Lulz

If you’ve familiarity at all with the local and worldwide cosplay scene in general, you’d be familiar with all the hubbub that’s going around with the new Otacool 2 magazine. Otacool is a magazine feature for cosplays. In particular, Otacool 2 features cosplay from around the world.

Cosplayers are invited to submit photographs of themselves to the magazine via DannyChoo.com and from there, get picked to feature in the magazine and if lucky enough, featured on the front cover of Otacool 2.

But this isn’t what this entry is about. Having seen some of the “drama” on Facebook, I decided to take a look at the front cover features.

Do take note that while I do try not to take sides, the Internet… speaks for itself. More so when you go onto 4chan’s /cgl/.

In the line-up, amongst which I recognize are;

1. Danny Choo – No surprises
2. Kaname – Still no surprise
3. FranDan – Questionable reputation in /cgl/.
4. Alodia – Also has questionable reputation in /cgl/. Honestly, some cosplayers have BETTER costumes than her.
5. Yaya Han – Boob job, she looks quite unnatural due to bust size. Her feature photo is from an older cosplay set.

Luckily enough, I think we DO have some cosplayers from Singapore being featured on the front page. However, two other things have caught my eye.

Sakana Sashimi

Now if you haven’t already seen it, she has a “fan-site”, which is amazing after just one cosplay! Debuted after she was featured in DC for her submission of her meido cosplay in HiMM(He is My Master). Gained +4 to notoriety after leader of fansite creates thread to introduce her in CF Forums.

Saya

If you’ve not seen her galleries, do check out wakarimasenlol.com, Linkinstreet’s blog. He’s got a bucketload of cosplay just of Saya. Also featured on Sankaku(which counts for something I guess).

Now comes the kicker… IF Danny Choo doesn’t count, WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE MALE COSPLAYER IN THE ENTIRE FRONT FEATURE LINEUP!?

I don’t really intend to repost what i report about in Shrine and if i do, it’s usually a copy-pasta of what i wrote in Shrine albeit with more personal views from me. I also tend to edit them less which makes me kind of lazy. So here it is, my “report” on Sunway UC’s Animangaki!

While i usually prefer to split my reviews into one per day, that is to say… one event day an article, i don’t really have the time now seeing as i’m still rushing around trying to finish my last college report before i end the term. So this Animangaki report will take only one article to summarize and review.  While i like would like to offer a more in-depth review, Animangaki has only debuted for the first time at Sunway UC and to be fair, there aren’t any comparable events that Ican benchmark it to.

More after the jump.

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I was at Central Market in KL yesterday to eat beef soup noodles at the nearby Lai Foong coffeeshop with my parents. I then walked around in Central Market for a bit while waiting for my mum to complete her shopping. Which gave me the opportunity to take a few shots before we left.

This shot is a favourite of mine as it shows the relationship between the two boys. I added in some bokeh to emphasize on the subject ie the umbrella and two kids in the middle.

This shot was overexposed as i neglected to factor in the bright sun for my shutter speed. I compensated by oversaturating the colors in the photo to bring out the details and to emphasize how bright and sunny it was yesterday morning.

That’s all for now. More photo updates soon as i take them.

Just received all of my orders from Shashinki today.

1. Matin Camera Strap

-Because my old strap was giving me hideous neck pain. The Matin camera strap is padded so i’m hoping to lessen the effects somewhat. Or do away with the headache forever.

2. Lenspen

- Bought myself a lens cleaner. Something which i had been planning to do for a long time.



3. Lowepro Nova 3 AW camera bag

-Old bag was way big and heavy. Plus its like a one-strap design knapsack. I finally discovered how bad this was during AFA08 with everything hanging off one shoulder. Right now everything fits(except for my DIY bounce card) but no matter, it’s way lighter and easier to carry than my old bag.  The only downside is the room, there’s less than the old bag. But i’m not complaining.

And so went my CNY angpau money. ;_;

Traditionally, most people including Kurogane and Shin, have split up their respective reviews and comments about Comic Fiesta into two parts, one for Day One and one for Day Two. Me not being much of a writer, and more of a photog, i instead have put all my thoughts into one post which i hope you’ll find interesting and not to dry.

First off, congrats to the Comic Fiesta committee for organizing and running the most successful Comic Fiesta event yet. Compared to what it was last year, three years ago and when it first started, it’s come a long way. However, over the past number of times it has been held, not much attention was paid to fan comments and feedback. This time though, things have definitely improved.

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I happened to take a look at the GACC photographs and it was the first time i ever actually got to hold a DSLR. Looking back, it’s coming to a year ever since i picked up an interest in DSLRs at GACC08 which then drove me to ask my cousin if he had a DSLR to spare that i could practice on.

To which i now have his Olympus E-500 and some other photography accessories i have acquired on my own.

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Credits to Lurker from Lowyat Forums. He’s made a thread about two war photographers here.

First war journalist/photograher in the documentary is a man named Zoriah. Here is an excerpt from his blog.

A documentary film crew followed me during my most recent project in Gaza and the West Bank, filming an episode of a new television show for the Warner Brothers and CBS network (CW) called “In Harm’s Way,” which features individuals who do dangerous jobs in order to better society.

For me it was an opportunity to bring stories from the Middle East to a wider audience, as this show will likely reach a very different group of people than those who normally pay attention to such events.We spent two weeks shooting in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and had a few very close calls including one of the members of the crew being shot during a demonstration (more info on this in my next post.) It was a personal challenge to try to work with a large film crew by my side, as it is quite counter-intuitive, not to mention dangerous, for a photojournalist who wants nothing more than to remain unseen.

I hope that the show is able to educate a few people and prompt them to search out more answers on the subject covered.

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Had spare half an hour today before leaving for class so i decided to ninja some shots of my mum’s glass ’shrooms.

Ollie E-500
f/4.4
ISO-160
1/50sec

Ollie E-500
ISO-200

Ollie E-500
ISO-200

The EXIF data is missing for the last two shots and i think it’s because of my noise filter program.

On another note, i finally gave in and decided to register in BukuMuka aka Facebook.  You can add me as James Liew. Hell… going to need Facebook sooner or later as i’ve got a group project similar to what Facebook is all about.

My registration for media passes to AFA08 doesn’t seem to be a smooth ride all the way and all i can do is hope for the best as the person-in-charge, Florence says she’ll get a colleague who handles media registration to contact me next week. Fingers crossed, it’ll all go well.