tiistai 28. helmikuuta 2017

Behind the camera #1: Levi Ackerman & Petra Ral photoshoot!

Hello people~!

Like I mentioned in my Yukicon 4.0 summary I photoshooted my friends Bloodyflowercosplay and viiviawwie. Here are the pictures~!

Characters: Levi Ackerman and Petra Ral
Series: Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan)
Cosplayers: Bloodyflowercosplay (Petra Ral) and viiviawwie (Levi Ackerman)
Photos and photo edit: yours truly








The quality rape provided by Blogger, as usual.

There you go~!
Oh, and by the way - Teutonic Knights!Prussia WIP coming quite soon! ^__^

By the way, I have my camera with me in conventions so if you need a photographer and you don't care if he's a beginner, feel free to contact me! You get a photographer and I get some practice~!

-Firith

torstai 23. helmikuuta 2017

Circle lens review: Neo Ruby Queen Blue

Hi everyone~!

This time I'll review a very beautiful pair of blue circle lenses: Neo Ruby Queen Blue. I got these as a free gift from HoneyColor when I ordered some lenses - once again some sort of campaign, this review is non-sponsored.

I was so happy when I saw that I had gotten this exact pair as a gift - these lenses are very beautiful! But, once again, the luck wasn't on my side...

The vials of the lenses.

The lenses in their vials (the lens on the left is showing its 'wrong' side.)
Base curve: 8,6 mm
Diameter: 14,2 mm
Water content: 45 % 
Life span: 1 year

When I inserted these... Oh gosh, the instant blur! It felt like half of my eyesight would have jumped out of the window within 5 minutes. Anyway, these were easy to insert into the eyes, no problems with that.
After opening the vials I let these soak in the new solution over the night since the original solution (in the vials) irritates my eyes a lot. I don't know if it does the same to you but I don't recommend testing it.

One lens in to show you the enlargement.
These were more enlarging than I had expected them to be, to be honest. These don't look too small or too big in my eyes.

The lenses felt scratchy from the instant I inserted them into my eyes and all I wanted to do was to take them off as soon as possible - yet I decided to wear them because I wanted to get the pictures for this blog post. I have no idea why these irritated my eyes so much - there were no visible flaws, no dirt, these lenses aren't that big and the base curve is the basic 8.6 mm.
I managed to drive a car (why am I always driving somewhere when I do a lens review, I don't understand) but I can tell you, it wasn't very easy. There were no dangerous situations etc. but it was just uncomfortable... ;I I wore these lenses for 4 hours and then I was finally able to take them off - the relief when I was able to see better again!

I love the diamond-like design of these lenses - it's very beautiful! However, I think that I wouldn't wear these as cosplay lenses (or as "daily life" lenses for that matter, these aren't very natural); in my opinion these would be better for some alternative styles for example.
I also like the thin limbal ring; it brings some naturalness to these.

The blue color appears in these lenses in various shades and it's the main color of these lenses. However, one can spot some green and even some brown in these lenses! These details make the lenses look very mystic and even magical. They also help the color of the lens to blend better with the natural eye color, which in my case means grey/blue/green - I have light-colored eyes.
For some reason the color of these lenses reminds me about the ocean...

But now, the lens pictures~!

Pics © me, if not mentioned otherwise.

These pictures were taken on a very sunny day in February.
These pictures aren't edited in any way.


Bathroom light.

Indoors, yellow light.

Under the fluorescent lamp.

Staring out of the window, natural light. Picture © my friend Niina.

Indoors, with a flash.

Outdoors, back against the sun.

Outdoors, facing the sun ouch.

Distance pic!


  • The color is 10/10 - it's very vibrant and beautiful!
  • The design is also 10/10 - I love the diamond-like design, it's just so beautiful! ;__; <3 
  • The opacity is 8/10. These blend pretty well with the natural eye color but in some lights one's own eye color is very visible. At least in light-colored eyes.
  • The comfort is 2/10 - even worse than in my G&G Natural Brown lenses! I was literally half blind for the whole time I wore these... And the bloodshot effect happened AGAIN when I took these off.
  • The naturalness is 2/10. The color isn't that unnatural but well, I haven't seen anybody who would have diamond-like pattern in their eyes. 
  • The enlargement is 6/10. These don't make my eyes look too big but the enlarging effect is still there.
There you go~!
Got any questions? Ask in the comment box, contact me on social media or send me an email! 

-Firith

tiistai 21. helmikuuta 2017

The menthor and the student - Avalon + Avalon & Linda photoshoot!

Here are the photoshoot pictures I mentioned in my Yukicon 4.0 summary!

Character: Avalon
Game: StarStable Online
Cosplayer: yours truly
Pictures & picture edit: megurinemagnet








Blogger pls could you stop ruining the quality... 

And then the pair cosplay pictures!

Characters: Avalon and Linda
Game(s): StarStable Online, Linda is originally from Starshine Legacy
Cosplayers: Avalon; yours truly, Linda: Merezone
Pictures & picture edit: megurinemagnet





The book prop is made by Merezone; it's The Book of Aideen. Aideen is, according to The Legend of Jorvik, the girl who brought the light and life to the island.

And, of course, there's a bonus pic... xD A random car suddenly honked somewhere and I cracked up - which resulted in Merezone cracking up too. :'D

"OMG it's The Book of Aideen!!" :DD 
But there they are~!
Thank you megurinemagnet for photoshooting us and editing the pictures! <3
And of course thanks to Merezone for being my partner in crime~!

Lens reviews and WIP posts (and a small surprise for you all) coming soon~!

-Firith

maanantai 20. helmikuuta 2017

Yukicon 4.0 - "F-cking druids!"

Yukicon 4.0 is over now and I'm super tired at the moment - but that doesn't mean that the con would have been bad. No, quite the opposite!

Friday (pre-con)

I left Rauma to Helsinki in Friday afternoon. The trip went quite well - except that I managed to amaze myself with my own stupidity when I changed the bus in Espoo (I had bought a ticket there since I was originally supposed to sleep the night between Friday and Saturday there but things happened and I had to go to Helsinki). Anyway, I found my way to Kamppi where Hant and Miru were already waiting for me.
We went to Hant's place - it was already quite late so there was no reason to hang out in the center of Helsinki - and begun to create a logical solution to this problem: how to fit four people in the small apartment (yes, we were waiting for Hanny to join us a bit later). You see, I was the one who called Hant just a couple of days before the con and asked him if I could sleep at his place that night... I'm sorry if I caused some extra headache ^^"

Anyway, we solved the problem quite quickly!

My "bed" for that night. Yep, a bed made out of pillows, sleeping bag and almost empty lilo.

Hanny joined us an hour or so later - at that point everybody was kind of tired already but we still had to check the bus timetables etc. for Saturday - we wanted to be at Kokoustamo quite early.

We decided to wake up at seven o'clock in the morning.
...at that point I literally told them to kick me out of the bed in the morning, if needed. I'm not a morning person AT ALL.

Oh, and this explains the title: I was talking about my costume for Saturday with Miru and Hanny - or actually I was cursing the character design of the druids in StarStable Online.
"Fucking druids."
Yep, their design is quite awesome but the costume was everything but practical to wear. :I

Quite soon we decided to go to bed since it was already well past midnight and we had to wake up early in the morning...

Saturday

I actually managed to wake up at the same time than the others. Quite an achievement for me, really.

I decided not to put on my cosplay just yet. There was water and snow (AND SLUSH) on the ground and it would've ruined the hem of my cosplay completely. Instead of putting on my cosplay I decided to take a shower and do my make-up...
...and at this point I noticed that I had forgotten my foundation at home. FML. Hanny was nice and let me borrow their foundation - thank you so much! <3

Pretty soon we were ready to begin our short travel towards Kokoustamo, the convention place!

The theme for this year's Yukicon was survival games. Yukicon is one of the conventions that concentrates on video games.

When we reached our destination I fetched my badge and decided to hang out outdoors - they were still organizing something inside the building so I didn't want to be in their way.
Pretty soon I found Hanny again and we decided to get something to eat. I hadn't had time to eat in the morning and my stomach was practically screaming for food. Luckily the local Subway restaurant was only half a kilometer away.

Once we had eaten we went back to the convention place and I decided to go to put on my cosplay - and to find my gamer friend to whom I had promised to style a Bill Cipher wig (I didn't make a tutorial about it since the internet is full of better tutorials). Luckily I found them quite soon and together we begun our search for dressing rooms.
It took a lot more time to put on my cosplay than I had expected - and gosh, that costume is a damn sauna! Totally one for winter conventions (note to self: do NOT take this costume with you to Närcon if you manage to attend it this year).

When I had managed to put my cosplay on I decided to walk around the place and see if there was anybody I happen to know.


A couple of pics of the lobby. These were taken in the evening though; I couldn't photograph anything in that costume.

Quite soon I ran into Merezone and Btloov. They were looking for other members of Frosty Hearts Legacy - our club in SSO, run by Merezone - and we decided to wait for them next to the cloak room.
Apparently it was difficult to find us among so many people but in the end we found everybody we had been looking for. The whole squad decided to go to check the Dealers' Hall - it was fun but it was definitely difficult to try to walk there with Avalon's clothing. I tripped on my hem more than ten times and I'm still amazed that I didn't do a faceplant on the ground.

Some view from the Dealers' Hall. As you can see there were a lot of people.
I was so happy to see that Tiia, the founder of Purple Octopus, was there once again selling the jewelry she had made! Her products are true pieces of art <3



Some close-ups and then Tiia with the products. 
I've bought some jewelry from her in the past and I couldn't help myself this time either... Oops. :')

Because the crowd was quite big I had lost the other members of our squad - until I almost literally ran into Btloov. It was really nice to spend time with him; I had talked to him before but I don't think that I had actually met him IRL until now. It was so nice to get to know him!
At some point I decided to go outside just to get some fresh air - and then I ran into some Fruits Basket cosplayers! They were cosplaying Honda Tohru, Uotani Arisa and Hanajima Saki. Guess if I fanboyed for a moment? ...yes.
I chatted with those cosplayers for a while, they were so nice to talk to! I would've wanted to take a picture of them but I didn't have my camera with me at that moment and I didn't see them later anymore. No can do.

When I went back inside I found Btloov again and we decided to back to the Dealers' Hall. At this point we also wanted to check out the flea market.

The flea market room wasn't very big so it was quite crowded most of the time.
Only a couple of minutes later we ran into Merezone at Artists' Alley. At this point I sent a message to megurinemagnet who had kindly promised to take a photoshoot of my Avalon costume. I asked her when she would have time for it - and she answered that she had quite a lot of time just that moment! I decided to go to the photoshoot with Merezone since we wanted to take some pair cosplay pictures too (she was cosplaying Linda from Starshine Legacy).
When we met megurinemagnet I asked her if it would be okay if we took some pair cosplay photos too and she said yes (in the end she ended up photoshooting Merezone's cosplay too)! Thank you so much! <3
(I will put the photoshoot pictures on a separate post.)

When the photoshoot ended Merezone and I rushed to the 2nd floor; you see, we were supposed to host a lecture about StarStable Online and especially (cyber) bullying. Before that we had a club meeting. It was so nice to see the other members of Frosty Hearts Legacy - I hadn't seen most of them ever so it was nice to get to know new people!
Merezone filmed our lecture. Even though there wasn't that much audience I think that the lecture went quite well~


After the lecture I noticed that Trixena had tried to contact me and I decided to go to look for her. You see, I had booked a hotel room for us (Holiday Inn is basically in the same building than the convention place itself, it's like 50 meters away) and both of us wanted to go to check the room and leave some of our stuff there.
Once in the hotel room I decided to take off my cosplay. I really liked cosplaying Avalon but sadly that costume isn't very practical in conventions... :( I'm going to cosplay him in the future again though!

Tired Firith is tired.
Our hotel room was quite basic - it was roomy, the beds were soft and the bathroom was quite big. And we had a bathtub (which neither of us used though)! *o*



After leaving some of our stuff in the hotel room we decided to go to the Dealers' Hall again. Now I noticed that Head Hunter Store was there selling stuff! I've bought a couple of products from them in the past. This time my budget was too tight so I couldn't by anything from them - but gosh, I will buy that leaf of Lothlórien in the future!




After this we went to sit down in the cafeteria for a while. No, not the Maid Café - even though I had wanted to go there I had no money for such luxury. Well, I can always attend one in the future!

The "normal" café.

We also met Henzz during that evening. It was so lovely to see her - seriously, it had been a year since I had last seen her! She hadn't bought a ticket so we waited and shivered outside in the cold wind until she had to leave (Trixena had already gone to see the Spyro lecture). At this point I decided to go to the green room and get a cup of coffee - and something to eat.

When I was waiting for Trixena I ran into Xaoryuu (almost literally). I decided to hang out with them and their squad for a while - especially because one of our common friends had decided to attend Yukicon too and I hadn't seen her in ages either.
When Trixena came back from the lecture we went to our hotel room, drank some white wine and watched a musical called "Tanz der Vampire". I hadn't seen it before but I'm definitely not disappointed that I begun to watch it. If musicals and vampires are your thing I recommend this one - especially the German version of it.

We went to sleep quite early - both of us were very tired.

Sunday

We woke up at eight o'clock in the morning. Or, well, Trixena did. I just zombie walked my way to the shower, showered quickly, put on my casual gear and went back to bed. I had no intentions to put on a cosplay on Sunday so I decided to sleep an hour more (during that time Trixena did her make-up).
When she had kicked me up we decided to go to have some breakfast. I decided to check my Facebook while eating and noticed that my friend, Bloodyflowercosplay, needed a photographer. I quickly messaged her that I could take pictures of their cosplays (Bloodyflowercosplay cosplayed Petra Ral and her girlfriend cosplayed Levi Ackermann, both characters are from Shingeki no Kyojin).

After eating I went to take that photoshoot of them - you'll see the pictures in the near future! ^__^

After that I went to fetch my luggage etc. from the hotel room, gave the hotel room key cards back to the receptionist and begun to waddle my way towards the railway station of Pasila.
When I was waiting for my bus in Kamppi I noticed that some people had asked in a certain group if there was someone who could hang out with them. I decided to be a bit more social than usually and messaged them that I could hang out with them for a couple of hours.

And that's how I got two new friends <3

My con loot this time wasn't that big but here are a couple of pictures:

I bought these Demonia Concord 108 shoes from Trixena <3
I entered Genrewear's raffle and won this! Yep, I'm a Potterhead for life. x) 


Well, that's basically it - Yukicon 4.0 from my point of view.
Except that there's still more...

...random picture spam!


Finally they decided to prevent people from hanging out in that corridor... Last year it was full of people and walking there was definitely mission impossible.

Miru...

...and Hant. I know, I'm that lovely "paparazzi friend". :'D 

Seems like the security officer had fun. x) 





Now, there it is!
Thank you everyone who kept me company! <3

Oh, and by the way... I'm not going to Tampere Kuplii this year. There's another event at the same time and I want to attend this other event - heck, it might be my last chance ever to attend it. That's why I chose it over Tampere Kuplii.

But yes, photoshoot pictures, lens reviews and WIP posts coming soon~!

-Firith