"My cosplay photography style is heavily influenced by my lifelong love of comics. My style has a lot of drama to it and somebody describes the "loom" to my shots where the characters look bigger than life with my "creepy lighting". It's my honest goal to take a picture that'll visually punch you in the face as you scroll down a page. I want it to stand out THAT much because with all the hard work you guys put into making this stuff, why the HECK would you settle for mediocre pictures? Aside from visually punching people in the face I also absolutely love it when we nail that one shot and I can turn my camera around say "THIS is what you look like. No Photoshop, no editing, you just saw me take this. I want you to know THIS is how I see you and it's pretty freakin awesome." I have had grown men squeal like schoolgirls (full disclosure I probably squealed first) and one girl burst into tears and said "Oh my God I'm so pretty. How did you make me pretty?" Stuff like that makes all the hard work behind the scenes worth it and I am very, very into making cosplayers feel amazing both in their costumes and in their own skin.
Current Projects: My biggest project right now is a complete and total overhaul of my website (www.theportraitdude.com) to make things smoother for the cosplayers I shoot with from start to finish. When I shoot with someone now, they will receive an email with a link to their unedited gallery and be able to choose what pictures they want retouched. Because of these changes people will see their preview pictures and be able to start the selection process within one or two days of the shoot instead of weeks and weeks after a con. It also puts the choices back in the hands of the cosplayers, and that's been very very popular so far and I love it as well."
Visit The Portrait Dude on these websites:
Wes Smith "The Portrait Dude
https://www.facebook.com/theportraitdude
Snapchat, Instagram, Thumblr, Tritter: @ThePortraitDude
See The Portrait Dude's Convention Schedule here