Hunting the Elusive

Animania Sydney ran over the weekend, 5 and 6 September 2009. It was held at the Australian Technology Park (I scoped the place in May, see the last four photos in this gallery). This is I believe the second year that Animania has been held at this venue, and it looks like it is working out well, because the space easily deals with the crowd, with only the female toilets seeming a bit stressed, and the dealer tables having to deal with crowds in that section due to popularity. As one of the larger anime-dedicated cons for Sydney (if not THE largest), Animania presented a large range of cosplayers of great quality, though an acquaintance suggests Manifest’s cosplay quality is of a higher calibre. Remember that this post is just a summary of shots, so check out the full galleries: [Gallery Day 1 | Sub-gallery: Day 1 Shoots] [Gallery Day 2]

Most of the photos I took were of cosplayers (heck, let’s just say all of them). It never ceases to surprise me the quality of the cosplayers at the cons, and I think Moe Moe Rabu’s adun has it right in that many of the quality cosplayers do not enter the competitions, so doing the rounds on the floor is very important, and should in fact take higher priority over the competition.

Saw some pretty awesome children cosplayers as well. This one from day 1, and a Cardcaptor Sakura one from day 2.

Some may recall I had pretty dismal results from shooting previous conventions, but a perusal of photography forums led me to the shutter dragging + rear sync technique which wedding photographer use (similar conditions to a con). The effects of this practice are most clearly visible in the picture below.

When it was time for the cosplay competition on day one, I was positioned up front with my standard zoom lens (had been using a 24mm for the floor shoots). This made for an angled perspective and the bottom of people cut off by the raised stage, but overall the results were good.

By the time Saturday had finished, I was pretty exhausted. This meant reduced performance for Sunday, which was also a bit quieter for the con (although crowds still built up toward the middle of the day). Since I hadn’t reviewed my Saturday photos, I set the ISO up to 400 for the second day, and this produced much noisier photos.

I really loved the lighting near the windows.

Sunday may have been quieter, but it by no means meant the cosplays were of lower quality.

Perhaps the best Black Rock Shooter cosplay I have seen thus far.

Madara et al did a Kuroshitsuji group.

I didn’t take a lot of the competition because this time round, I was standing near a column, which meant I could see the whole stage, but had to snipe in the telephoto range. Managed to catch some cosplayers after the comp.

More of two of the cosplayers below (Straw and Minami) will be posted on Pixels later on in the week (did a Code Geass shoot with them the prior weekend).

After hanging out a bit outside, I was feeling decidedly tired, so I retired.

Although the venue was good, in terms of negatives, I think an issue has to do with the food stalls, which were located within the exhibition hall. Despite the venting systems used, the smell of oil and fried food was still quite dominant at the con. This could be resolved perhaps by running a more effective ventilation system to pipe the cooking fumes out through one of the side doors.

Technical lessons learnt:

- ISO 200 + shutter dragging + rear sync is the ideal combo for my equipment

- Natural lighting is a blessing which should not be underestimated

- Despite disadvantages of being up near the stage, the results tend to turn out better than sniping

- 24mm (36 on crop) is great for cons. All hail 24mm

- SpectraLight diffuser is easier to cart around, more portable, more flexible and less obstructive than the Lightsphere. It will serve as my primary portable flash diffuser.

Other coverage:

MoeMoeRabu

Crescent Elusion