April Edition Live Magazine - April 2014 Issue. | Page 122

Photographer: Kris Ezergailis | www.WhatABigCamera.com

“I WANT PEOPLE
TO HAVE A DOUBLE
TAKE WHETHER
OR NOT IT’S A
REAL PERSON OR A
DRAWING.”

cosplay

Jay Tablante Photography
Cosplay Photographer Jason Tablante
Jason is a very well-known photographer from the Phillippines. Photography was an accidental career for
him, but with his outstanding images
you would think he’s been taking
photos all his life! With a cross between reality and illustration, these
images speak for themselves. Find
out how he creates these magical
pieces..

called “cosplay photography” until
later down the line when people labeled out work as such. For me, it
was just an expression of the fanboy in all of us.

Tell us a bit about yourself and
how you got into cosplay photography?

I’m a commercial photographer by
trade. Most of my clientele revolves
around ad agencies, companies and
such. So on a regular day, you could
see me shoot myriad of stuff from
credit cards, soda bottles, cans, diapers, etc... Shooting cosplay is a creative outlet. All the print proceeds we
eventually get out of this is donated
to local charities. With the money issue out of the question, it becomes
easier to collaborate with other industry professionals since they all
know it’s just for the love of it.

Photography was an accidental career in the making for most my school
years. I actually studied to become
a software developer, but the allure
of holding a camera got stronger as
I went through college. This started
out as shooting school mates / aspiring models for free to build each other’s folios. I then took an internship
with a professional photographer for
two years, and the rest is history.
The love of shooting cosplay actually
came out of two fronts. One is from
my love for comics and anime, and
the other, my frustration is an illustrator. I wanted to draw, but I can’t
get past glorified stick figures. I frustratingly knew in my heart that I can
be creative -- if I just practice hard
enough. So the merge between my
love for pop-culture and photography came to be. I didn’t realize it was

The typical time table is about a
month if you just consider one
shoot. This starts off with several
late night meetings with art directors / creatives to talk about the
concept of the shoot. We then cast
the cosplayer / model for the shot,
and rope them into the production
process. The shoot proper is about
1/2 a day for the talent, but could
also stretch out depending on other
asset materials (e.g. special effects
images, backgrounds, items, etc...)
necessary to complete the image.
Then post-production would take
about 1-2 weeks as the revisions
are passed back and forth. Applying some industry practices, we get
to come up with a gant chart of sorts
with shoots happening in various
stages. This is important since we
need to schedule things in between
actual work shoots too.

Photography is changing and
gaining an income is changing,
tell us is cosplay photography a
big part of your photography or is
it done out of love for the art?

Some images would take months,
because some elements still need
to be shot. The timing and opportunity would come down the line to
complete them.

Who are some of your favourite
cosplayers you’ve photographed?
A quick run of the list would be (and
in no particular ranking order): Alodia (given that we’re also neighbors
in Manila), Yaya Han, Riddle, Marie
Claude and Vampy.

Do you visit any of the many
“cons” that are on and do you
shoot there?
I mainly shoot in a studio or a setdesign environment. I attend the
cons to scope out the current trends
of the community so to speak and

Tell us a bit about a typical cosplay photoshoot - how do you prepare and how does it go?
www.jaytablante.deviantart.com/art/Green-Phoenix-in-the-Sky-365142784