This post was written in 2005. Some information may be out of date.
Anyone who has seen Densha Otoko (Train Man) will know that Comiket was held this week at Big Sight in
Odaiba. Honestly, I’m not really into doujinshi, but I went to the cosplay area to test out my newly bought
85 lens.
(I left the word cosplay out of the title to keep away pointless traffic.)
The Pentax 85mm Star lens is one of the most popular models in the whole Pentax lens lineup.
You could even call it wildly popular, and after shooting with it today I understood why.
It’s that soft, glowing look it gives people! Somehow people just seem to come out better when I shoot with the 85..
Amazing.. Anyway, I think I’ll be using the 85 a lot for a while. ^_^;
Portrait-orientation shots are hard.. but the 85 really has to be shot vertically to get it right.
A cosplayer who kindly posed for us for a long time.. Even though it was backlit, the photo came out well.
This one was taken with the 31. Compared with the 85 it feels more true to life..
By the way, it’s not a great idea to just leave an amateur model to pose however she likes.
The photographer has to draw good poses out of her. It’s probably a bit different with professional models, though..
Maids seem to be the trend lately.. There were seriously tons of cosplayers in maid outfits.
Probably plenty of people shouting “moe~”.. Right, Kim?
The lens really makes photos look fantastic.. I had a strong feeling I’ll be using it a lot for a while..
To mark my trip to Odaiba, one shot of the Going Merry against the sunset from the seaside park (is this cosplay too?)
When there’s no one around you can ask to model for you, going out to shoot at cosplay events or motor shows like this
isn’t a bad idea. (Motor show models have artificial-looking figures, so they’re not my thing..) But practice is
only ever practice, and we mustn’t forget that the ultimate goal is to take beautiful photos of the people
we really want to photograph..