Dragon Con 2018: My Favorite Cosplay!

Some of you were worried that all those Dragon Con videos John and I took this year meant I wouldn't have photos, too, but NEVER FEAR. We worked in shifts, rotating between video, flash, and no-flash photography, so I still have lots more cosplay eye candy to share.

Now hold on to your hats, 'cuz there's a Storm a-coming!

 
Yaaaaaaaas. 

Still one of my favorite pairs to photograph:

 [Jareth: Elliot's Cosplay, Sarah: Alexie Star Cosplay]

I couldn't decide which shot I liked better!

Black-out flash is still the most magical to me, but since that isn't always possible I have plenty of regular light photos, too:

 

Gorgeous art nouveau Sailor Moon group.

Proof that sometimes - though admittedly very rarely - I *do* go outside:

 Christine Daaé from Phantom of the Opera! 

See, it takes either a theme park or amazing cosplay to lure me out in the heat. :D

This was one of my first photos of the weekend, and I swear it gave me a grin that didn't go away for 4 days:

 

 Mr. Tumnus! EEEE!!

These two ladies practically glowed; I didn't have to boost these colors at all:

 

This 8-bit space pirate from Metroid was absolutely surreal when he moved. I love optical illusions like this:

 

 (You can see him in motion in the first few seconds of our Friday video.)

Look out, bad guys:

 

Dragon Con brings out not only the best, but also some of the most obscure cosplay - classic characters you never see, like Prince John from the animated Robin Hood:

 

I definitely fan girl squealed over this. The ears with the crown are BRILLIANT - I knew instantly who she was!

Newt, Queenie, & Pickett from Fantastic Beasts:

The cell-shading on this Gaige from Borderlands is awe-inspiring:

[Goldvester Cosplay]

Her wig is my favorite part; it's made of foam, so it has those perfect angles straight off the screen.

Femme Hades was standing in this perfect beam of light:

 [Bad Ashe Productions]


The Cult of Carpet lives on at Dragon Con, and gets bigger and better every year. Thursday was filled with folks wearing everything from socks to full Stormtrooper armor printed in the iconic blue, yellow, and red pattern of the old Marriott carpet:

 
[Nerdillicious Cosplay] 

There were even one or two enterprising con-goers selling squares of the actual old carpet (which was removed a few years ago) for $5, so as the con went on I saw more and more folks carting those dirty scraps around, ha.

That's another thing that sets Dragon Con apart: what other convention could inspire the most massive inside-joke of a cosplay trend? You'd think that with the carpet gone this would die out, but nope: like a beloved TV series cancelled too soon, the Marriott Carpet only inspires more die-hard fans with every passing year - and I love it. ;p

We stumbled across a truly magical moment with this video; these cosplayers had just found each other in the crowd and decided to do a little play-acting:

You may have seen this clip over on my Instagram; it's the most popular thing I've posted over there in a while!

Anyway, here's that same Aurora with her dress unlit; it has a beautiful sparkly pattern to it:

My friend Emily as Anastasia:

[FoolofBeauty]


And a gorgeous Shuri:

If your group is big and scary enough you can sometimes clear enough space in the Marriott for shots like this:

Impressive. Most impressive.

Also, speaking as a shortie who's used to staring at shoulder blades in the crowd, I dream of one day wearing stilts to Dragon Con. I bet the weather's great up there. :D


Hey look, Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd brought snacks:

[Emma JIQ Rubino]

There were SO MANY gorgeous Black Panther cosplays this year, but I of course made a beeline for Shuri as Black Panther:

I later learned this is a design from the comics.

We all knew Rapunzel was a Hufflepuff, right?

WANDS OUT!
(Such a gorgeous Maleficent design, too.)


There was a whole Star Wars/Disney character mashup group. Check out Cruella de-Sith:

With Jedi Sorcerer Mickey in the background!

Jedi Aurora facing off against a Maleficent Twi'lek:


They're in one of our videos - I took this while John was filming.

And here's the art nouveau Sally from our Friday video:

[Ok Wookiee Cosplay]
She was so sweet!

Winnie from Hocus Pocus out hunting children:

Oof, I could get used to all this glorious sunlight for photos, you guys. Look how those colors glow!

And while I'm gushing, let's talk about Meg's dress here:

SWOON. ING.

I've seen a lot of Amidalas before, but this one took my breath away:

The orbs in the bottom of her dress lit up! And look at all those textures and details. Wow.

And finally (for this batch), here's a Hawkgirl and Hawkman worthy of a renaissance-style painting:

[Hawkgirl: Mewpuff & Minipuff Cosplay]

Aren't they stunning?! I love this pose, too. Gah, so good.

Hey wait, I just realized: I never posted our Sunday video here!

BEHOLD:

(Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can see these as soon as I post them.)

Hope you guys enjoyed! I'm still editing photos, so you can expect more from Dragon Con later as I finish up the next batch.

As always, I'll eventually have ALL of my Dragon Con photos over on Flickr, and cosplayers, you're welcome to download & share yours - just give me a photo credit, please! Also, if I've featured you here and you'd like a link to your cosplay page, leave me a comment with your info and I'll be happy to add that in.

Happy weekend, everyone! Tomorrow John and I are off to another convention, MegaCon Tampa Bay, to hopefully try our hand at some more video. If you see us, please say hi!