this is it

During my college days, me and my friends promised ourselves we would create chaos in cosplay conventions, be part of major events and be an invasion. We never did live to that promise, but it never stopped us from dreaming that our names will go down in history.

September 2015, Over countless events I have been to, from Ozine, Otaku Expo, Fatasm, Animax Carnival, Dutdutan XIV, Best of Anime, Nexcon and now the Asia Pop Comic Con 2015. I have been a geek all my life, growing up to my brother's comic book collections, to watching cartoons growing up, playing Magic the Gathering with my peers, now, I am living the dream. And now I can really stop and slow down and see where now? what now?

Alice Chang, Asia Pop Comic con  2015

APCC 2015 was close as I can get to attending international conventions, without a passport, leaving the country and facing jet lag, it was a euphoria, that I hope I can be part of staff and the community someday. Seeing celebrities face to face, to seeing adults with childlike hearts, to kids dressing up as their heroes, and being a goof, and that's okay... I got to talk to staff, see media fly by before once me again, to see Instagram idols, and seeing where my favorite comic book artist sat and signed stuff, I cannot get over the feeling the high. 

Tatiana Galas, Best of Anime 2015

BOA, Best of Anime 2015 was milestone for me, I am nearly getting to my 2 year mark of doing cosplay photography, and yet I have to learn more, from lighting, strobing, and properly photo editing - I feel I am still a toddler, walking, and soon I will be running for more. But sadly, I will be putting an end to covering small events, as  I try to focus on larger events, and someday brave and handle weddings, and to focus back where I started, and why I began shooting in the first place, it would really give me some time to think - do I need to do more? why I'm doing this? is this what I really want?

A lot of things has to face as new challenges arises, new photographers are out there, better than I am, versus one creepy photographer, I lost my team, I lost my daughter, I lost a muse, I lost my sanity - I got to continue fighting, despite all the negativity that has brought me down, I go to face the music, face the shadows, and keep doing my best. I have pulled myself out from Dutdutan XV,

but i hope it doesn't stop me to keep on swimming.

My brand hasn't settled yet, it's slowly getting a pace and kick from the south, I can only hope and just pray to the heavens, for a rain of endless opportunities for me to swim on.

three conventions and a delayed photoshoot

It has been pretty a long time since I wrote something in my blog, and I still feel the falling out from a colleague who helped me get to where I am at. A lot has happened over the course of the month itself, tragic or joy – thankful that I got through. May, was a busy month, where I was able to attend three cosplay conventions from Saturday to Sunday to the end of the month, and tried to pull off a photo shoot in the same but got delayed due to unforeseen things.

 I never realized how much the month of may drained me, that to this very day I still felt never so tired – never again will I do something like this but down the line I had fun.

April, O-Kun Fiesto

Nica, Nexcon

Shion Goddess, Animax

On the 16^th of May I attended the O-Kun Fiesta which was held in the SMX of SM Mall of Asia, sad to say the event pretty much disappointed me, in which I felt the event proper felt flat – I got bored right away where I took a few shots and left home early. Maybe it was the crowd that got to me or maybe it was the lack of sleep, which I think I had only 3 hours of – I came in to see two of my daughters, April and Yuriko, and did a small shoot with some friends that I knew who were present in the area. I was pretty much convinced that I will not go the event the day after which was Nex Con, but sure enough with a few tugs from Vincent aka No-face and Nica, I surprised myself by boarding the cab heading out to the function rooms of SM Aura. With all the cosplay events I have attended, I have never gone to something that felt organized and clean with Nex Con. Though the cosplayers wore western influenced characters such as the likes of TV series the Game of Thrones to Lord of the Rings to DC Comics characters – it was fun. More so that Vincent and I helped opened the 2^nd day to the event with  a game called Face Palm the Music, in which we had to guess the theme or song by face palming a human buzzer. I lost by one, because we had to spin around before buzzing… I lost to “Mortal Kombat”.  And my friends, this is how I humiliated myself with loads of people, but I can't stop smiling from then on.  I had a number of shots, from shooting a gang load of Daenarys attacking a Tyrell, to seeing the New 52 Joker harassing a Batman mannequin, to bumping in person the famous Jin and Tadashi cosplayers, and scream my lungs out on a Lip Synch battle in support of people who I just met. I went home late with a smile as oppose to O-kun.

The very next week I had to go to BGC for a photo shoot I organized with inked friends, unfortunately I had to postpone due to having one of my models not feeling so well that day. I was pretty much tired, I didn’t want to go to any other events until my officemate the cosplayer, Shion Goddess pushed me to attending Animax which was on the 31^st of May. To be honest, I never wanted to go and support Alodia events because I felt cheated on overpriced tickets and felt it was not worth m time – but it was Shion Goddess’ return, I had to pay my respects and help get her career going – thinking nothing could top the experience and fun I had with Nex Con, the event of Animax was rather almost as par, same chaos though, but meeting colleagues like my idol Sir Christian Mack, seeing my old model Ysa, meeting up with Cjaze and others I had a decent amount of fun. From the cheesy lanyard I got from the ticket to laughing my ass off seeing Shion Goddess try to grab a soda, and ended up almost half an hour or so because the fanatics just can’t stop admiring and take a shoot of her, to having mysef just chilling and having a good time without stressing myself too much.

Maybe I should keep on having this mentality of not stressing myself too much on the next cosplay events – and just really feel and rock the vibe of people and meet new friends. I am ever grateful to all of the time I have had – it helped me overcome the depression I had along the way, especially dealing with my Mom’s cancer and work performance blues… I hope the momentum keeps on going.