[Photos by Carlos Duncan]
Greetings and salutations once again, my fellow Fridge Nukers! Bradfield here, once again pimping the work of my friend and oft time collaborator, the one and only Carlos Duncan – our Staff Photographer, and newest member of the crew.
There are many reasons I choose to work with real photographers, instead of taking my own pictures. The first and foremost reason being… I… uh… I suck. The advent of digital photography has served a person like me quite well because if I’m left to my own devices, I can crack of hundreds of terrible shots, a handful of which will be salvageable, and all it “costs” me is memory. And that’s generally about all I need. However, when I can talk a publisher into it, I choose to bring a pro with me, not only to compensate for my own visual shortcomings, but because, more often than not, it’s got more to do with art than it does proficiency. That is to say, whenever possible, I like to work with people who don’t think in the same way that I do, and who know their way around a barrel lens.
The below represents yet another reason I make sure that Carlos always has my back in as many convention situations as possible. I’m usually too wrapped up in getting from one assignment to the next, and forming sentences in my head, to take notice of CosPlayers beyond, “Get out of my way. I’ve got places to be.” Meanwhile, certain assignments don’t require as much visual backup, so a lot of the time, I can just ask Carlos to meet up later, and let him surf the scene, finding the best shots.
Which leads us to CosPlay. Again, the writer thinks of CosPlayers as an obstacle in getting from point A to point B. The photographer notices the care and attention to detail, even if he’s not always familiar with the characters he’s shooting.
Thus, because it is often said that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” I present below, a roughly fifty thousand word essay on just how cool SDCC CosPlay was, is, and always will be.
