SMASH! Report
This has been one of the most hectic weekends of my life. Who knew that 2 days of cosplay could be so exhausting, even though I've had one costume finished 2 weeks ago and the other costume finished more than a month ago XD
It's been almost a year since I cosplayed to a convention (I've mostly been doing shoots, and I didn't cosplay to Mini or did a proper cosplay for 'Nova since I only went to judge). So I'd forgotten how busy it gets & how much we had to do lol. But I had a great time, and I got to cosplay yet another 2 Vocaloid outfits so I'm in a very good mood!
Obligatory silverharmony photo - us at the con :)
Harmony/myself as Conchita!Meiko (Vocaloid) | Silver as Gerard (Fairy Tail)
Thanks Alan/Bubby for this photo.
Thursday
Went out with Clare mis_v and got DERISHUS cake *A* and then picked up J j_plash and Shona zimiel after they'd touched down and went back to Clare's place. We'd planned a shoot at the Japanese gardens near Clare's house for Friday so we all stayed there overnight, painting nails and styling wigs and finishing costumes XD Overall it was so lovely and relaxed and we shared our derishus cake <3 Then the four of us went to sleep at about 1ish in preparation for the shoot the next day.
Friday: Tsugai Kogarashi shoot
We woke up really early and Clare went to TAFE for her classes while Shona, J and I went on ahead to the photoshoot location (Campbelltown Japanese Tea Gardens). Let me say that I'm never shooting there again. The receptionist was an old hag who was incredibly fucking rude. We strolled in (Shona & I with our costumes on) and she proceeded to interrogate us and ask if we'd been there before. I answered no, and Shona answered that she wasn't even from Sydney. The receptionist didn't believe us and proceeded to bitch about how there have been people in weird costumes coming in and taking up all the space in the teahouse when it was meant to be open for the general public. And "I'll let it go this time but next time you have to know that people usually pay $150 to shoot here". I apologized for something that wasn't my fault (to shut her trap) and promised her that we would keep our gear tidy.
It was so condescending. I had called twice - TWICE - beforehand to ask and confirm that it was ok for us to do a student photoshoot of Japanese outfits (I'd told them we were fashion students since we were being supported by Clare, who actually was one). Twice the lady on the other end had mentioned that it was perfectly fine as long as there was no wedding on (to this the bitch receptionist answered: "there's only me and one other girl who takes calls so I don't know who could've told you that it was ok for you to shoot here" - then why not check with your colleague before you run your mouth off). When we went out to the gardens, we were the only people there. She made it sound like it was so crowded we would block traffic. And these gardens weren't worth $150/hour, it was less impressive than the online pics I'd seen of it. Not to mention we were members of the general public too =__=;; but, whatever. As long as the shoot's done.
So! Shona and I did our long-awaited Tsugai Kogarashi shoot :'D We haven't been planning this for very long but this is my favorite Vocaloid song of all time so I'd always wanted to cosplay it. As someone who sings & also likes to write songs, I never get tired of hearing such a beautiful song; hopefully we did this PV justice. ♥
Tsugai Kogarashi
zimiel as Kaito | Harmony/myself as Meiko
Thanks Alan/Bubby for this photo and j_plash for helping out!
The highlight of this day was when Alan suggested we do a hugging-from-behind shot. I instantly envisioned a kind of manly shot where Kaito was hugging Meiko from behind, but then Shona turned to me and said "ok, I can lean back into you" and I was like oh wait, I'm the man? HAHAHA XD So cute that her instant reaction was uke!Kaito XD
(I'll do a proper LJ post later on with pics from this shoot, but for now I hope this is a suitable teaser :D)
We met up with Clare and had a really late lunch (which was also an early dinner?), then Alan and Clare went home and Shona & J came with me to stay at my place for the weekend.
Saturday: SMASH!
SMASH was amazing, as always. Definitely the best Aussie con XDb as soon as I came I got dressed in my costume and went to see everyone at the artists' tables. So much fanservice wahhh 8D got to see people in sexy Vocaloid costumes as well as sexy costumes from other fandoms I've yet to acquaint myself with but still looked amazing anyway XD I finally got to meet alysael for the first time too, which was an immense pleasure because she is seriously so sweet and it made me really happy to be able to talk to her ♥
Silver's stall, with our friend Floz helping :D
Thanks Kris for this photo.
I was very happy to get strawbarry_gurl and co.'s Vocaloid cosplay ROM and strawbarry_gurl and itakoaya's Vocaloid artbook, which I've been perving on the last few days ohohoho ♥ I also swept up Silver's adorable Vocaloid badges pretty much the moment I reached her table & blackraven162 gave me a Meiko nendo later that day which was so sweet of her <3 <3 After going around talking to all the people (which is a lot more fun than it sounds) and hanging with mis_v for a while, the cosplay competition started ... Silver got changed into her 2nd costume & went off, and I didn't enter but I went to watch and perved on everyone. :D
The rest of Silver and rayfy_chan's huge Fairy Tail group! :D
Thanks xfirenski for this photo.
Their skit was also classic hilarious! XD Thanks moonblader for the video ^^
I also got to make some lovely new cosplay/con friends who I exchanged general contact details with, and Beethy offered to do a shoot for my costume so we did a super-quick shoot outside. He's very talented as a photographer so the result was quite lovely:
Harmony/myself as Meiko, Conchita version
Thank you Beethy for this photograph - please click on image to go to his original deviation!
I cosplayed solo that day, but hopefully I'll also be able to do a full shoot later on with my Len & Rin (and possibly Kaito, depending on if we still have him or not XD)
After the cosplay comp results were announced, that was pretty much the end of a long and satisfying day. Congrats to all the winners, it was much deserved ♥
Sunday
So in the aftermath of SMASH! We went out and had dinner Sunday night after some karaoke, since it was zimiel and j_plash's last night in Sydney and they were going back to Brisbane. It was amazing fun, I got to meet Sabina and astellecia for the first time and got to catch up with breathless_ness, tsubakichan, miyukiko, kawak, amenokitarou and k_chan009, which was awesome :D We then went back to kawak's place for about an hour to taste some of his yummy strawberry mousse cake and tiramisu cake and then amenokitarou drove me, Shona & J home (since he lived like two streets away from me or something).
At 4am I dropped off Shona & J so that they could fly home, and that was the end of our hectic weekend. For now. XD
Con season has just started and Manifest con (or yet another Vocaloid con for me since I'm doing Meiko again both days XD) is coming up in 2 weeks ... I've decided to rewear Tsugai Kogarashi for the first day as a solo costume, and do Alice Human Sacrifice for the second day with our lovely group ♥ originally I was considering rewearing Conchita but it's going to be very hard to carry interstate so in the end I decided against it.
And then it's Animania with our epic Trinity Blood group. I've been making some progress on Seth, but more on that later :D
*Goes to sleep forever lol*
~ Harmony
It's been almost a year since I cosplayed to a convention (I've mostly been doing shoots, and I didn't cosplay to Mini or did a proper cosplay for 'Nova since I only went to judge). So I'd forgotten how busy it gets & how much we had to do lol. But I had a great time, and I got to cosplay yet another 2 Vocaloid outfits so I'm in a very good mood!
Obligatory silverharmony photo - us at the con :)
Harmony/myself as Conchita!Meiko (Vocaloid) | Silver as Gerard (Fairy Tail)
Thanks Alan/Bubby for this photo.
Thursday
Went out with Clare mis_v and got DERISHUS cake *A* and then picked up J j_plash and Shona zimiel after they'd touched down and went back to Clare's place. We'd planned a shoot at the Japanese gardens near Clare's house for Friday so we all stayed there overnight, painting nails and styling wigs and finishing costumes XD Overall it was so lovely and relaxed and we shared our derishus cake <3 Then the four of us went to sleep at about 1ish in preparation for the shoot the next day.
Friday: Tsugai Kogarashi shoot
We woke up really early and Clare went to TAFE for her classes while Shona, J and I went on ahead to the photoshoot location (Campbelltown Japanese Tea Gardens). Let me say that I'm never shooting there again. The receptionist was an old hag who was incredibly fucking rude. We strolled in (Shona & I with our costumes on) and she proceeded to interrogate us and ask if we'd been there before. I answered no, and Shona answered that she wasn't even from Sydney. The receptionist didn't believe us and proceeded to bitch about how there have been people in weird costumes coming in and taking up all the space in the teahouse when it was meant to be open for the general public. And "I'll let it go this time but next time you have to know that people usually pay $150 to shoot here". I apologized for something that wasn't my fault (to shut her trap) and promised her that we would keep our gear tidy.
It was so condescending. I had called twice - TWICE - beforehand to ask and confirm that it was ok for us to do a student photoshoot of Japanese outfits (I'd told them we were fashion students since we were being supported by Clare, who actually was one). Twice the lady on the other end had mentioned that it was perfectly fine as long as there was no wedding on (to this the bitch receptionist answered: "there's only me and one other girl who takes calls so I don't know who could've told you that it was ok for you to shoot here" - then why not check with your colleague before you run your mouth off). When we went out to the gardens, we were the only people there. She made it sound like it was so crowded we would block traffic. And these gardens weren't worth $150/hour, it was less impressive than the online pics I'd seen of it. Not to mention we were members of the general public too =__=;; but, whatever. As long as the shoot's done.
So! Shona and I did our long-awaited Tsugai Kogarashi shoot :'D We haven't been planning this for very long but this is my favorite Vocaloid song of all time so I'd always wanted to cosplay it. As someone who sings & also likes to write songs, I never get tired of hearing such a beautiful song; hopefully we did this PV justice. ♥
Tsugai Kogarashi
zimiel as Kaito | Harmony/myself as Meiko
Thanks Alan/Bubby for this photo and j_plash for helping out!
The highlight of this day was when Alan suggested we do a hugging-from-behind shot. I instantly envisioned a kind of manly shot where Kaito was hugging Meiko from behind, but then Shona turned to me and said "ok, I can lean back into you" and I was like oh wait, I'm the man? HAHAHA XD So cute that her instant reaction was uke!Kaito XD
(I'll do a proper LJ post later on with pics from this shoot, but for now I hope this is a suitable teaser :D)
We met up with Clare and had a really late lunch (which was also an early dinner?), then Alan and Clare went home and Shona & J came with me to stay at my place for the weekend.
Saturday: SMASH!
SMASH was amazing, as always. Definitely the best Aussie con XDb as soon as I came I got dressed in my costume and went to see everyone at the artists' tables. So much fanservice wahhh 8D got to see people in sexy Vocaloid costumes as well as sexy costumes from other fandoms I've yet to acquaint myself with but still looked amazing anyway XD I finally got to meet alysael for the first time too, which was an immense pleasure because she is seriously so sweet and it made me really happy to be able to talk to her ♥
Silver's stall, with our friend Floz helping :D
Thanks Kris for this photo.
I was very happy to get strawbarry_gurl and co.'s Vocaloid cosplay ROM and strawbarry_gurl and itakoaya's Vocaloid artbook, which I've been perving on the last few days ohohoho ♥ I also swept up Silver's adorable Vocaloid badges pretty much the moment I reached her table & blackraven162 gave me a Meiko nendo later that day which was so sweet of her <3 <3 After going around talking to all the people (which is a lot more fun than it sounds) and hanging with mis_v for a while, the cosplay competition started ... Silver got changed into her 2nd costume & went off, and I didn't enter but I went to watch and perved on everyone. :D
The rest of Silver and rayfy_chan's huge Fairy Tail group! :D
Thanks xfirenski for this photo.
Their skit was also classic hilarious! XD Thanks moonblader for the video ^^
I also got to make some lovely new cosplay/con friends who I exchanged general contact details with, and Beethy offered to do a shoot for my costume so we did a super-quick shoot outside. He's very talented as a photographer so the result was quite lovely:
Harmony/myself as Meiko, Conchita version
Thank you Beethy for this photograph - please click on image to go to his original deviation!
I cosplayed solo that day, but hopefully I'll also be able to do a full shoot later on with my Len & Rin (and possibly Kaito, depending on if we still have him or not XD)
After the cosplay comp results were announced, that was pretty much the end of a long and satisfying day. Congrats to all the winners, it was much deserved ♥
Sunday
So in the aftermath of SMASH! We went out and had dinner Sunday night after some karaoke, since it was zimiel and j_plash's last night in Sydney and they were going back to Brisbane. It was amazing fun, I got to meet Sabina and astellecia for the first time and got to catch up with breathless_ness, tsubakichan, miyukiko, kawak, amenokitarou and k_chan009, which was awesome :D We then went back to kawak's place for about an hour to taste some of his yummy strawberry mousse cake and tiramisu cake and then amenokitarou drove me, Shona & J home (since he lived like two streets away from me or something).
At 4am I dropped off Shona & J so that they could fly home, and that was the end of our hectic weekend. For now. XD
Con season has just started and Manifest con (or yet another Vocaloid con for me since I'm doing Meiko again both days XD) is coming up in 2 weeks ... I've decided to rewear Tsugai Kogarashi for the first day as a solo costume, and do Alice Human Sacrifice for the second day with our lovely group ♥ originally I was considering rewearing Conchita but it's going to be very hard to carry interstate so in the end I decided against it.
And then it's Animania with our epic Trinity Blood group. I've been making some progress on Seth, but more on that later :D
*Goes to sleep forever lol*
~ Harmony