Steamkittens @steamkittens - Tumblr Blog

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Abby Darkstar - Lara Croft from Tomb Raider Oz Comiccon 2015

In 2015 Oz Comic-Con came to Adelaide for the first time. They engaged the cosplay photography community by introducing the photowall and the two-hour slots for local photographers. They also had Cosplay Central with cosplayer guests both local and international. On the Saturday I did a shoot with Abby Dark-Star, Keith Zen and Eve Beauregard in their Archer cosplays. I had very limited time and my flashes would not fire. I only found out later that night that my flash trigger had a bent pin and I worked out that if I pushed down on it to make the connection as I fired it would work so the Sunday I was better prepared.

On day two Abby wore her classic Lara Croft cosplay and I was the only photographer getting an exclusive shoot. It was just the two of us, I had no assistants to move lights or take BTS footage. We went across to the large empty hall across from the main building. I was using a single Jinbei HD600 with a square softbox.

Against one wall was a forklift I decided to use for a couple of shots.

In collecting resources for this post I realised there were still some great images I never got to process, this is the case with most shoots but I was inspired to work on this new unreleased image.

This was probably my first image to be turned into a print and sold at Cons all over the world, it's also used on her Business Card.

Taken the same day in the same location this image shows the cast I was wearing as I had shattered my wrist just prior to the event.

Cosplayer: Abby Darkstar https://www.facebook.com/abbydarkstar/ https://www.instagram.com/abbydarkstar/

#sksteamcard #lara croft #cosplay

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San and Moro from Princess Mononoke Private Shoot | 2015

This shoot represented a number of firsts and milestones.

As with Zalaria’s Deathwing (Steamcard 002) this was shot in the gorge between Flinders University and Medical Centre and I believe was the first time I used the location.

My friend Gemma put me in touch with Renee, Kuma owner when I said I was looking for a white dog to play Moro in this photoshoot. I also believe this was the first time I used an animal in a cosplay shoot. We did have the issue of Kuma staring at where ever his treats were but if Renee walked too far away like over to the camera to get Kuma to look he would want to run after her.

I also believe this was the first time I used smoke effects on set.

Thank you to Allana Zumbo for the BTS shots

Jimmy's end of shoot selfie with Kuma.

SAN: Catroulette https://www.instagram.com/catroulett3/

MORO: Kuma https://www.instagram.com/kuma_the_samoyed/

#sksteamcard #mononoke #cosplay

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Cat Scratch Cosplay - Harley Quinn from Batman/DC Universe Private Shoot | 2015

Taylor posts a lot of makeup tests to her social media and she posted a makeup test of her classic Harley Quinn.

The very first time I ever met (and shot) Taylor was in this cosplay minus the makeup at the OCC photowall early in 2015. So we organised an outing to shoot.

I had organised a shoot with Floksy Locksy Cosplay at St. Peter’s Cathedral in North Adelaide and thought Id take the opportunity to use the location for both.

I had borrowed an old camera of my friend Jason and while stylistically was very different to the artwork I wanted to recreate a shot reminiscent of the Killing Joke image.

#cosplay #harley quinn

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Shona Johnson - Lara Croft from Tomb Raider PAX AU 2015

I had first met Shona at PAX is 2014 where I shot her at the end of the day next to the river in her classic Lara cosplay. I was shooting with a single speedlite on a stand with a small pop up softbox. It was quite a windy day and while I was looking at the back of my camera at my previous shot I heard a crash and I looked up to see my light had blown over the chain railing and was sliding down the sloped embankment towards the water with Lara leaping to action to save it, quite a surreal sight that I will always remember.

A year later at PAX 2015 I ran into Shona again in her 'Rise of the Tomb Raider' outfit. She had a number of props including a pistol, bow, the iconic red ice pick as well as a glow stick which we try to use but really looked a bit small and ambiguous what it was.

My friend and fellow Adelaide photographer Houng was standing next to me and he uses Ice Lights which I've always wanted to play with more so he lent me his for this shot, so the image is entirely lit with the Ice Light that Shona is holding. The red glow down the bottom was added in post to add more atmosphere. So I really love this photo because its the only image I have done where the model is basically lighting themselves in frame.

There is of course a logic issue as you would obviously be pointing the light ahead of you so you can see where you are going and not lighting yourself.

Shona is famous for her portrayals of Lara Croftand was one of the cosplayers featured in the anniversary retrospective book ' 20 Years of Tomb Raider: Digging Up the Past, Defining the Future' where she chose one of my photos to be featured.

#lara croft #sksteamcard

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Major Sam Cosplay - Belle from Beauty and the Beast Supanova Adelaide 2013

Early days for both of us! Sam refers to this as a baby photo. Technically the second time I shot Major Sam as I had taken some photos of her Jessica Rabbit the day before.

It was after this day at Supanova I went home and created Steamkittens, and this is the only shot from that weekend and so the oldest photo on a Steamcard.

This shot was taken at Adelaide Supanova in November 2013 and I have been lucky enough to shoot Sam on multiple occasions since then.

Unreleased image from that day.

You can tell this is an old photo it's shot with a Nikon!

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Zalaria Cosplay - Deathwing from World of Warcraft Based on Art by Zach Fischer Private Shoot 2016

From my second shoot with Zalaria Cosplay, the first had been a month earlier of her World of Warcraft character Sylvanas Windrunner. This time we were shooting another WoW character, Deathwing designed by Zach Fischer who originally designed it for Jessica Nigri to cosplay.

We shot in the pine tree-filled gorge between Flinders University and Medical Centre which is pretty close to my house so it is a good shoot location and I had used it 3-4 times. The sloping terrain can make it a bit of a challenge though. Following the shoot, I did a customary social media post talking about spending the afternoon falling about taking photos, little did I know at the time it was my neuro condition starting to surface.

This shoot was a milestone for another reason, I had two new assistants Maddie and Mikayla (soon to be known as M&M) and who would be my constant companions for the next year helping me with every shoot. The help over those months these two provided was invaluable.

It's always good to have other females on set, particularly female cosplayers when shooting. They can help the model with her costume and any adjustments that she may need help with, they know how to repair stuff and what to look for when shooting, costume or hair out of place etc.

#cosplay #deathwing #world of warcraft

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Yaya Han - Wizard from Diablo 3 Oz ComicCon Brisbane 2015

I first met Yaya at AVcon in July 2015 and while we got to shoot briefly she said if I could make it to Brisbane OCC we would have more time.

So I made the trip, it was the first time I’d been to Queensland and it's still one of my memorable cons. We organised a time during her lunch break to meet at Cosplay Central. It was Yaya, myself, Kris (What a Big Camera) who I’d just met for the first time, Ally McLean and a couple of OCC minders who set off to a location Yaya wanted to use. We trailed around the venue and across to the riverbank and ended up at the beautiful Nepalese Peace Pagoda on South Bank. Apparently, Yaya had seen it while riding the Ferris wheel the previous day, which was just up from the Pagoda.

We had limited time as both Kris and I were shooting so I quickly put up my lights and we did a number of setups, which drew a bit of attention because the Pagoda is a popular tourist attraction.

I placed a light just inside the doors with a blue gel on it and had a 90cm octa-softbox out front both you can make out in the behind the scenes stills below.

This image is a popular print on her site and was one of two of my images in her 2016 Calendar and most recently was seen in the 2022 doco Cosplay Universe.

Below - Yaya using an image from the shoot on her appearance poster at London Film and Comic Con 2022

Behind the Scene: https://youtu.be/jMx1NTZOZJM

#cosplay #yaya han #diablo #cosplayphotography #steamkittens

Out of Camera to Final of this shot of sweet.cheekk taken in Melbourne April 2023

Shoot Breakdown - Xanetia Sunset Shoot 2

My third shoot of the year and second with Xanetia. I returned to Brighton Beach which I'd used at the end of March 2022 on a shoot with Maddy but I had messed up the sunset time and got there just as the sun was hitting the water so it was all a bit rushed.

I really like the location though and wanted to return. As I mentioned in the previous breakdown most Adelaide jetties are very similar, it's just the seating designs that vary, Brighton has the best seating with benches which allow for the best seated posing options. Brighton jetty has a unique design with the rotunda at the halfway point and the tower at the end. Additionally, the landscaping along the pathway with rocks and boulders I can actually access makes it a far more versatile location for me.

I let Xanetia pick her own wardrobe, I just said something Summery and after my previous jetty shoot where the temperature plummeted soon as the sun set I suggested bringing something warmer we could use in shots if needed and a white thinner shirt we could use earlier in the shoot. I am a big fan of shirts as you can shoot with them on, with them off, and make some interesting shapes with them.

I often used Google Maps to scope locations and was keen to check out the ramp I spotted to the right of the jetty. I got there earlier to look around and indeed the ramp was excellent I just wished it was to the left of the jetty as that would put the setting sun behind the jetty, which would have been perfect. Sunset was at 8pm and the plan was to shoot from 6.45-8.45.

While looking around I identified 4 usable spots, which are indicated in the image below.

LOCATION A - 6.45pm - For this location, I had my wheelchair next to a bench seat with Xanetia on a rock just in front of me. The first few shots are always to calibrate to the available light. Once again, we had zero cloud cover, so the sun was a bit harsh and we'd need to wait a few minutes for the sun to drop lower and lose some intensity but we set up and started shooting anyway. The sun did provide a beautiful rim light perfect for a single light shoot. Once again we were shooting with a Godox AD300 with a gridded Godox 85CM AD-S85S Deep Parabolic Softbox.

7.00pm - We changed to some standing shots just as the light started to come to us more an hour before Sunset, It is called the Golden hour for a reason.

I haven't had a Sony for very long so I don't have the wide range of lenses as I do for my Canon so for Xmas I bought myself a Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS and this was my first time trying it on a shoot. I was worried that the f4 might not give enough depth of field but it wasn't an issue especially at the full 105mm. We didn't have the wind as we had on our first shoot but every now and then we'd get a bit of movement through the hair.

This wide-angle shot includes Leighlan with the AD300 and shows our 1-light setup.

Anyone who I've shot at a con knows I am a fan of an over-the-shoulder. I asked Xanetia to put the hair over the shoulder so we could see the shoulder blades and the lace at the back of the top and as she did the wind picked up and blew the hair in her face and I got the beautiful shot with her smiling. It's these natural smiles I'd love to capture more.

Next up we gave the legs a workout and changed to some squatting poses. These work well because you can get some nice angles and shapes with the legs.

While we started with one knee on the ground we changed to this stance instead which I like way more as it adds tension through the body creating a much better more dynamic pose.

LOCATION B - 7.20pm - I then basically pivoted from where I was and had Xanetia stand against the railing of the stairs that were behind me.

LOCATION C - 7.38pm - Our third location was probably my favourite. A concrete ramp that got me almost down to ground level with rocks lining it. Most beach ramps are covered in sand and impossible to traverse in a wheelchair.

Here is a shot showing just the ambient light we got without the flash. You can see the rim light the sun provided on our model. As mentioned in previous breakdowns Shutter Speed controls the background exposure and flash power controls the light on your model.

I did try some stretch shots but couldn't really get the shapes I wanted with the shirt but I do like the symmetry and balance in this shot with the tower in the background.

We had started sitting on top of the rock but moved to a lower position to have the rocks around Xanetia at a more relative height. I also like that we got the sail of the boat on the right side of this image I cropped to be more panoramic to extenuate the length of the jetty and horizon.

Another wide angle to show our surroundings and Leighlans position with the light. I was on the opposite side of the path so we were very aware to let beachgoers through. Something I'm very mindful of when shooting in shared spaces.

We then basically rotated Xanetia onto the rock opposite her and I got her to wrap the shirt around her and I really like these shots with the more hunched pose and the left shoulder out.

8.00pm - It wouldn't be a sunset shoot without a silhouette hair flip. I'll do another post of a video I made of all the hair flip frames but here is a couple. I wish I'd actually shot a video of it as well.

8.10pm - Just as the sun hit the water I got Xanetia to jump over the rocks and stand on the sand for this series of shots.

LOCATION D - 8.20pm - Finally we moved onto the middle part of the jetty to utilise the bench seats. At this point, you are constantly changing settings to deal with the rapidly dropping ambient light, which basically means lowering the Shutter Speed to make the background brighter and compensating by dropping the flash power to keep both in balance. We did get a nice breeze playing with the shirt and surprisingly the air temperature stayed quite warm.

With the sun falling below the horizon it kicked up an amazing orange sky that would have been just incredible if we had some clouds but we did get some beautiful silhouettes of people on the jetty.

8.37pm - Here is a shot just showing the ambient light I was getting at this point.

8.50pm - we wrap up shooting as the light is fading.

Overview

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Location: Brighton Jetty, South Australia

Date: Sunday 19th February 2023

Model: Xanetia

Assistant: Leighlan Doe

Shoot Time: 2 hours

Total Frames: 430

#skbreakdown

Working on the Breakdown of my second shoot with Xanetia.

Shoot Breakdown - Xanetia Sunset Shoot

I generally only shoot over interstate con weekends, either at the event or side shoots at the hotel. Interstate location shoots are just too difficult given the logistics involved, in finding a location in a city I don't know well and the effort of getting around with my disability plus the con takes up most of the time and side shoots are squeezed in around the event usually in the evening. What I really want to do is more outdoor shoots with interesting backgrounds and beautiful ambient light.

Every year I plan to get out and shoot more in Adelaide but while I know hundreds of cosplayers interstate I know relatively few people in my hometown.

So the plan is to try and shoot most weekends. With the beautiful warm weather at the moment, I planned a couple of beach shoots. One of the benefits of Adelaide is the coastline directly faces the setting sun so you get uninterrupted golden light. I like to shoot at sunset because apart from the golden hour you don’t have to worry about cloud cover like you do earlier in the day and getting harsh overhead light from the sun and needing much more powerful strobes to combat it.

I've been trying to use different jetty's so they don't all look the same but the funny thing is most have identical railings and all look the same anyway but do have small differences, the main one is the seating design which is a major consideration. For this one, we chose Grange Jetty because the seats aren't indented or have handrails at the end. Like all beaches on a hot Australian weekend getting any sort of a park was near impossible let alone a disabled park near the jetty. Jetty’s are perfect in Adelaide because the lead to the horizon with the setting sun behind the model and create beautiful leading lines in the photo.

We started shooting around 7.15pm (with sunset at 8.34pm), the sun was just to the left of the jetty so shooting a pose at the railing was almost directly at the sun. I started off at 1/1000 (above left is the very first test frame) and slowly worked my way up to the Sony a7iii's max shutter speed of 1/8000.

With the sun so harsh it wasn't until we changed the angle that we finally achieved a better balance between ambient and flash. With this type of photography, the basic rule is Shutter Speed controls the background exposure and the flash power controls the model exposure and it's getting a nice balance of the two to get the perfect shot.

Below you can see a final processed image along with the purely ambient light and the out-of-camera frame with flash.

The other thing you'll notice between the final and the out-of-camera is the corrected horizon line. The majority of shots have been corrected to have the horizon square to the image. Human beings generally prefer straight, levelled lines instead of odd angles. When you hang a photo in your living room, why do you want to align it perfectly with the ceiling, floor, or furniture? And how off-putting is it when you see and crooked photo? We just find straight lines more aesthetically pleasing. That being said you'll see some of the images here that don't have straight lines, there are either deliberate choices or the images aren't going to be output and are here to show some other element.

I was shooting with a Godox AD300 with a gridded Godox 85CM AD-S85S Deep Parabolic Softbox. I meant to take off the grid but forgot, so I would have lost a lot of light. I didn't have a second helper so I didn't get any BTS material but the light was being handheld on a pole like the image below from a shoot a few weeks earlier.

7.30pm - We moved to the bench seat and did a few sitting poses with the light to the right of the camera and using the sun as a hair/rim light. I don't generally like visual clutter behind my subjects like groups of people too close. It's ok if they're a good distance away and are artistically blurred by the depth-of-field into nice shapes. We had a number of frames where Xanetia looked amazing, with the perfect wind in the hair but there was a large group of people crowding the scene however I like the shot on the right because she is haloed by the people, a light pole, and two beautifully placed birds.

7.43pm - We then tried a few shots without the shirt. In this shot leaning forward, I didn't correct the horizon to accentuate the lean.

I was shooting directly into the sun and was maxing the camera out at 1/8000. I don't believe I've gotten anywhere near that before. I could barely see a hazy silhouette in front of me with the sun in my face so I have no idea what the camera focused on, especially at f/2.

8.00pm - Half an hour before sunset the light was finally coming to us with the intensity noticeably dropping. It's around this time you get the best mix of ambient and flash.

I love the first image with the leading lines of the jetty and its railing shadows heading to the horizon. Again the second image has a non-corrected horizon to accentuate the lean....or I just forgot

8.12pm - The next few are probably my favourite shots of the shoot. We added the white shirt and got beautiful rim light from the sun on the legs. By this time with the rapidly falling ambient light, you are constantly scrolling Shutter speed and flash power to compensate.

8.26pm - A few minutes before sunset the wind started to pick up which was perfect. I always want a lot of hair movement, it adds so much to an image. You want to take lots of images because everyone will be different and give you a wide choice for the one you find most aesthetically pleasing.

In the first image, I really like the angle of the face but the 90-degree piece of hair just looks awkward.

8.30pm - As the sun hit the water we swapped sides to get it in frame. At this point, the wind really picked up so much that my assistant had an issue holding to light too high but it had a good effect on the hair and shirt.