[Leica] Two from Costume Con 23

[richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard)]

As evidenced by my pictures, I go to SF&F conventions and Anime Cons a lot. 
Part of the reason I take pictures is because my wife and kids are 
costumers and I figure I may as well do something useful :-) We just went 
to the premiere convention for such gathering, Costume Con 23, held this 
year in Ogden, UT. In one of the competitions, my family won Best in Show 
in their division. Here are couple pictures:

Since I wasn't the official photographer (although I am the only other 
photographer allowed in the Green Room), I was shooting slightly to the 
side a lot, so there are some junks to the side some times. Anyway, here's 
a shot with the 3 winners:
<http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/LJPics/EPSN0233.jpg>

I even caught couple decent shots on stage while they are performing. 
Here's one of them.
<http://www.dragonsgate.net/pub/richard/LJPics/EPSN0329.jpg>

I got all the pictures color processed on the Powerbook, but I think I will 
redo them. They are a bit mute in terms of saturation. I shot about 500 
pictures on the Epson R-D1 with 28/1.9 Ultron, 35/1.4ASPH, 50/1.4ASPH and 
even the 90/2AA. The 90/2 AA is challenging to use to say the least since 
a) there is no frameline for it. I was shooting blind (the stage picture 
above is from the 90/2AA), and b) the rangefinder base is really too short 
to accurately focus @F2, especially while the subjects are moving :-) 
Nevertheless, it works well enough and I hope to find a 135VF attachment 
for such uses.

In case you are wondering about the presentation and the costumes (Karisu 
is my wife, Rei and Chibiko are the kidz):

Karisu came out as the butterfly faeri, basically the same costume as in 
here:
<http://www.dragonsgate.net/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3024>http://www.dragonsgate.net/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=3024,
 
with nice classical music. She took a mirror, and narcissisticly admiring 
herself, shaking her wings etc.

Then the music changes to instrumental version of Heard It Through the 
Grapevine, and out strut Rei with '20ish sophisticated lady orange attire, 
high heel et al. with BIGGER orange wings. When I said strut, I meant 
strut. That girl is a total ham, despite her saying she prefers to work as 
backstage crew. Karisu acts in shock, taking a tape measure to compare the 
size of Rei's wings with her own smaller ones. The audience is laughing 
quite hard already.

Then the music changes again, to some punk techno thing, and Chibiko comes 
out shaking and dancing as a goth faerie! Her face makeup is scary - total 
goth/J-rock/, including pierced safety pins on the fake pointy ears. She 
has HUGE neon green with black strips dragonfly wings. Karisu walks to her 
in shock. Attempts to measure and just drops the whole thing and goes away 
crying. Rei and Chibiko walk toward each together, shrug and then walk out. 
All in time with the music of course. The audience is rolling on the floor!

Lights darken, then the MC says, "that's the worst case of Wing Envy I have 
ever seen."

Well done. I am very proud of my wife and the kidz.



// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
use richard at imagecraft.com)