2009 March | Bui Photography

Archive for March, 2009

Norcal Spring Gathering Cosplay A Success

March 16, 2009

So I met up with other cosplay photographers and cosplayers at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga for the 2009 Norcal Spring Gathering photo shoot. The weather was mostly cloudy with (brief) bits of sunshine. Through the amazing work of KittyCatChi, Shinobi Yukari, and OscarC we had a kick-ass session from 11:00 A.M. to about 2:00 P.M. Everyone either got photographed or did a lot of photographing, so everyone was happy. Turnout was pretty good and the location was excellent! Lots of interesting backgrounds.

I spent more time focusing on a few select cosplayers rather than trying to photograph everything, quality over quantity for me. I was fortunate to get in about a total of five photo shoots. The first two of Katsumiyo and Bekalou are posted. Below are some samples and you can continue to check out my Norcal Spring Gathering category [link] for the rest of the photo shoots.

Also don’t forget to check out photos from these other photographers:

David Yu – Pbase
Oscar Cwajbaum (OscarC) – SmugMug
David Yao (WinterWish) – Gallery
Wren – PhotoBucket
Travel-Valenti – Blog post with pictures
dantris-driffen – Flickr
Quito (Bishop027) – Flickr
Tenchi Fan – SmugMug

Bekalou as Saber from Fate/stay night anime.

Katsumiyo as Adiane the Elegant from the anime series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Tags: Anime, Bekalou, cosplay, David Yao, David Yu, Katsumiyo, KittyCatChi, OscarC, Shinobi Yukari, Techni Fan, Travel-Valenti, WinterWish, Wren
Posted in Event Photography | 1 Comment »

Swingset: The Golden Era of Music Returns

March 11, 2009

I played second shooter to my closes photographer friend, Eric Lee, this past Saturday photographing Swingset, a hip, jazzy band looking to expand to the winery scene.

Eric and I were there at Expression College in Emeryville to photograph behind-the-scenes as they recorded their promo tape to send out. Swingset is comprised of David Collins (vocals), Roland Tolosa (percussions), Bob McBain (piano), Rob Sundberg (bass), and Alex Peters (flute and sax).

They sounded awesome and played a hour straight through. Amazing. Here are some sample shots I took:

Posted in Event Photography, Photojournalism | No Comments »

Next Cosplay Photo Shoot at Hakone Gardens This Saturday

March 10, 2009

We at Bui Photography are big fans of the anime culture and certainly appreciate all the hard, dedicated and amazing work many of the cosplayers put into their costumes. Because of KittyCatChi’s amazing work in organizing cosplayers and photographers, this Saturday, March 14 will be a decent size get together for photo shoots.

The Details

Who: Cosplayers of all kinds

Where: Hakone Garden in Saratoga

When: Saturday, March 14, 2009

Schedule: 11:30 AM – Meet and greet, 12:00 PM – photo shoot, 2:00 PM – end of photo shoot

All are welcome. You can read more details at Cosplay.com.

Tags: Anime, cosplay
Posted in Event Photography, Photojournalism | No Comments »

Reporting from WonderCon2009 – Day 2 & 3

March 10, 2009

Saturday

I know I’m quite late on this blog post, but here it is anyways; better late than never as the saying goes.

If you are only able to attend one day of WonderCon, I highly recommend attending Saturday. It has the most activities going on and attendees. WonderCon, despite being more geared towards the comic crowd, drew out quite a decent amount of cosplayers with some amazing costumes from 501st Legion (sample 1 and 2), a fully functioning R2-D2, excellent Killzone characters, and LionBoogy’s amazing Bumblebee costume.

I didn’t get a chance to make it to any of the panels in the Esplanade Ballroom, but I did hear some celebrities such as Summer Gala and Shirley Manson were in attendance. Signing autographs in the dealer room were celebrities such as Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Gigi Edgley, Adam West, and many more.

I also did three private photo shoots:

Baroness and Cobra Commander
CherryTeaGirl5 and Janelle_Ann cosplaying Liz and Patti Thompson sisters from the anime Soul Eater.
UnitedUnderworld with their excellent rendition of CatWoman, Harley Quinn, Batman, Joker, Green Arrow, Alfred, Poison Ivy, and Black Canary.

Sunday

Sunday was much slower than Saturday. There were cosplayers, but no where as many as on Saturday. I did manage to do a few more private photo shoots also, but nothing formal. You can view them mixed in here.

Enjoy some samples, see them all in the Client Gallery: