This past weekend, I went to C2E2 dressed as fem Indiana Jones. Because I was in a relatively low key costume, I ended up acting as stand-in photographer for my friend’s Geek Girl Chicago blog for Chicago Now. The photos are not up yet, but I’m excited to see them published. It was fun walking around with a fancy camera in hand recording all the costume greats at the convention. Normally I’m the one being photographed, so it was a blast being on the other side of the lens this time. I passed out cards and promoted the blog which was fun as well-- schmoozing is one of my specialties.

The highlight of the whole day was when I got to meet Anthony Kosar, the winner of Face Off. He was my favorite from the beginning of the show and I was so excited he won! When I went to his table to meet him, I told myself not to fan girl-- but I fan girled anyways. I couldn't get the word "phenomenal" no matter how hard I tried. After shaking his hand, taking a picture, and asking for creative advice, I got the feeling he was in a hurry to talk to someone else who must have lined up behind me. Politely, I exited full of smiles. We as I left, I saw a line of about 20 people, maybe waiting to meet him! Had I just cut in front of all of them unknowingly!? No one tapped me on the shoulder, no one said anything; but I felt like such a jerk! I was just so excited to meet Anthony that I must have developed tunnel vision! We run in the same circles so it's possible I'll meet him again at a party. If that's the case, I hope he doesn't remember that I was the jerk Indiana Jones who cut in line!

If you're interested, check out some photos of my costume from the con.

Keith finally finished the first batch of Poison Ivy photos. They turned out gorgeous and sexy, just how the evil seductress should be portrayed; and I had a blast collaborating with him on these. It's fascinating that some of the photos look like they were shot at night, but in fact it was in broad daylight. We were able to capture a creepy lushness in the character and the background; and I love how the tops of the plants are vibrant and green but yet the bottoms are dried and dying, that alone is a bit dark.

The picture to the right is my favorite from the bunch as it looks high fashion. There are several elements giving this photo an edginess that the others do not have. The others (posted in a slide show below) are still gorgeous as well, but not as high fashion and artsy.

I have no idea if Keith will turn any of these photos into gumprints or tintypes, but if he does, I'll be sure to post them here!

On Tuesday I met with Ketih and Jess to do a Poison Ivy/Harley Quinn photoshoot in Sugar Grove. Even though Poison Ivy is one of the sexiest costumes I have created, I never got a good professional photoshoot as her and Keith really wanted to do something with the character so we collaborated. Jess also wanted to do some work with Keith as well and being she did Harley Quinn, it only made sense to invite her to the shoot. We had a blast.

Jess was a little weary and cranky from a long day of work prior to the shoot and the 100% weather, but once she got into costume and started posing she lightened up and Keith got some fantastic pictures of her!

Keith usually prefers to work indoors where he controls the backdrop and lighting completely, but I convinced him to so a few shots outside amongst some really creepy foliage and he really enjoyed it and the shots outside might have been the best from the day. I hope he tries to do more outdoors and in less controlled enviornments because I'm hoping to connect him with some work where flexibility with environments is a must, and I think he'll find he's extremely good at it.

It will take him a week or two to start working on the photos. If he decides to make a gumprint it will take even longer than that, but I'm extremely excited to see how they turned out. I'll post them here as I receive them!

I met up with Keith Gerling for coffee and we discussed plans for a photoshoot with my Poison Ivy costume and also another photoshoot where I'll be his assistant as he photographs professional model Claudine. He also gave me some of his artwork!

Keith is extremely talented. Using old techniques of gumprinting and tintyping, he creates unique pieces of art that almost look like paintings rather than photographs. It's a time consuming craft that is almost extinct now; the gumprint he made of me on the left took him a whole month to complete. He has done a few other gumprints and tintypes of me in other collaborations.