Books - Books - Books and a few Cosplayers

It's this time of year again and I am not talking about Christmas, but in some cases it can also bring joy to the people. I am talking about the Book Fair Leipzig (Leipziger Buchmesse) which is finally back on track, meaning it's back in March instead of April (2023) or its little popup "brother" 2 years ago.

heckinginsane

And for me Book Fair always means meeting an insanely huge ammount of Cosplayers. For many years it has been the season opener for the cosplay community, but it lost some of its relevance. It still might be the first big national event for cosplayers, but there are a few smaller yet earlier conventions, e.g. Dedeco in Dresden which can be considered as season openener together with MAG-C in Erfurt.

dianawonder84

lightning_cosplay

yayahan

namina_08

kujakuhime

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dianawonder84

I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow when thousands of anime, manga and game lovers will dress up as their favorite heros. Especially the glass hall will be my main turf as usual, because the light is just so amazing, if the weather plays along, as it normally does. 

Nephelux

alge_sama_cosplay

Namina_08

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I am already very excited and absolutely curious. I have already prepared all of my camera gear and am ready to go for a wild ride of 4 days full of cosplay and otaku related show acts or shopping booths, although those are less relevant for me - too expensive and always the same items that I would not get at any Hard Off yet I could get those for one third of the price.

Nephelux

Let's enjoy the Book Fair Leipzig from March 21st-24th.

EDIT: ...If you can, because the local streetcars and busses are on a strike on Thursday and Friday. 

Written by Iman Shuaibat

DRESSED

It's been a little quiet lately, but that doesn't mean stagnation or stasis.

It has just been a focus shift to other platforms like INSTAGRAM.

Yet still I haven't been standing still, so I want to use this post to share my latest project.

Over the course of the last 15 months I have been doing hundrets of photo shootings with a large ammount of Cosplayers. This collection of over 20.000 pictures was used to pushing forward my idea of an artbook for Cosplay portraits. Beside the many opportunities on conventions I also did a lot of private shootings around Germany, e.g. in a park close to the main station in Erfurt or in several places in Leipzig and Berlin always trying to perfectly match the location and season with the Cosplayers and their costumes. Before I go on, here are a few examples.

Those handpicked pictures and the selected people are pieces of fine art. In late 2021, but actually efficiently in 2022 I really had my first chance of taking pictures in the exact style that I wished to take them. The reason for that is my CANON R5 in combination with my SAMYANG 85mm F1.4, as well as the 24-70 F2.8, 70-200 F4 and a few more from CANON.

This portrait artbook is a piece of passion.

This Book is MORE than just a few portraits of Cosplayers. 

I hope you enjoy the idea of that book.

Here is the Link to that new project - DRESSED - Cosplay Portrait Artbook - preorder your copy on Kickstarter now.

CAGGTUS, Dreamhack and Games Convention Online - Can you tell the difference?

 After the end of the pandamic status the conventions and Cosplay events are starting again, but in the case of the CAGGTUS it seems to be a reboot, replacement or a renaming, because the Dreamhack has left Leipzig and will be held in Hannover for further Dreamhack iterations.

You can find out from April 14th-16th is the CAGGTUS is more than just a Dreamhack/ GC Online in disguise, although in my opinion that would not be bad.

A huge LAN-party for 3 days, Cosplay, Streaming areas, Retro Games, Challenges of all kind and a few more attractions are waiting for you, find out more here:

https://www.caggtus.de/

After visiting the Tokyo Game Show last year and being a little disappointed I am very excited and looking forward to the CAGGTUS. I am actually very curious about the cosplayers, because of TGS's lack of them and because I would love to try my new (old) CANON 300mm 2.8. I will also bring my beloved SAMYANG 85mm 1.4, my Bokeh- and portrait Monster.

XMADDU

After enjoying my last Dreamhack and after this long period without almost any conventions I am happy to experience the new CAGGTUS with the almost exact concept of the Dreamhack.

Hopefully I will be able to make a few new amazing pics like last year's MEX in Berlin

SPINATNAT.ENTE

New Year - new projects

The new year has just started and it's time to get creative again.

Once again I am working on a book, this time it's about places in Japan that are somewhat connected to a story and not just being nice or sightseeing spots.

The book is called "Japan in Black and White" and is live on Kickstarter like the last one already.

I decided to select monochrome pictures, because they deliver a stronger feeling, which is some times quite melancholic depending on the memory, e.g. 

• sleeping in a tree house in Winter with -20°C
• getting a heatstroke and collapsing in front of a temple during my pilgrimage and ending up in hospital with a small kidney damage resulting in being "homeless" and sleeping in an internet café for 3 days
• almost breaking my leg while snowboarding
• being "arrested" for flying a drone in Tokyo
• being "stranded" at night in Okayama - walking and dancing in the streets for 8+ hours
• sleeping in an office

 

The book will contain at least 200 pages and will feature 100+ photos of 100 spots and stories.

Because of Japan's borders still being closed this project is also a way to fight my wanderlust making it some sort of art therapy as well as the book from last year. Being unable to make new memories, discover new places and gather new materials I am forced to stick with my current stock and getting creative with it.

Beside the book project there are 2 more campaigns that I support as project manager:

• Make 100 - Origami Earrings - Make a Wish
• the inspiration was taken from the myth of being granted a wish when folding 1000 origami cranes - 200 of those cranes, using 3,75x3,75cm sheets, will be used to create earrings - in addition there's an addons to buy a set of origami figures on top making it possible coming closer to 1000

• MAKE 100 - Handdrawn Portrait Prints
• after editing photos in too many different ways I reached a "limit" until I rediscovered drip painting - I always liked that abstract painting technique but was never able to paint it digitally until I bought a graphic tablet and Clip Studio Paint and found a way to combine that technique with editing my portraits
• 100 different portraits are offered as 15x15cm high quality prints on cardboard

Maybe you like these projects and consider supporting them, I would be happy.

Thank you in advance - Enjoy!

New Kickstarter Project - Postcards of Japan VOL. II

I've created yet another Kickstarter campaign, once again it's about postcards.

You can find it here:

Postcards of japan VOL. II

Regarding the postcard sets and their rewards I took some inspiration from other projects, so I reduced the final goal to 150€ and "locked" the other sets behind stretch goals to keep full control of my costs, because during the last 2 projects I got carried away a little.

I hope you like and enjoy the idea and that campaign and I would be happy if you consider supporting it

It's a long way

Indeed it is and I don't mean the pilgrimage on Shikoku - I hope my next approach will be better - I am actually talking about the Kickstarter campaign for my illustrated book.

We've already achieved ~20% but there is still a lot left.

Uwajima

Beside the project page of 日本の城 - Japanese Castles I will show you a few pages of the book giving you a better idea of the book and its 292 pages with 400+ pictures of 19 castles.

There won't be any text, except for the preface giving you the opportunity to completely focus on the pictures. Every chapter is having one page with a family crest, this resemples the daimyo (samurai lord) clan that either build or is connected the most to the history or the relevance of that specific castle, e.g. Fushimi/Momoyama castle in Kyoto got the emblem of the Toyotomi clan, who's leader Hideyoshi built the castle, in Uwajima it's a mixture between the Ashina and Date clan and a 3rd example is about Kiyosu castle which was the residence of Oda Nobunaga.

I would appreciate every support - Thank you!

Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima

Kiyosu Castle in Nagoya

Osaka

Fushimi

Okayama

Hiroshima