[Kero-chan Cosplay] The Natural Deity in the Mountain Stream

Before shooting this set of photos, I always hoped to present the essence of this character in a natural environment with water and rocks. While many enthusiasts would choose grander architecture or convention venues, I feel that this pristine stream outdoor location is the setting that best fits the unique temperament she carries. So, after a period of preparation, we finally finalized this shooting location. This selected stream location is highly ecological; the rocks next to it are covered in moss, and the water isn't deep, making it perfect for stepping in to find angles.

A lot of thought went into the details of this costume. The most eye-catching part is definitely the special hat on my head; the two protruding spherical eyes are very vivid. Paired with the hanging red ribbons, it gives the entire head styling a highly layered feel. The outer white wide-sleeved coat uses a translucent fabric, with lace and ruffles stacked at the edges. Although beautiful, you must constantly ensure it doesn't get caught on twigs during outdoor cosplay, especially while moving around. Furthermore, the hemline and cuffs are quite wide, making movement in the water slightly exhausting, so I needed to gauge the range of motion carefully.

The inner layer features a heavily crafted colorful pattern, with a purple-red base paired with golden lines, offering a strong sense of a traditional ethnic style variant in its design, presenting a highly bold color collision. In terms of the cut, the complexity of the upper body forms a great visual balance with the short skirt below. This time, to complement the scene, I specifically chose the action of wading barefoot. Although the stones under the stream were a bit slippery and stepping on them required some physical strength to maintain balance, that authentic tactile sensation is completely irreplaceable by a studio shoot. Directly contacting the chilly water surface and rough rocks with the soles of my feet instantly connected me with nature.

Let's talk about the choice of props. This time, I matched two different props. One is a light yellow bamboo ring; this ring has a great sense of line under the lens, adding some fun to the composition. When holding the bamboo ring, lifting or lowering it can form a visual effect combining stillness and motion with the wide sleeves. The other is a freshly picked lotus leaf; the green leaf blade is extremely large. When lifting the lotus leaf to shade from the sun or placing it behind me, the sense of weight in hand is actually quite noticeable. Therefore, during the shoot, we needed to adjust angles while supporting the lotus leaf into a natural shape to ensure its vein patterns could be perfectly presented.

Under the coordination of light and lens, the photographer tried every means to avoid the top-light effect brought by harsh glare, utilizing the dappled light filtering through the tree canopy to manage facial shadows. To capture the reflections and ripples of the water waves, we chose to repeatedly search for camera slots at the boundary between the shallows and deep water. After several sequences of shots, even with shallow water, one must constantly pay attention to the dust and debris stirred up on the water surface; these are all challenges of wilderness shoots. What's special is that the dense groves easily make the frame turn dark, so the combination of aperture and shutter required constant fine-tuning to both highlight the subject and preserve the environment's sense of light.

It's worth mentioning the handling of the wig. The golden long hair can easily absorb light or look cluttered in the forest, so when styling, special emphasis was placed on the fluffiness of the bangs—it shouldn't stick to the scalp—so it can look lightweight and natural in post-production. The entire makeup was also a soft natural base makeup, without excessively heavy eyeshadow, striving to restore the character's inherent translucent feel. As for the worn contact lenses, I chose a light-colored style to make the gaze look more spiritual.

After this shooting trip, although my feet felt quite uncomfortable stepping on the rocks and my clothes got a bit wet, the resulting photos made me exceptionally happy. This set of images is not just an ordinary cosplay, but more like a journey of experience for the character and me within this mountain and river landscape, combining this unique wild atmosphere with the character's own mysterious and agile nature. Bringing a beloved character into a real-world setting and recording it with natural light and shadow is truly a worthwhile attempt. I also hope that through this set of works, everyone can feel the distinctive vitality of outdoor cosplay through this anime-style photography showcase.