Rant 1: "Aren't You too Old to be dressing up?"

*queue eye roll* I know, I know... but this is a common question all of us cosplayers get AT LEAST once in our career (but let's be honest, we would all probably be rich by now if we were given a dollar every time someone asked us this question).

First, let me explain my 'Weekly Rants'. You have hopefully read the title of this blog, "Photographer Rants". I feel like this title is pretty self explanatory. At least once, weekly, I will provide you with a rant pertaining to photography, cosplay, or (usually) cosplay photography, because we all have things in this field that irk us to the point of ranting. So, without further ado: my first cosplay photographer rant.

"Aren't you too old to be dressing up in costumes?" *cringes*

I can't be the only one that wants to respond with "aren't you too stupid to be talking?". Instead, let's take a step back; we grew up in this society where people are taught that it is only okay to wear a costume one day out of the year: Halloween. This is fine. Halloween is great. Halloween is a holiday favorite to most cosplayers, but what about the rest of the year? What is it about these other 364 days that makes us "too old" to still be doing this?

We. Love. Cosplay. We love it for the same reason people love Halloween: for a short amount of time we get to forget about everything horrible going on in the world, and we get to just magically become someone else. Okay, not magically. More like through blood, sweat, tears, and many sewing needle sacrifices, we get to become someone else for a short amount of time. Everyday life is exhausting. Some of us are students, some of us are teachers, some of us work multiple jobs, some of us have rough home lives, some of us have children of our own, etc. The point is, we all have things in our life that are great, but there's a lot of experiences in life that are just plain stressful. Life would be boring if all we did was wake up, go to work, come home, sleep, and repeat.

For some of us, cosplay began with curiosity when we saw someone dressed up as one of our favorite tv show/video game characters. For most of us, it began with our friends, or people we care about. The main point I'm trying to reach is that dressing up in costumes is only a small part of what we love about cosplay. I know that for me, personally, cosplay is about the people I get to be with, and it's about building confidence. It's also about growing as a photographer, and being able to create art (like the photos above). I get to recreate some of my favorite tv show/video game scenes completely from scratch, and share them with others that have this in common.

The girl in the photos above and to the left is a dear friend of mine. Her name is Sadie. You can find her on Facebook and Instagram.

I chose Sadie because she is my favorite person to take photos of, and she is nothing short of a beautiful person inside and out.

I feel like she is such a great representation of the cosplay community we have all come to know and love, as well as what we should all strive to be.

There are many cosplayers like Sadie who aren't afraid to do what they love, and I will be featuring them throughout this blog.


[Another cosplayer I wanted to mention, Phaedra Cook, is a 48 year-old cosplayer who wrong a blog post in 2014 titled "Never Give up, Never Surrender: Cosplay over 40". Please check it out if you want to hear from another cosplayer on this topic!]

Whenever I hear someone say "you're too old to cosplay", I always respond with "you are NEVER too old to do what you love". Never let any one make you feel like you are immature for doing something that brings you joy. Keep being you, and keep on keeping on.
-Lindsay Soard

Photography: Visual Poetry - Photo of the Day

Photography is all about expression and interpretation. What makes a photographer is HOW you express what you see, as well as how you might interpret the world around you. When you look at a photo, what do you see? What does the person next to you see? How are the interpretations different? How might they be the same? These are all questions that should be going through your head when you decide to venture into the world of photography.

Photo credit: Myself at Lindsay Soard Photography

When you look at the photo to the left, what do you see? Think of it literally, and then figuratively. How does it make you feel? How can you relate to it? What was done well? What would you have done different? Think about the lighting; What mood does it set up? What about the colors/tone? Do they make the photo more dramatic, or calm?

Photography is like visual poetry. There is always more than what meets the eye. 

With any good poem, you would have to go back and reread the lines a couple of time in order to begin to interpret its meaning. The same can be said with photographs. 

I chose this photo for my first "photo of the day" post because I really feel like it relates to what cosplay photography, and this blog, is about (even though this photo is not quite cosplay; it is mostly photoshop skills put into action).

Cosplay photography (or sometimes photography in general) is about taking something that is usually so simple, and turning it into something more complex and meaningful. Reading further into the photo: photography is beautiful, and effortless visually, but on the inside, its complex and messy. Creating a photo, like this one, takes time, work, preparation, and organization. It's not easy work, but we do it because we love it. 

Another reason why I chose this photo for this blog is because it really is a great representation of the cosplay community at the moment. Cosplay and conventions are trending now more than ever. When all this media attention comes new con-goers, and with new con-goers comes change. Don't get me wrong, I love the cosplay community, and am proud to be a part of it. Just at the moment, this community is a bit messy, and dark. Imagine the subject of this image as the cosplay community: it might be appealing from the outside looking in, but from the inside, it's turing into a dark place full of members who just tear each other apart (I will try to not go into to much detail on this matter since I plan on writing a post about it). I will say that this has improved a bit during my time with the community, but just like any large group of people, there are always those 'bad eggs' that ruin a good thing for everyone else... 

Restoring the cosplay community is an important movement during this point in time; it's all about working together, bringing each other up (rather than tearing other cosplayers down in order to rise up), and having fun. 

It is time we become a family again.

I understand that this post isn't quite a 'rant', but it's an important topic that will be brought up many more times in these posts. Please feel free to leave any 'rant' suggestions in the comments, or even share a story of something you might have experienced similar to these issues!

Thank you for reading,

-Lindsay

We live in a time, now more than ever, where photography is becoming more an more underrated. We've all heard the phrase, "everyone's a photographer", at some point. Between the improved camera phones, photo editing on apps like 'Instagram', or people just forking over money on cameras that, let's be honest, they probably worth buying in the first place. But regardless of how we feel about it, everyone is a photographer in some way; however, not everyone is a photographer. Photography is an art, but it's starting to lose its reputation, or "spark" with all of these new photographers surfacing. I have even thought about throwing in the towel when my business was being taken by cheap photographers who don't quick know what they're doing behind the lens. But if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that you don't give up on what you love. I love photography, more specifically, cosplay photography, and even though it may drive us nuts to see all these new 'photographers' surfacing, we are all connected. I named this blog "Photographer Rants" because there are virtually countless topics I have ranted about throughout my career in photography; but one thing should be made very clear: I am no more entitled to take photos than the next person with a camera. One of my favorite things about the increase in photographers is that there are even more people around to share this love with me, and it's our job to work together through critique/feedback, as long as we are building each other up, and not tearing each other down (which is a whole rant on its own).

You might be thinking "who the heck is this cosplay 'photographer' that thinks she's so high and mighty, and what makes her so special?". To be quite honest, I'm not that special. There are plenty of other photographers that can do what I do. I have acquired the 'photographer' label about 6 years ago when I shot my first wedding, and began cosplay photography about 2 years ago. Ever since I ventured into the world of cosplay photography I never looked back to my pervious life as a wedding photographer (even though weddings pay more.....) I actually learned about cosplay photography when I started taking photography classes in college, and BOY am I thankful. Let me begin by explaining what 'cosplay' is, in case this word throws anyone off. Cosplay is 'costume play'. It's people sew, sculpting, sawing, and forming costumes/props based off video game, anime, cartoon, tv, or movie characters. It's basically halloween all year long. (You can learn more about cosplay on this blog--> click here!) My job isn't to just take photos of these people, then move on; my job is to put these people into the world from which they are cosplaying. This is done by mixing photo settings with photoshop (photo manipulation). You can check out some of my work in the following link --> click here! There's this weird stigma attached to the idea of photoshopping photos, especially in the cosplay community, which is a major reason I started 'ranting', hence, this blog.

My main purpose of this blog is to not only address some of the issues that come with being a photographer (some serious, some silly/personal), but mostly to bring other together photographers too. We all get so absorbed in our own work, myself included, that we tend to forget that there's other photographers out there that are literally struggling with the same issues as us. Rather than silently ranting about them to ourselves, or people that don't understand, why not come to a safe place and rant together? We are a community. I urge everyone to comment and interact with each other. Exchange links to your websites, collaborate at cons, rant together, whatever makes this community stronger. Comment with rants you think I should touch on, or with your personal stories. I truly hope this blog brings someone together.
I look forward to connecting with each of you!
-Lindsay