Today's shooting plan opened a 'hell joke' dungeon the moment I arrived at the studio. Who understands? I arrived at the studio only to find I had been forgotten by the makeup artist, and even more ridiculously, she didn't even bring the wig over. At that moment, looking at my bare face and the half-worn white divine-style base outfit, I was internally breaking down.
But since I was already here, I couldn't just leave empty-handed. I calmed down and looked at the studio's set. Those Roman columns and white flower decorations were already set up, and a giant crucifix was standing next to them. The atmosphere of the entire studio was fully loaded; if I went home empty-handed, I would regret it for a year. Fortunately, my personal makeup foundation today was decent. Although the makeup artist forgot me, I happened to have some spare basic cosmetics and styling spray in my bag. The staff helped me find a few small hairpins, and we manually clipped that huge and complex white hollowed-out headpiece onto my own short hair, coordinating it with some hairline powder and hair wax. Don't say, the styling looked pretty solid in the camera, and the weight and structure of the headpiece itself truly played an absolutely dominant role at that moment.
Let's focus on this outfit. The wings plus the skirt hem and the corset are really heavy, especially that pair of huge feather wings on my back. When I first put them on, I felt like I was about to fall backward immediately. But for the sake of the shoot, I still had to stand up straight. The mirror selfie collage in the picture was actually taken facing the mirror while I was waiting for the photographer to adjust the lighting. At that time, I just wanted to record my slightly ridiculous yet forced self trying to maintain a sense of 'sacredness.' The black stockings paired with white high heels, along with the golden crosses and teal ribbons decorating the skirt hem, created a very strong visual contrast. White represents holiness, while the black and teal accents added a lot of layers.
The next two photos of the screen playback were actually taken in the middle of the shoot while checking the results. The photographer told me to hold the flowers to cover my face a bit and try, and the result was very unexpected, feeling like the atmosphere instantly peaked. So I decisively took out my phone to snap a photo of the screen to record this photo-producing moment. Although this action might look a bit like 'cheating' from a photographic perspective, reality is just like this—beautiful photos are often generated unexpectedly in this way.
I really like this Metatron Jeanne setting. That feeling of being holy with a bit of aloofness, yet needing approachability is actually quite hard to capture. So before shooting, I specifically reviewed the character's standing posture and micro-expressions. During the shoot, despite carrying the big wings plus the hot lights in the studio, which made me sweat a lot, it was truly a case of pain and pleasure mixed together. Since things turned out this way, I temporarily adjusted my strategy and treated today's shoot as a practice of 'disaster reconstruction.' The overall effect did not degrade because of not wearing a wig; instead, the absence of the wig made the presence of the headpiece even stronger. And later I found that, actually, when wearing this haute-couture level cosplay costume, if the hair is too thick and heavy, it easily makes the neck look short. Like what I'm doing now, tucking my blonde hair behind the headpiece to expose the entire facial contour and those glowing golden colored contacts made my facial features look more three-dimensional.
Finally, the finished product everyone sees was born out of such chaos. Although the process was winding, I am personally very satisfied with the final photos this time. Especially under that white Roman column scene with the crucifix, the entire picture is pure white, sacred, and with the green plants' embellishment, it has a serene sense of oracle. Today's experience was like an adventure. It proves that as long as your mindset is stable enough and your props are solid enough, sudden situations can also turn into a unique shooting experience.