First of all, I would like to pay all my respects to the models, photographers, and props who were able to get up at dawn on Saturday – for it didn’t go for me, not so much that I arrived at the given place a minute before the deadline.
As you may recall (if not, here and here is a reminder), the winners of the spring Mondocon Cosplay competition received a prize offering from the living team of the Living Dream Project (the LDP). Three photographers (Krisztina, István, and Attila), three models, three locations (okay, I cheated a little, let’s have three and a half), plus a professional cameraman (Lilla). Listed like that sounds pretty serious, but we actually had a great time, and so many trolling photos and videos were taken that we might not dare take it all.
The leader of the Living Dream Project and the main organizer of the event was Krisztina Kóti (Galaxina), who took Margaret Island around the neck with the photographers days before the event to find the best possible locations for their models. The location of the photos was key, as a sailing ship, a gem and a dark elf certainly have special needs in this area – what would an improperly moored ship look like?
Margaret Island was beautiful, and the weather seemed to welcome us, as the sun could have burned and the mercury thread of the thermometer could have slipped up to thirty-eight degrees, but instead, we caught a pleasantly sunny, albeit slightly windy, time in the sky. floating clouds sometimes almost helped us swim in front of our central celestial body.
To our greatest astonishment, those who wanted to relax on the island did not look at the Elder Scrolls – Telvanni mage with gray skin and pointed ears in astonishment but came to us with real curiosity. And sometimes that was even supplemented with a little impatience, as they wanted to take photos with all three of our models, but they didn’t always get there – although the most charming was the young couple who also came to the island with a professional photographer to commemorate their recent marriage.
Three locations were the Japanese Garden, the waterfall, and the ruins (plus the plus side of the Danube bank). The waterfront fit all three models, but most of all, the One Piece masted boat stood well on the water surface (who would have thought?). Thanks to the huge trees and ruined buildings, the sapphire stone, which glows in the blue, and the gray glowing mage also found the place where it felt most at home – and of course where the photographers saw the settings and lights as the best (I also helped with the latter).
It was a fantastic day this Saturday, I met a whole new person, I made new friends. I could look behind the scenes and see what a rock-hard job a photoshoot is because it’s not easy to maintain a posture that is foreign to you for minutes and even smile, or just grab the model so you can bend into the water enough. Our photographers did an excellent job and spun as if they had received caffeine intravenously. And our expensive video then carried a camera that was at least as heavy as the Mjölnir.
I don’t know when the next LDP photographer event will be, but I can promise I’ll be there, writing, chattering, and holding the clarifier (thanks to its reflective surface that functioned as a secondary light source — not distorting, it’s just me calling it).
