Johnny Silverhand – Cyberpunk 2077

Johnny Silverhand cosplay 1.0
As a kid, I would make a new costume practically every week, but as an adult, I have a select few costumes that I continually revisit and refine. Of course, as an adult, there is the trouble of finding the time or motivation to do so. Generally this manifests in making last minute alterations before an event, as was the case here. I spent all of last week making the foam cyborg arm for @pox_eclipse cyberpunk themed Prompocalypse. It’s nowhere near accurate at all, but hey, it got the job done and it got compliments. I consider it the prototype for the better one I will eventually make.
As mentioned in other posts, I am rebelling against this commercialisation of cosplay and raising the expectations on costumes and photoshoots to such heights that it kills the fun.
I took the best photos I could and then spent this afternoon editing them into Cyberpunk backgrounds, careful to match each lighting environment as best I can.
Perfect? No. Fun? Yes.
Let’s see if I can top these with the 2.0 version of the costume.

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Chester Bennington – Numb Music Video

I’ve finally replicated Chester’s military blouse from the Numb music video. It was months of research and work. I illustrated the designs myself (get them here for your own use). I would have liked them to be screen printed on for greater accuracy, but I couldn’t find a company willing to do a custom single item order. The decals get the job done though.

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Switch – The Matrix

Switch closet cosplay for the Matrix and Animatrix 35mm screening @therevivalhouseperth last Saturday. There were only a few other people in black trenchcoats that night. I knew I’d be the only one in white.

I have seen a digital screening of the Matrix before, but it does not compare to 35mm. The colours were so rich and deep, it looked like an oil painting. It was great to have a tour of the projection room in the intermission. Revival House is passionate about film preservation.

I’ve been having fun with the closet cosplays recently. Feels good to get back to the way costumes used to be. I am getting tired of the unrealistic standards of modern professional cosplay. It’s wasteful and lacks the fun that costumes are meant to have. I’m considering doing professional photoshoots with my less than accurate costumes.

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Greyhound PAPG Shoot

Another challenging shoot with @perth_amateur_photographers. This shoot was a collaboration with @freethehounds, a charity that rescues greyhounds from racing. I forgot my flash and there was very little lighting in the studio, so I had to learn the limits of my built-in flash on the fly. I have many more photos, but this set here is a series of portraits. I find these to be the strongest of the series as they show the greyhounds not as an accessory but an active agent within the photo.

Models:

Eden @edensalvador

Kiara @parahnoiid

Lauren @lauren.miles_modelling

Louise @stargirlie888

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Urban Exploration: The Abandoned Chinese Mansion

I have just returned from my trip to China. Just kidding. Believe it or not, these buildings are found in Perth, Western Australia. A Chinese millionaire was attempting to recreate a slice of home when COVID hit, forcing him to abandon the place in order to care for his family in China. There are no public details as to why he couldn’t return. But it is a great shame because these buildings were so close to completion. It was nearly sold in September of last year, but for whatever reason, the sale fell through.

Now the property sits abandoned, without even any gates to keep people out and sadly, it seems many have used this place as a wreck room, a rubbish bin, a toilet. It’s astounding to me that anyone could look at such a wonderful place as this and feel any inclination to vandalise it.

So what I have tried to accomplish here, as best I can, is an act of archaeology or preservation. This was a beautiful place and I want the world to be able to see it and enjoy it, before it is erased from this Earth entirely. But here’s hoping another eccentric millionaire comes along to complete this anachronistic wonderland and maybe keeps it open to the public.

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Nude Self-portraits

Around April 2022, I did my first nude photoshoot, I waxed every inch of my body. I rocked up in a full face of make-up, long hair, heels and lingerie. I was trying so hard to conform to society’s idea of female beauty.
Then I was hit by a car a couple of months later and I was reborn. It suddenly put my life into perspective and made me realise what it is that I actually valued.

It bugged me that my only nude photoshoot didn’t resemble the real me. So without any preparation, I simply set up my old DSLR and experimented with what it could do in auto on a self-timer.

Here I am, muscular, hairy, mulleted, bare-faced, and undeniably a woman. An adult human female.

Continue reading →
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Chester’s Military Blouse from Numb Music Video

I am attempting to replicate the iconic outfit worn by Chester Bennington in the Numb music video. Because it was made in the early 2000’s there is very little information or high quality photos of the original jacket/military blouse. We will never know who designed it.

I must confess, I initially resorted to AI to see if it could upscale the images or isolate this decal so that I might print it myself. The results were hilariously bad. Stupid clankers:

The only solution was good ol’ human effort and a bit of brute force. Turns out that it wasn’t that hard to draw. I had initially been overwhelmed by the image and didn’t think I had a hope of drawing anything satisfactory. But I surprised myself. I blew up the original image to A3 size, traced the blurry silhouette, then studied the 4k screenshots from the music video to add all the details back in. The drawing took eight hours total, but that time paid off. Now to find someone who can screen print this for me.

Below is the sacred heart, seen on the right sleeve. I won’t worry about the other minor decals seen on the jacket, no one will notice their absence. It’s a shame we never see the jacket from the back. I even dug through behind-the-scenes photos and videos, but we never once see what that back design is. It seems to contain part of the American flag, that’s all I can say.

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John Forrest National Park

It’s been a while since Ivy (the SAAB) and I went chasing waterfalls, and Hovea Falls was flowing wonderfully at John Forrest National Park yesterday.
The shot I am most proud of is of the waterfall itself, I finally figured out how to do that smooth water effect.

I have long wished to find a cave behind a waterfall, common in fiction, but remarkably rare in reality, at least in Western Australia. I discovered Hovea had a tiny cave of sorts. The roof of it was an unsettling abandoned hive, possibly once belonging to wasps. I also marvelled at the black rock with the silver streak on it, it appeared that at some point in the past, there had been two waterfalls here. Impossible to say when that was, but the rock is forever stained by it.

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Life Finds a Way

The vines growing across my balcony have all died out for the winter, except for this one branch. I couldn’t believe my eyes at first. That has to be fake, it looks like someone hung an artificial garland onto the dead vine. But, no, it’s real, surviving and thriving and somehow looking absolutely flawless.

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