The Norcal Summer and Spring Gathering are two separate events that both take place once a year. These gatherings are opportunities for cosplayers and cosplay photographers to get some nice photo shoots in an environment that is more relaxing, easy going, and with a more pleasing setting that otherwise would be possible during convention events such as Fanime. So on Saturday, August 15, Eric Lee, Lynn Truong, Lynn’s cousin Joe, Elbert Lee, Elbert’s brother, and I played cosplay photographer and joined up with a bunch of other photographers and cosplayers at Kelley Park in the Arbor picnic area for a fun filled day of eating, mingling, and photographing; of course we were doing the latter mostly. I do want to take a moment to thank the organizers of this event: KittyKatChi, Shinobi Yukari, and OscarC. Without their hard-work and dedication, this event would not have been possible.
The selection of Kelley Park in San Jose was an excellent choice for venue. Those who were at this year’s Spring Gathering will remember it was held at Hakone Gardens, which was also a great choice. Kudos to Oscar for always choosing excellent venues. It has ample parking, vast lands with plenty of foliage, lots of picturesque settings, an old town setting, and a Japanese Tea Garden; couldn’t possible ask for more back-drops. The weather was nice and warm and fortunately there were plenty of areas with lots of shade so we can avoid being sunburned and/or sweating profusely.
There were probably some 80+ cosplayers and photographers who showed up. The event was advertised on both Facebook and Cosplay.com. Lately we at Bui Photography have been doing less and less private photo shoots at these events, focusing rather on quality than quantity. Obviously for an event this large, it would be nearly impossible in the limited time and with limited resources to photograph every single person with different backgrounds and poses. I’m sorry to those who wanted a photo shoot with us and we weren’t able to get to you, but we will be SacAnime this year and we will try to get you there, but we also are fully booked on private photo shoots there also. You can also skip ahead and just see all the pictures here.
For this event, I photographed KittyKatChi, Shinobi Yukari, and Bekalou. KittyKatChi had just finished her costume last minute and it turned out great. She cosplayed as Rogue from X-Men:
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Shinobi Yukari cosplayed as Ulquiorra from my favorite anime, Bleach:
Bekalou cosplayed as Syaoran from the anime Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles:
You can see their sets by visiting http://photos.buiphotography.com/Events/2009-Norcal-Summer-Gathering. You can see the rest of the pictures I took by clicking here.
Here are some highlights of shots that Eric Lee took:
And here are some highlights of shots that photographer Lynn Truong took:
You can see the other photographer’s pictures here (if I missed anyone, shoot me an email and I’ll include it here):
- OscarC – http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/9293919_ZjB2D?referrer=9hP1vNoXtyi3E&ref=nf#621082184_Dbws4
- Michael Tang – http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32340&id=1150639645&ref=share
- Traveling Valentine – http://travelingvalentine.com/coverage/norcalpicnic2009/index.htm
- Stormfalcon – http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j73/Stormfalcon_sj/NorCal%20Summer%202009%20Cosplay%20Gathering/Digital/
- Kagelump – http://picasaweb.google.com/kagelump/Norcal2009#
- Ginryuu – http://ginriru-tatsu.deviantart.com/gallery/#Washed-Away
- Wingdrabbit2005 – http://keitsubasa.deviantart.com/journal/26646463/
- Kimu – http://s942.photobucket.com/albums/ad266/kimu_cosplay/NorCal%20Summer%20Picnic%2009/?start=0
- lalaxmink – http://sc-x-kazuha.tabulas.com/gallery/20090815-norcal-summer-gathering/
- Shinjixikari – http://winterwish.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=4626&g2_page=1
- WithinIllusion – http://www.flickr.com/withinillusion
- Misoshiru – http://www.flickr.com/photos/38865848@N07/sets/72157622058837860/
- Katsumiyo – http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa318/heroonadonkey/NorCal%20Summer%20Picnic%202009/
- Tenchi Fan – http://faidoi.smugmug.com/gallery/9291884_YpURN
To learn more about future cosplay photoshoots, please view our Bui Photography Cosplay Photography site here.
