that’s still the shy girl side of me that I’m working on), but you learn from your mistakes!
The main event for my Katsucon weekend was my one photoshoot on Sunday, one that I was really looking forward to shoot: TwinTailsCosplay was interested in getting her cosplay of Shuusuke Fuji of Prince of Tennis done, and as a Prince of Tennis fan myself, I was excited! Originally the shoot was going to be for 15 minutes, but I decided to make the best of it and we actually spent an hour outside near the Potomac. It was the perfect day with sunny skies and clouds, and our model had wonderful energy all throughout the shoot.
Last night, after many weeks of back to back events, I was able to complete and present to SpiritTwinTailsCosplay their photo showcase here on my website! And because they were so wonderful, I added all of my best and favorite photos from our session. It was my way of saying “Thank You” for supporting my photography dream, and appreciation for being a patient and wonderful human being.
One of our favorite highlights from this shoot was that there was a little bee flying by that actually landed on SpiritTwinTails' finger! I wasn't sure if we were going to be okay not knowing if they may be allergic to bees or not, but to my surprise, they weren't afraid of the little guy at all! You'll see in a couple of photos that we made the little one a featured model as well.
SpiritTwinTailsCosplay’s album can be found here.
By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted but also exhilarated. I had so much fun learning so much from others, and was motivated to get my business going even further. So to everyone that I had the opportunity to shoot with - for hall photos or private photoshoots - THANK YOU for having me as your photographer! I’m looking forward with doing more convention/cosplay photography and seeing what more we can create together!
Perhaps I should make a YouTube video on my lifestyle channel with my experiences? Let me know!
Oh, and just because you weren’t able to shoot with me at a convention doesn’t mean that I won’t shoot outside of events! If you are in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and want to get photos done for cosplay, special events, personal/business branding, or portraits, I’m happy to help! Be sure to fill out my questionnaire, and I’m looking forward to producing photography alchemy with you!
With love,
xo Jenni
