Preparing for a Studio Photoshoot!

Hi hi everywan~! ヾ(^-^)

I am excited to share with everyone that I was able to do my very first studio photoshoot with my dance group, Danzoo→Dash! This was such a fun experience and I thought that writing a blog post on the whole ordeal would help people who want to do photoshoots for cosplay, idol work, or general modeling in the future! Please enjoy!


Not only is modeling for a studio shoot particularly stressful, but so is organizing one! Organization of a studio shoot involves not only finding the studio and preparing the preliminary footwork for rental, but also blocking out the time it will take, preparing your photographers, Make Up Artists, and models for the shoot itself.

Organizing the Shoot:

Step One: Finding Your Location

This may be the most difficult of the steps because finding a studio that works for everyone and is well within your budget is a difficult task. For those living in a city, it may be easier than for those who are living further away from a major hub. The best advice for this is to try and ask around in your community for those who have been in a studio shoot. If you do not know anybody, then it would be best to consult your trustiest friend: google reviews!

I found our studio well within our price range because I was willing to take a chance on a studio that I had not ever toured before. I would recommend touring the studio if possible because it is difficult to decide if something will suit your needs if you haven't stepped foot there. Once you have toured a few places, pick your favorite and proceed to book the studio!

Step Two: Preparing Your Photographers and Helpers

The next important factor in the shoot is finding your photographers and your helpers. Some studios have a max limit of people, so you will need to consult your studio before so you do not go over that limit. Make sure you have enough photographer help on set, one photographer cannot do every shot if you have a 5 hour long studio shoot... Make sure they can bring one or two people for lighting and assistance which they trust and know can do their jobs correctly.

Next helpers I suggest is a make up artist - who we did not have this shoot! - and one to two additional helpers who can make sure the photo is set up with props and backdrop as well as keeping all of your things organized and your faces looking cute! We were lucky to have Kururin-san of Citrus Idol Project there to help us, she even brought doughnuts and I love her!!! (๑♡⌓♡๑)

Step Three: Organizing your Shoot!

The rest of organizing the shoot is figuring out which props and backdrop extra stuff you need to collect as well as what outfits/themes you plan on shooting. If you are doing this with your own odorite/idol group, this may be a bit overwhelming so I suggest having another member help you organize the shoot on a excel sheet and cutting your themes down to 1/2 the themes you want to put out on social media throughout the year.

Teru-san was able to create a google sheet which not only created a timed schedule of events, but also helped with poses and order of events! This was so helpful to have at the shoot day so everybody was able to know what was going on and when things were supposed to happen. Make sure that everyone knows what they are wearing and how they want to pose before the shoot and then it's time for the shoot! Go ahead and grab your last minute snacks and water for the shoot and the day of the shoot will come quickly!

Thanks to Aoki-san for the BTS Shot!


The Day of the Shoot!:

Protip One: Packing!

Packing is super difficult, because you are essentially packing as much as you would for a convention, but for a one day ordeal. We had multiple clothing racks available to us and that we had brought along with us which helped keep our outfits organized. Teru-sama also created hanging name tags to section off each person's outfits, which were incredibly helpful! You can find similar things to what we used: here! 

Do your absolute best to make sure you have your essentials: hangers for your clothing, make up, hair styling tools, and accessories, wigs, props, and undergarments! But also try and contain things to as few bags as possible! This is the most difficult part. We had no room to walk due to all of our luggage... However we did our best! Packing lightly has always been my biggest struggle and will probably continue to be a struggle... haha!(♡´ 艸 `)


Protip Two: Organizing at the Venue

As soon as you get to the venue, unpack your things in one area as to keep yourself organized and prevent loss of items. Make sure to hang up your outfits/cosplays, keep your wigs together, props together, and make sure that your hair and makeup are on your own section of the table.

When you are done with a set of shots, try your best to return your clothing to the racks, props packed away, and other things put away if you aren't going to be using them again. When it comes time to pack up and finish the shoot, if you are pre-packing throughout the shoot it makes things much easier!

Protip Three: Come with Your Face On

Any makeup artist will thank you if you have prepped your face with skincare and your base (concealer and foundation) beforehand! It will help cut down on time that could be used to perfect your detailed make up and hair/wig styling!

 Protip Four: Listen to your Photographer/Helper!

Your photographer is the one who can see the composition of the photo as it is happening. Have your helpers keep an eye on your facial expressions and listen to them and your photographer on how your poses are coming across. Some things are cute in real life, but just don't come across in photos well...

Also! You cannot particularly see how the lighting is hitting your face, so something that may seem fun or cool may end up looking sketchy because of how the light is being reflected... They know best, so make sure to put your trust in your photographer and helpers! Your helpers should be your eyes from afar where your photographer will be keeping their eye on the composition of the photo and the lighting and clarity.


This was a long post because I had so many things that I learned this time around. I am excited to do another photoshoot in the future, but I think I need a little while to recover from this one... Please make sure to follow Danzoo→Dash for the photos that we will be releasing on our various social medias!


I will be at MTAC in Tennessee from March 30th - April 1st!
Please come see me and the AWA crew at our booth!

I hope to see you there!


Seishuncon 2018!

Good afternoon everyone~!

School has been Kicking. My. Butt!  So posts have been slow. I've been really focused on that so it's been a bit difficult to make content for everyone but I do hope that my posts can become regularly scheduled!

Here is a post about my Seishuncon experience, so I hope that you can enjoy it!


Friday was a day that we did not attend because of work reasons, but Vanessa was there and awesome at running the show at the AWA booth!

Saturday~!

On Saturday we were able to get to the con around 11am only because the dumb MARTA was running single-track all weekend... So we had to get off and switch mid-way to the con and ... It just ended up being a struggle! We managed to make it and the MARTA was super convenient to the convention because it was just walking through a bunch of buildings in order to get to the Hilton hotel where Seishuncon was being held this year.

Honestly, while the old location was closer to my boyfriend's place - the new location really suited the size of Seishun. They had some small issues (like the dealers room wasn't well marked..) but it was a great location for Seishuncon!

We actually had various people come up to members of DanzooDash and compliment us and tell us they were excited for our performance! I can't believe that people knew much about us, but we became more excited as hours passed! The AWA booth was quite fun and we had SO MUCH CANDY... People were really happy about the candy and a lot of people were glad to see and talk with us about the convention.

At 4pm on Saturday, DanzooDash had their annual Seishuncon performance! In 2017 we did not have many members, but this time we came back with so many more members and a rehearsed setlist! There were definitely many things that I think I need to change and be stricter about with myself as well as how the performance ran. Overall though it was a great time and we enjoyed the crowd that we drew this year!

We were really thankful for everyone who came to see us and who helped us throughout the performance!!

We had no room for 7 girls war, tbh.
After the performance we did some photos and Q&A outside of the panel room before we made our way back down to the AWA booth and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon help promoting the convention!

We came back from the con with Terumi and we had delicious ramen at Jinya in Sandy Springs before I got to pass out for the night~! 

Sunday~!

Sunday we were able to make it to the con a little bit earlier and ran into a bit of a snag where Lee had forgotten his badge in the car back at the Marta station near Perimeter Mall... > u > But we managed and helped out at the booth!

I went into the dealers room and even manged to find DEMPAGUMI merch at a humble guy's booth! He was so enthralled that I was so happy to find it that he asked me what it was so he could order more stuff!!! Goodness, he was so kind!

We left around 3pm-4pm because the con had really start to shut down. We really enjoyed talking with everyone who came up to the booth and chilling with Vanessa!



OVERALL~! Seishuncon was a really fun chill con. I enjoyed dancing with everybody and seeing people who I had not seen in a while. I hope that next week I have a more informative post for you all~! But until then~

Bye bye~!

Blogging... Again?? + Kamicon 2018

The last time I posted on this blog was last February... So I can't say that I've exactly been a wonderful blogger here.. So let's re-start, ok?

Hi, my name is Swittx - well my name is actually Sara - and I  really enjoy writing! (Despite my absolutely horrible grammar.) I enjoy writing so much, in fact, that doing that for everyone here may be right up my alley! While I plan on writing reviews and such here... I do want to delve into YouTube Videos as well.

For the longest time I kept myself in a purely "cosplay" realm of activities on my page. But since 2015 I have exploded with various activities from JFashion to Con Volunteering. Now I am trying to blog my experiences as best as I can... With maybe weekly posts - if school and work don't destroy me first.

This is probably pretty boring content to read, so I'm just going to go into my review of Kamicon X this past weekend.

KAMICON X
January 26-28
Birmingham, AL

Friday January 26
Generally, I work a 9-5 day at my office job, so getting off from work with Hayley/Akiba Koala/Yumemi Hayley at 12 was a godsend! It was exciting and despite my car not having the cruise control option, (so my foot has to be on the pedal for the entire drive), I was ready to get the HECK out of town! 

The drive was pretty uneventful and we managed to get to Birmingham and find parking in the $10 parking deck pretty easily. We got into the convention center, (the BJCC), really quickly from the parking deck and found where the booth tables were. Finding our badges - as AWA Reps - was actually a bit difficult due to the Information Desk not knowing where to direct us... which meant we stood in the Pre-Reg line for 25 minutes or so before being directed over to the Walk In area. (Whether or not we even should have been in the Walk In Reg area is another matter - lol). 

We got our table next to GumpCity Con and had plenty of room for our huge banner and space to dance - which we did surprisingly little of throughout the weekend because our feet were so tired! After we got set up, we waited while Vanessa checked in at the hotel and waited for Charlie and Angel, our friends and a fellow DZD member, to get to the convention. 

Then we set off for our hotel. This. Was. STUPID.

First off, I didn't remember the hotel name, so I went around based on "the hotel branch starts with H" in my head. We definitely went into a hotel to only have to re-pack our car and drive down more one way confusing roads to a hotel which had absolutely no parking except on the side of the streets. However we did get upgraded to the Honeymoon Suite ðŸ‘€ and we got free breakfast so...

Once we got ready to leave (mainly Hayley got into cosplay and I was too lazy to get into costume I'm sorry I'm a terrible "cosplayer".) we got back in the car to find ABSOLUTELY NO PARKING AT THE CONVENTION CENTER BECAUSE OF DISNEY ON ICE.

screw you disney on ice

We stuck around the con center for a few hours and played some games in the arcade. We also browsed the Dealers/Artist Alley, which was open until 10pm on Friday??? (Is that insane???)

Then we tried to go to MrCreepyPasta's panel. It was horror trivia. Which was cool, and we got to put a face to the person who Hayley and I had listened to for ... the entirety of our data entry job a few years ago. 

creepypasta is my jam ok

Then we went to the hotel and we went to bed but not after the TV trying to show us horrible gore movies while we ate. (The TV is cursed.) 


Saturday January 27
Screw. Disney. On. Ice.

Screw Birmingham's confusing city roads.

We finally get to the con center in DZD gear and we run to find any parking whatsoever. All of the DZD Girls were waiting on our butts to get to the con center because what the heck there was no parking even in the decks!!!! Disney on ICEEEEE!!!! ðŸ˜ ðŸ˜ ðŸ˜ 

Then it was time for the DanzooDash performance! It was set up for 10-11am which is quite early, and as an out of state group we did not have a huge crowd, but we had a huge stage with a drumset in the middle of it. ; w ; We had fun even though the camera to record was turned off the whole time... Sasuga .... DZD.... Luck....

Henlo u dumb animals
We even took over a portion of the AWA booth for the day too which is nice. I'm so happy that I get to perform haphazardly with these QTs all the time!! We really enjoyed sharing the stage with a member of another new Love Live group for Music S.T.A.R.T. which helped balance things out.

MY ANGELS

I'm always surprised how few people hear of AWA and live in the southeast... I feel like as a con that has been around for SO LONG and has such amazing registration numbers people would know more about it. But I guess that means it's reason for us to keep going to southeast cons to advertise! We had a fun time chilling at the booth and giving away candy and Crunchyroll drawstring bags (which were the highlight of our booth.)

Oh yeah! Lee (Lee AM Photography) got in on Friday night too so he helped out at the booth a lot.

Actual Proof that Lee goes to cons with Me

The other big thing we decided to do on this day was MEET THE ALEXANDER SHUNNARAH!! I saw him. I got his swag bag. The man the myth the legend.

ALSO. We went and saw the Japanese band Kazha. The lead singer also is the bassist and she a wonderful singing range. We got excited for covers of popular Japanese anisong - but we got Sweet Child of Mine and we were stunned.

we were ready to pop UO's but we were too shook.

Afterwards I got a cute picture with a very elegant korean lolita but I wasn't wearing the shoes to my lolita outfit. Kill me. I was wearing purple sneakers. Kill me.

We cosplay the AWA Mascots Ai and the panda, Wa!
Sunday January 28
Screw. Disney. On. Ice. (day 3)

We had packed up our cars and it was yucky and gray and misty out and we still could barely find parking. Luckily Hayley and Lee were able to find some as I ran to meet a really sweet Alabama con-goer who helped me get a discounted badge for Lee. (and I exchanged it for an extra weekend badge for her!)

We were casual Ai and Wa in AWA Shirts. I also cosplayed AKARIIIIN which I got the wig from Barricuda Cosplay. We saw that new Love Live Group perform too! They were cute!

I didn't have a whole slew of friends going to Kamicon, but I did get to see Karen and Ben!!! They are wonderfully fun people and even if I only ever see them briefly at cons, I always love saying hi!

We ended up leaving a little bit later than I expected so I had little time to study for my monday test - but I ended up doing OK so that's about it! Us trying to leave the city was a cluster-heck because the roads on Birmingham are insane...

Also very few food places are open past 2:30PM so I'm convinced the city wants to make no money.

Also screw you disney on ice.


That is my Kamicon X review. I'd drive 2 hours for it again next time, and hopefully I'll be feeling more genki for next year!!

Sorry about this gigantic post! I'll post another post next Thursday for you all on how I pack for conventions or something. Leave me a comment with stuff you want to see on here or on my youtube channel!
 Thank you.