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Photo shoots, are they organized?


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My friends, who cosplayed for two different groups, had trouble finding anyone who was organizing the photo shoots down in the lobby. In both cases, we had to take it upon ourselves to start looking for people who were cosplaying the same series/game and corral them together ourselves. Once the group got big enough, anyone arriving could easily spot us, but I was wondering if there was supposed to be any con staff orchestrating these photo shoots, because I can imagine that without anyone willing to take the initiative, some of them may not have actually happened.

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Actually, there was no Otakon staff organization of the various cosplay photo shoots. For the most part they have all be organized by members looking to put something together on their own.

However, having some staff involvement is something we've talked about trying from year to year, but it has usually been set aside so that bigger concerns could be met first.

Of course we also had our Photosuite up on the 300 level across the hall from the Otacafe, where people could have met up en masse and had their pictures taken under professional lighting and with backdrops.

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Fans organize the Photoshoots every year through a website called cosplay.com. That is where I linked to the 150 plus photoshoots in Cosplay forum a couple of weeks before con.

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It would be awesome if Otakon found the space and manpower to get the cosplay.com guys to move their photoshoots to, say, the 300 level fountains, where it's less populated and you can still get nice pictures. Make the schedule centralized, put a Photo Suite staffer there, problem solved.

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I Attended the Fullmetal alchemist photo shoot on sat. as Edward and it was very disorganized. Everyone just kinda did random things and we were slowly merging under the overhang so no one from the balcony could see us. Everyone was in a circle so it was difficult to get pictures or get your picture taken. I was kinda just standing there like...whaa??? It would have been better if everyone just stood against the wall and then took turns. Everyone kinda broke up into their own groups. Im not one to run a photo shoot but we should have had a better plan ^^; i got more pictures taken of me just walking around by myself!! Plus it should have been in a place where there was more room like on the fountains balcony

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There have been a few requests that the Photo Suite take charge of the photo shoots in the past but so far we have not had the space or manpower to take charge of it. Taking over the fountain area for photo shoots in general would be a little unfair to the congoers in general since it would take away quite a bit of hangout space (plus the lighting is really harsh during mid day). Next year however, with the addition of the new convention center hotel (the Hilton that opened this year just a week too late for us to use it) we may find the space we need. We will keep it in mind when we are planning out room reorganization this fall.

Until then, I agree that cosplay.com is the default place to go and find out info on group photo shoots.

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At most cons, cosplay gatherings (photoshoots) aren't organized by the convention itself. It's usually by attendees who start a gathering thread on the convention website and/or cosplay.com. It usually ends up being something like:

-Thread is formed with a title like "such-and-such Gathering 20XX"

-People will post who are planning on attending and what they are cosplaying as

-Sometimes the thread starter will compile and constantly update the first post with this information

-Once enough interest is generated, the posters will plan amongst themselves in the thread about a time, day, and location

-Conflicts will be addressed (usually with other gatherings as the longer a thread waits to set a day and time the greater the chance of being close to another gathering)

-While not found on all forums, there may be a master gathering thread that will list all gatherings with their time, day, and location

-Sometimes attendees will coordinate with the staffers to have some signs up around the convention itself with the master gathering list printed on them and organized by day and time

-At the gathering itself, it is usually organized by the people there

-Usually one person will take charge to coordinate various group shots (like "all characters from from this organization" then "all of this character" etc)

-'Action' poses and other requested poses will also be done.

-Groups will usually count down to announce the end of that particular pose/group shot rather than waiting for every photo to be taken as this can take a long time with people who just wander by stopping to take a picture

I'm a regular cosplayer at Fanime and the gatherings there are always fun and pretty large. Not to mention the crowds we get since there's a master list on the forums and all over the convention hall. Plus a big part of it is BSaphire who helps to organize everything with her mast list ^_^ . You can find an example by looking at her thread for the next Fanime here.

Edited by Evangelion Xgouki
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As one of the amateur photographers walking the floor I think it's important that any photobooth offering professional services be sequestered away somewhere accessible, but away from main gathering areas. Having the freedom to walk around and ask for an individual picture or drop in on a group shot is what makes the con for me, just like other people go primarily to buy stuff from the dealer's room. And while studio photography has its place, I personally find it much more interesting to shoot in the wild environment of the main gathering areas. Not to mention that all the zany stuff goes on there, too.

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;-; i missed the one piece photo shoot. I was only about 20-30mins later than the time and for some reason most of the pirates had already vanished..

so sad my fiancee and i were Luffy and Shanks (respectively).

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