Last week, I read one of Alodia Gosiengfiao’s FB statuses announcing Chowking’s 25th Anniversary event which was limited to only 10 Bloggers, 10 Cosplayers and 10 photographers.  Thinking that this would be a great opportunity to expand my network, I applied for a slot via the email Alodia had listed.

I guess I easily got the slot as a photographer after showing my website (covering events) and my Flickr album on cosplays (i.e. Tokyo Game Show 2009).  I love doing events photography and I like the idea of being invited to an exclusive event — less crowd and more room to have photo opportunities with top cosplayers.

Upon arriving at the venue, I realized that the Filipino cosplaying community is very tight, I actually felt a bit OP (out of place) since almost everyone already knows each other.  Generally, most photographers who were there were friends with the cosplayers and so, sometimes I had to sneak in for a shot.

Hye Marie Nim in French Maid cosplay

I never had the chance to take pictures of geishas in Japan, never thought I could get my very first shot of a geisha in the Philippines.

Ms. Monique Dimanlig aka Midori

Though it wasn’t on my wishlist, Chowking’s celebrity endorser for their new product (the Oh!some Oh!range Chicken), Jericho Rosales was there to pump up the event with his chicken dance.

Jericho Rosales promoting Chowking's new product, the Oh!some Oh!range Chicken

And of course, what perfect opportunity to take pictures of the lovely Alodia.  She has got to be the most popular cosplayer in the (otaku) world.  I’ve seen one event in the news where she had dozens of bodyguards all over her during a mall event.  But thanks to the exclusive invite, I got the chance to rub elbows with, even to take a shot of her this close and then say hi to her mom.  Too bad her sister Ashley wasn’t around.

Closeup with Ms. Alodia

The event was enjoyable thanks to Chowking’s dynamic presentation and the hosts’ energetic vibe.  We were made to move from one place to another as they had provided different setups all throughout the program.  Funny though that Chowking had invited Food Bloggers for their product PR, but then the confetti machines began to fire up sprinkling orange crepe papers on top of the food.  (FAIL!)  Another problem was the small venue especially that the organizers decided to fill it up with flash mob dancers.  I was expecting to meet and greet fellow guests during the event, but I could no longer distinguish them from the flash mob members (they should have given us tags).

Rush of Confetti

Overall, it was a great social event for the party people.  Lots of prizes were given away which included mobile phones and polaroid pogo cams.  All throughout the event, I was using the auto ISO feature of my Nikon D90 which eventually led to my having mostly ISO1600 shots.  Still, not bad as the graininess of the shots are quite manageable.  I used to be very conservative with regard to high ISO usage, but with the d90, I think it should not be a problem especially for events photography.