Mike , you ’ ve been a long time favourite of us here at Live Magazine and Cosplay Live , but cosplay is not your only photography passion , what else are you doing ?
It ’ s always great to be a part of Live Magazine and Cosplay Live so I ’ m really excited to be involved with this new venture !
Cosplay is what originally got me into photography but I ’ ve been starting to mix it up a bit lately and trying out new areas . I ’ ve been doing a lot more with effects makeup ( everything from horror to blacklight / neon to bright colors , paint and glitters ), experimenting a lot with new lighting effects and incorporating a lot of the tricks I ’ ve learned over the years . It ’ s been really refreshing and a nice change from shooting almost exclusively cosplay photography ! I ’ ve already gotten quite a few styles that I loved and trying new things makes it a constant learning experience which is incredibly rewarding .
Is photography your full time job ?
MIKE
ROLLERSON
Not at all . My full-time job is in Quality Assurance and quite a difference from photography . This works out as it makes photography much more enjoyable and more of a hobby . A lot of the photography-related jobs are focused towards areas that don ’ t interest me as much ( wedding photography , for instance ). While I ’ ve shot weddings , live events and portraits in the past , I ’ ve always felt that when it ’ s a job you ’ re being hired for that it ’ s much more difficult to deliver the same quality results that you create when it ’ s something you ’ re truly passionate about . While I do take on different photography related jobs throughout the year , I make sure to limit it to those that actually interest me rather than taking on all of them . It keeps it enjoyable and keeps me shooting any free chance I get !
You ’ ve been working on a Polaroid project for a while , tell us about that .
Next month will be the 1-year anniversary since starting my Instax ( instant film ) project . It originally began as a way to get a few fun behindthe-scenes shots while at shoots . I ’ ve always been a big fan of printed photos and this seemed like a great way to get an instant take-away from every shoot . A one-of-a-kind shot to keep alongside the digital files . I quickly grew to love the format and over the last year picked up close to a dozen different Instax Cameras , each with a different look and feel to it . I ’ ve shot a bit over 3,000 frames in the last year at live events , conventions and photoshoots . It ’ s definitely become a regular addition to all of my shoots and gives a fun little takeaway . I post many of the photos online after each shoot and have just started creating large-scale albums to keep around the studio .
How do you find using the Instax ?
Instax was definitely a learning experience for me . I grew up shooting mostly digital , so moving to a filmbased format with limited control over the shot was difficult . You begin to think like the camera , determining how it sees lighting around you since anything from a small light source to an overcast day will have a much different impact on the photo than you would get with a digital camera . Many of the higher-end Instax cameras offer multiple exposure , bulb mode and macro modes which are all fun to experiment with but incredibly difficult to master . A handful of the larger cameras allow for a flash-connection , letting you trigger the same studio strobes you use with your digital camera but having it transferred to an Instax photo . Watching the film develop over the course of a few minutes and getting a really cool one-off shot is very re-
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