Recap to NYC Greenwich Halloween Parade 2010

DJ Ozma inspired...

This is a pretty late entry, but for my memory purposes. Not that it is any shape and form relevant to Japanese culture, unless you count the amount of Asians I saw this year, as well as the occasional anime costume wearing people, then this is one possible activity that adults in New York City do on Halloween that is different from the kiddies going trick or treating.

The Greenwich Halloween Parade is a procession of people in costume walking from Spring Street to a designated area. This is an annual parade that occurs in NYC, that if applied earlier and with good reasoning – then it is a treasure trove of photographs to be taken.

Brain anyone?

This is my first year as press for the venue, so other than feeling some soreness, it is a good practice for night time photography. So other than following the directions of the NYPD, and surrendering a majority of images for press photos, as well as following with a lot of other photographers, and fighting positions for the best poses/shots.. then my memories of Halloween is going to be something like this for the time being. Much like cosplay, I really am not sure if I have the interest to go dress up.

Some costumes that stood out for me

• The Chile miners, people seen the rescue, so what else can people dress up as?
• Bedbugs, yes NYC has an infestation.
• Outlandish costumes such as naked girls, paint girls, padded guys, woman and her tampon, laundry – are quite memorable for me. I didn’t get an image of the woman and her tampon, but yes I can remember it and chuckle.
• A group of Japanese dressed and dancing to DJ Ozma’s Bounce With Me… that is easily one of my favorite moments of the parade. That song while, very very tacky is memorable in being a highly wtf moment on Kohaku a couple of years ago.

Monkey King

A gallery of my images are all available here for print sale or perusal, so these images.. I share are only a snippet of my memories.

NYC’s Lower East Side Eroge Figures on Display

Before I forget and the news grow old, I figure that I would need to blog about my experiences with what I first heard AnimeVice reporting about. Eroge figures on display. One of the lucky things about New York Cities, is the galleries that dot the city. Free admission to see displayed art. I have been going to galleries for a bit now, from, and this is definitely something that would make an adult figure fan collector say wow…anime figures going fine arts in America. So the gallery is Gallery Nine 5 near Spring Street.

I went on Friday, a couple of weeks before Utada concert, and I never got the chance to go back. The display didn’t take up the entire store, half of it – but with a timed interest. This display was up to February 12 and that’s it. I found figures I might have recognized, and some others are of a submissive/dominant variety which I find myself saying wow..

All the figures depict woman in states of undress or BDSM inspired, or sexual poses. Some figures are from Queen’s Blade, Bakuretsu Hunters, Ah My Goddess, Bible Black, Gundam Seed Destiny.. plenty of these figures were definitely taken in states of undress, with added adult themed contents props, like Playboy mini-books or bar ornaments.

Since it is more polite to ask if there was a photo shoot policy, the guy said only one picture, so of course I grabbed Kero’s and my camera and snapped two pictures of what I found were neat.

These were tweets I made on that day.

animemiz: Went to Gallery Nine 5, saw figures, was able to take two pics. I like my own figures more, but seeing 3xMizuho-sensei and 2xUrd was sweet.

animemiz: Also saw Queens Blade Figures, Bible Black, maybe Bakuretsu Hunter, and maybe Gundam Seed Destiny. Another trip or 2 there is a must!

Because of the fact that Sunday the 14th was the Lunar New Year, and Valentine Day, decided to postpone this until Monday to be uploaded. But yes, this was an experience.

Photography Final: Carue’s Journey

Sooo yesterday I presented my photography final project, and yes after two hours of waiting at the photography lab, I arrived at my class late. Because I was late, I was one of the last presenters, when the professor mentioned to hurry up, I pretty much stammered my entire presentation out. I really don’t have much practice with public speaking.

I doubt anyone, outside of knowing any thing about One Piece or Black Lagoon or the premises of figure collection, knew what my project was on. I took way more pictures, will upload them to Flickr at another time.

The most memorable comment was that someone wanted to punch the duck out. Duck meaning Carue. Last week after my professor said that the pictures were all looking as if they were out of a catalog. I was up for a long time trying to imagine a premises of it being  a good project. So, I went and found a vector image from Anime Paper, and the superimposed that image on all of my figure picture. I was thinking it was pretty cute idea. Similar to that traveling garden gnome commercial that was several years ago. Apparently my line of thinking wasn’t the purpose of the final, so I may have over thought the project a bit too much. Oh well.

These images actually weren’t the best that I have got, but with the fact that I was going on days with not much sleep, and I wanted to get a certain perspective, without the pictures looking as if they should be in a catalog.  I chose some images as representations. My favorite shoot was with Franky and Brook. Hardest to shoot was with Shenhua, and Luffy. I pretty much scared my mom out of the kitchen after something happened with my Vivi.

I usually don’t have any of my One Piece or Shenhua figures outside of their boxes, because there is simply no space, and with the highway outside where I live, dusting would be a daily nightmare. I brought most of these pieces from Japan. At the moment, I have one more figure in Japan, and ordered two more figures for next year.

If the images are under the cut are, small, then I have actually uploaded them to my flickr.

What do you think?

Photography Midterm

With the semester coming to a close sooner.. and I am still working on my final project, decided to put up photos that I submitted for my midterm. The critique I recall hearing, was that these shots looked liked they being prep for magazines. There was no rhyme or reason why I chose these images, can you see/or guess what I did with them? Any comments as to where these shots may or may not have been taken from?

Photography, Speedlight and Lightsphere Collapsible

Gah as if real life doesn’t rear its head way too much in my life. I go to various events/conventions by myself, unless they are events that people would want to go to. I realized that when I became press, that there was a responsibility, that to have some control over the story/articles you produce – better beef up your photographic techniques, instead of relying on someone’s images or direction. MELL’s concert at this past Otakon, proved that to me in more ways than one.

Also at various convention panels, if you don’t have a good flash, you’re pretty much screwed because of the pretty dim white lighting. Images are always blurry and never really focused and sharp, because there is not enough light. So lighting and sharpness have been high on my priority. I am not a professional, but am a pretty intending amateur/hobbyist, who is learning.

I get pretty @_@ when I stare at Dancing Queen or various other blogs I have that showcases figures photography. I want to devote more time to taking good pictures of my anime collection. I still need to get backdrops/muslin fabric. Cosplay photography is another barrel of worms, that I want to get into, but way too many things to do.

I own a Nikon D-40, which is a entry level DSLR unit.

Last weekend I was able to attend the Photo Plus Expo, and had met up with friends/acquaintances. Prior to the Expo, I was thinking about what other accessories to get with my camera, and so a photographer friend had suggested getting a diffuser, which is an upgraded camera flash piece. It makes an image softer from the photographic flash glare. I had after my trip to Japan had acquired a Nikon Speedlight SB-600 unit, and from there had researched a little on diffusers.

Several of my friends had mentioned Gary Fong as being the company they would go for in terms of diffusers, so I was at the show and was thinking about a standard diffuser, when we found the Lightsphere Collapsible. (There’s also another video with this link, and if you don’t like the size of the video, there is a bigger video on Youtube.)

I am unsure if my friend actually had known about it, but it is recommended to get for its portability. So yes I got it, and yes this put me more in the path of trying to improve my photographs. I had some trouble getting the unit on the thing, but now after a few tries and with the video tutorial, I am pretty much inspired to go take some shots. Have to go visit some galleries for a paper to write for class. Still contemplating on if I should put of pictures of my work following grading or not.