[Kochiya Sanae Cosplay] Touhou Project's Urban Mirror Phantom

Still shooting Touhou Project in 2025! I took a set of Kochiya Sanae Cosplay convention photos using a Sony a7c II paired with a 7Artisans lens. Utilizing the puddles left on the streets after an evening rain, I lowered the camera position until it was almost touching the ground to capture the frame where the character and the reflection merge into one.

The outfit features Sanae's classic sailor uniform as the base, layered with a translucent ice-blue outer coat. The coat flutters significantly when walking, which perfectly complements the movements to create a dynamic visual tension. The wig color appears even more clear and transparent under the ambient light of the blue hour. Combined with the white fluffy hairballs on both sides and the red and yellow ribbons tied to the kagura suzu, it adds a vibrant pop of color to the overall cool-toned background.

The center sharpness of this 7Artisans lens under a large aperture performs quite well, capturing the engravings on the kagura suzu and the hair strands of the wig in great detail. The slight vignetting naturally present at the edges actually enhances the overall atmosphere of the image. To preserve the natural texture during shooting, I directly used the Sony camera's Creative Look straight-out-of-camera, only doing minor adjustments and cropping without excessive rendering.

The natural element of water puddles relies heavily on luck, but fortunately, there happened to be an appropriately sized puddle on the outskirts of the convention, and it was very clear. To capture the full reflection in water into the frame, I spent almost the entire shoot squatting or even half-kneeling on the ground, alternating between standing, squatting, and raising the bell to interpret the character's charm. In the overall composition, I deliberately avoided cutting off the character at the edges of the frame to ensure that the cover photo could convey a clean mirror composition.

In this era when people still ask, 'Are you still shooting Touhou?', looking back at the character Kochiya Sanae, her essence—a blend of deity and young girl—gains a tangible form through the combination of modern urban architecture and water reflections. Although shooting convention photos often means dealing with the stares of passersby and location constraints, it is precisely this authentic street environment that gives ACG characters a vivid sense of being close to real life. Every new attempt at composition is where the joy of creating a great shot lies.