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Spotlight for Ikki tousen this week.

Series: Ikki Tousen

What is series about?

Seven schools are constantly ‘at war’ with each other, and the students within – both male and female – have become skilled fighters and constantly battle with rival schools. Their lives and fates are guided by strange jewels that contain the spirits and destinies of warriors from the Sangokushi period. One girl, Sonsaku Hakufu, has recently moved to Japan and is apparently destined to unite the schools as her counterpart united seven countries long ago. But, like all heroes, there is a darker side to her fate, and as always there is a constant struggle by those around her to break the chains of their own destinies and make their own lives.

Where: Slierdrecht (The Netherlands)

When: 24 January 2010

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Second edition of Tsunacon, it was better than last year!
Good job guys!
Let’s make the third more epic!

New Spotlight time!

Character: Frost

From: Mortal Kombat

About the Character:
She was discovered and trained by Sub Zero. Sub-Zero was unable to teach her humility.
Her dedication to fighting and learning is overshadowed by her arrogance and hostility towards anyone she perceives to be greater than her, including her own sifu, as well as Sonya.

Character: Ezio Auditore

From: Assasins Creed

Who is he?

He is an ancestor of Desmond Miles, the main character in Assasins’s Creed and a descendant of Altaïr, as well as being the earliest known link between the lineages of “Subject 16″ and that of Desmond.

When I was about 16 years old. I was a huge Star Wars nerd back then and started cosplaying as Padmé and other Star Wars characters.

Q: What attracts you to cosplay?

Creating something truly unique

Q: How did you get into anime and what lead you into cosplay?

I’m not that into anime actually (dodges shoes from anime lovers)….trying to do something about that though (ah well, my surroundings are….they force me…I have no choice XD).

Though, of course, I saw some big hit anime movies and such. So I’m not THAT a big of an n00b…teehee.

Q: What has been your favorite cosplay?

Well, I love them all actually. So hard to choose when you completely bonded with all of your costumes. Even the shitty ones!! XD

Q: What is your most memorable moment whilst cosplaying?

Posing with an unicorn.

Q: Have you had any cosplays go wrong/encountered problems whilst making cosplays?

More then I can write here! People only see, like, ¼ of the costumes I try to make…the other part goes down the garbage bin or is never completed.

Q: Have you ever regretted cosplaying?

Yes, when I’ve spend too much money on it and can’t pay my rent XD. No seriously, I don’t think I ever had….maybe I enjoy it less because people can be very blunt or rude when you’re cosplaying.

Q: Do your cosplays have a particular theme to them?

Right now I’m making season costumes. But I try to fiddle in little costume projects in between. I think the best way to describe my theme in all of them is with the word ‘inspire’. Inspire people with hints and flashes from another world.

Q: Have you ever done group cosplay? If so how did you find that experience?

No, not really. I really would like to give that a try!

Q: What cosplays are you planning?

You wait and see

Q: Do you have a dream cosplay?

Something big and impossible…..me likes big and impossible! XD

Q: How are the professional photo shoots usually managed?

Well usually it’s collaborations between photographer and model. The photographer can come up to me with wonderful ideas or I email a photographer with my ideas. Then we both share our thoughts on it and work it out. While we are shooting we often get more crazy ideas and then we have a set!

Q: Do you have one piece of advice that you would give to cosplay newbies?

Enjoy your cosplay, go meet people, and have a blast!

Q: Do you have an account with the website Cosplay.com/other social networking sites?

I certainly do!

Here are my accounts!

http://www.cosplay.com/member/57464/qa/

jolien-rosanne.deviantart.com

Q: What has got you to start with photography?

Scantly clad ladies. Seriously.. i bought my first camera and then left it in the closet for three, four months. Then the first weekend of May that had good weather I took it out for a walk in Ghent, and the first league of the Belgian beachvolley championship was played there. Took pictures and saw at home they were crap. Went back the next day to see if I could do better and started talking with some of the players who were curious for the pictures. They told me to come to Kortrijk the week after for the next league.. And now it’s four years later and i’m one of two official photographers of the championship =) After the championship was over I bumped into a club where they do only model photography and found a way to fill the non beachvolley months too =) Since then i specialized in low light event photography too. (Need the training for facts..)

Q: How long have you been a photographer?

Must be somewhere between 4 to 5 years ago that i bought my first digital SLR, i’m on my fourth one right now. It’s been only a year that I dare to say that I know how to take pictures.

Q: What would be your dream photoshoot?

Exotic location with a team to carry the equipment, make up people, stylist and hairdresser in the team and lighting assistants who know how to operate reflectors. And a few security dudes to keep annoying people at a distance.
For cosplay, the team from above, the Disney group from facts and a nice castle somewhere, maybe Disneyland Paris? .. mental note: check with Disneyland Paris =)

Q: In your opinion, are there any big differences between Belgian cosplayers and those of other countries?

The language. And it seems to me that in France they go for sexier outfits. I was at both Japan Expo and it’s little brother and the amount of catsuits and scantly clad elven ladies surprised me. Not that it’s a bad thing imho =)

Q: Do you prefer on-location or in-studio shooting?

For cosplay, location. For normal shoots, either. Pulling a cosplayer from it’s environment, putting him/her in front of a white wall.. aaaaargh..

Q: Do cosplayers make good models?

As with all models.. sometimes if you put someone in front of a camera they freeze and you could just as well take a picture of a brick and get more life in the picture. Then others from which you don’t expect it really jump out of the picture. The main difference with cosplay models is that you need to take in character pictures. No use in taking a picture of someone playing a depressed vampire if the model is standing there happy like a tree-elf in spring. I’ve actually been thinking of asking a few of the cosplayers I like to work with to do a double shoot, one in cosplay, the other in regular clothes to make a series of it.

Q: Do you have favorite cosplayers?

Yes =)

Q: Are there any cosplays you refuse to take picutes of?

Yes. The crapplays. Putting on a naruto headband and an orange t-shirt doesn’t make a cosplay. Free huggers are also very likely not to get a click. Besides that there really hasn’t been anything that I’d refuse. Main criteria for me is that I need to like the person I’m working with, cosplays need to be of an acceptable level, and the character needs to do more than just stand around in the series.

Q: Are you a fan of anything – anime, video games, sci-fi, etc?

Mainly the older ones. I’m a child of the Club Dorothée ages. The difference between hand drawn and computer drawn makes a big difference. I hate the series where they throw in 3d generated parts. Most of them i saw in French, except for a few that only aired on British channels.
Videogames.. lost count of the different computers/consoles i had. It all started when I was 10 with the MSX from Philips. It was similar to the Commodore 64, but never really gained as much followers in Europe as it did in Japan. The top version had 32 bits colors when the first Pc’s came out with.. hercules. (thats black/white for the younger ones. Or green or orange).
Scifi.. watched all the classic series, Startrek, Space 1999, Stargate, … It’s great to see revivals of the older shows like Galactica. Where the old show was more a happy tree elf kind of story where nothing bad ever happened to the good guys, the newer series is much darker and targeted at an older audience. Hopefully the V remake will follow the same path.

Q: What has been your weirdest experience while photographing cosplayers?

Probably the first time i went to a convention. Who are all these weird people in Startrek pajamas and why the hell are they jumping in front of me to take pictures of them? Actually on that con i Met MysteriousMaemi and I asked her if she wanted to do a shoot, and so I got into cosplay photography.

Q: You’ve been to many countries. Which has been your favorite place to shoot?

Difficult one.. Paris is great, if the cops leave you alone. For them it’s more important to make sure that you are not a professional photographer than to do really important police business. We were in Paris with a group of three friends and a model, and we noticed on the Chapms Elysees that there was this guy following us and looking at our equipment for about half an hour. When we spoke to a police officer about it he said he couldn’t do anything until the guy stole something..
The west coast of France is a great place too, if the weather plays nice. Then lastly there’s the east coast of Spain. I’d have to say one of those coasts, but away from where all the tourists are.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to say to the world?

Gardengnomes don’t exist. Well, they do, but only the human made ones from plaster.