Kiddy Grade Photo shoot!

Series: Kiddy Grade
Eclair: Kaika
Lumiere: Noshuu
Photographers: Yuanie, Sour_cheese, Songster69 

Hi guys! This entry shall document the adventures and perils of a cosplayer out door! Like, literally, out of the door LOL. Alright, that was a silly way to start this entry. Basically this is a Photo shoot entry for me to dump my memories of those wonderful time spent and share some little tips.

 

After nearly 4years, I finally got to shoot this series. Yeah, 4 long years, HOMG! Main reason for the delay was the lack of a partner, Eclair needs Lumiere! So you bet I was happy when Noshuu agreed to be my Lumiere!

 
The whole project  was very much delayed (for nearly one year) because Noshuu and I couldn't seem to find time to do it!  It was like, first there was EOY, then there was WCS, then there was short holiday getaways and then cosfest and all that. Plus she had to do her own costume from scratch so that took time too. I ended up having to redo (tailored!) my entire costume too because the PVC were flaking after so many years T.T what a waste of my effort to preserve it. 

The first time I did Eclair, I was running really low on time. And missed out a lot of costume details which I insist on not missing out this time round. They were specifically her gun, gun holster and gold lip stick. You can tell from the photos that I gave up on tying a ribbon around my thigh so let’s just pretend we didn’t notice that :P

I made her cross earrings and lips stick out of paper clay! I covered the cross paper clay with white nail polish. Lipstick was originally a concealer. I used up the concealer and cleaned it out to be used as a prop. Then I sprayed the entire thing gold.

Her gun holster was made out of fabric, cardboard, double sided tape, safety pins and a bit of sewing. Just a bit. Yes, this is the ghetto-est prop I’ve ever made. But hey, I attached magnet and a pin to the opening part so it really does work xD *gets bashed*.

I don’t know about you, but personally, I’m finding myself going in a downward spiral of laziness. These days, I’m less concerned about the durability of my props and more concerned about just finishing the task so I can use it for the shoot =\ Its a bad direction I’m going , I know... but it saves time. Especially since costumes aren’t something you keep for long. Nowadays, I just don’t feel the need to be persistent on quality/workmanship as long as it’s enough to get pass the photos. *gets bashed again* Anyone on this with me =( ?

Enough with prop talk, back to Photo shoot.

I learnt the hard way that if one wants really awesome photographs, they really need to plan. And make sure all the props are well prepared before the shoot.  The last thing you’ll want, is to be running around like a headless chicken, play too much and end up having no nice pictures. As much as I enjoy goofing around with my friends, I value the opportunity of a Photo shoot to create ‘Art’ more than anything and I think it’s a waste of everyone’s time and resources to not make good use of it.

Since it was so long ago since we last watched the series and were pretty empty on inspirations. We went back to re-watch the anime and remembered what made us liked it. The arc where Eclair and Lumiere rebelled against GOTT and ran around hiding. Anyone a fan of Kiddy Grade here xD??

So yeah, we then set about searching for a location that would look abandoned and desolated. We managed to find it but it was pretty inaccessible and we had to spend more time on logistic arrangements.

Organizing the shoot was difficult! There was so much logistic arrangement , site recce-ing and schedules matching. We even drove down to the proposed location  just to check out the location.

As you can tell from the pictures, the shoot location had no shelter at all! When we went to check out the site the first time, we were quite literally toasted! But god was kind to us and on the actual day itself, the skies were cloudy and comfortable >w<!

On to some Behind-the-scenes photographs!

 
The Final product

Some behind the scenes photos of Noshuu (Lumiere) waving my red lipstick weapon.

The Final product

LOL at pitiful Sour_cheese who had to lay on the dirt to get that shot. Kudos to all the photographers that day for getting down and dirty to get the shot. That shot has got to be my favourite from that day >.< .

 
Scarecrow Lumiere :D

Thought I’d use this chance to share a little tip with you ladies. You know how some costumes have very wide collar openings and they always threaten to show what they are not supposed to?

I faced the exact same problem with Eclair’s costume. Of course I could make the collar width smaller but it would look less accurate and I didn’t want to negotiate that. To make matters worse, I have really tiny shoulders, so the collar openings are literally 1 inch away from my shoulder ends. So I took the chance to explore this method I’ve been toying in my brain.

I used 2 safety pins (or rather, I got helpful noshuu to help me pin them on the day itself because I was too lazy to prepare before hand *gets bashed x3* ) and pined them at the blue dots indicated in the picture below. Then I got my bra strap to run through the pins, kinda like a loop for a belt. I must say this method worked beautifully ;D

  Green bra is of course not visible on the outside :P Is drawn for illustrative purpose!

The safety pins in action.

The pins should probably be vertical instead of horizontal but it still works fine =) Oh, another thing you might notice from the photos above, is the use of dressmaker’s sponge for the sleeves. I swear it has to be the best method ever and it’s cleverly invented by my tailor and me *nose grows longer*. I swear by dressmaking sponge/foam and I always use it for parts of any costumes that need some sort of solid form but still needs to be flexible enough to allow movements.

 I enjoyed the shoot very much despite the uncomfortably skimpy costume and all my butt cheeks flashing  =.=. Stupid gonzo and all their fan servicing actions/panty shots *Clenches fist* ! There were many firsts for us that day. it was Noshuu's first photoshoot ever and it was Yuanie's first attempt as a saikang/photographer xD well for me, it was the first time I ever shot at the location and the first time I ever wore so little =.=;;; It was also my first time working with Sour_Cheese!

It was fun talking with everyone and we all got along great xD Much thanks to yuanie who's car was the main thing that made this shoot possible! Am very thankful that you pushed your work aside for us TOT

Hope I didn’t bore you too much with this entry ^^; Leave me a note if you enjoyed reading it and if y ou feel I should continue documenting personal Photo shoots on this blog or not D:?