Street Photography: Crowds and Cosplay at Comic-con 2024

San Diego is famous for its wonderful climate, beach culture, and proximity to Mexico. It is also the home of Comic-con. Each year, over a hundred thousand people attend this spectacular celebration of popular culture. The formal events take place in the cavernous San Diego Convention Center. But for me, Comic-con is all about photographing cosplay enthusiasts wandering the streets outside.

“Comic-con International: San Diego”, or “Comic-con”, as it is more commonly known, has been held annually since 1970. Originally, a comic-book convention, it has evolved into a sprawling, multi-genre entertainment event. Along the way, both its name and its venue followed a winding path, but since 1995 have settled into their current configurations.

Although comic books still feature prominently, these days the worlds of cinema, TV, and just about every other entertainment delivery channel are represented. A typical Comic-con encompasses huge numbers of vendor booths, seminars, panel discussions, and appearances by celebrities. It doesn’t hurt that the convention is just two hours drive south of Hollywood — the entertainment capital of the world.

I have only attended the convention once, around fifteen years ago. At that time, you could hear the crew of Star Trek Enterprise fielding questions about the forthcoming series. You could also track down obscure editions of Manga comic books, and pick up freebies from Disney. I suspect you can probably still avail yourself of those treasure-hunting activities today.

Comic-con phenomenon

Comic-con is the largest convention of its kind in the world. Its economic impact on San Diego amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars. I am not surprised. During the convention, the nearby downtown area, called The Gas Lamp District, is literally heaving with people. Nearby hotels are packed to overflowing and walkways become rivers of pedestrians.

These days, nearby high-rises are draped in banners advertising Sci-fi movies and TV series. They are both enormous and ornate, apparently customised for the dimensions of the building they adorn. Whoever came up with this brainwave is clearly a marketing genius. The banners reach the eyeballs of hundreds of thousands of people milling around the area each day.

Comic-con Day-tripper

Travelling to the event is tricky. In my opinion, anyone who considers driving to the convention centre needs their head examined. It might have extensive underground parking, but demand quickly outstrips capacity, and traffic in the region becomes snarled. Now, Southern California is not renowned for its public transport system. In fact, there are probably people reading this who consider it a public-transport desert. Nevertheless, for me, the best way to get to the convention is by bus.

I can catch the 901 at a bus stop five minutes walk from my house. As a “senior”, for the princely sum of $1.25, a 20-minute ride takes me directly to the downtown library. I can then take a 10-minute stroll to the centre of the action. Generously slathered in sunscreen, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, and packing my camera, I am ready to go.

Posing all the way

In earlier articles in this series, I expounded on the pros and cons of candid versus posed street shots. I also offered opinions on zone focusing and hip shooting. Well, when it comes to Comic-con, it is posing all the way. When I asked people if I could take their photo, everyone, without fail, said yes! I looked through my EVF, framed the shot, back-button focused, pressed the shutter release, and bingo, captured a street portrait.

Why, you might wonder, is this particular collection of individuals so accommodating? It’s because they are wearing costumes, and want to be seen and photographed. They are engaged in the delightful pastime of cosplay.

Cosplay at Comic-con

In case any readers are unfamiliar with this term, it is a portmanteau of costume and play, coined in 1984. Enthusiasts are known as cosplayers, or cosers. Cosplay initially took off in Asian countries, such as Japan, but has since become a worldwide phenomenon. Cosplayers typically turn up at fan-conventions, and celebrations of popular culture, just like Comic-con. 

If you are puzzling over why grown adults would play at dressing up, it seems people cosplay for many reasons. Foremost is creative self-expression, but it is also a means of escaping reality. We all enjoy a dose of escapism, don’t we? And stepping into a character’s shoes certainly offers a break from the hassles of everyday life. I think it also offers a sense of community, among cosplayers at large, and among fans of favourite movies or TV series.

Based upon the quality of costumes I saw, I imagine there is also satisfaction and recognition derived from how well a cosplayer represents the character they admire. Portraying some characters requires elaborate make-up and wigs. For others, cosplayers don a costume requiring a mask or helmet, thereby concealing their facial features. Presumably, these are of a more retiring or secretive nature, but still keen to be part of the fun.

Gender bending

Like any creative field, cosplay has its culture, norms, sub-genres, and terminology. By way of example, I will share a twist on the art of cosplay I encountered on my recent visit. Let’s go back to the first photo in the article.

When I photographed the pair in the photo, I had no idea who they represented. But, I noticed the word ‘PUDDIN’ on the choker of the figure on the right. Following some internet sleuthing, I eventually figured it out. These were ‘The Joker’, Batman’s nemesis, and the Joker’s love interest ‘Harley Quinn’. Think Harlequin.

However, significantly, a female was cosplaying The Joker, and a male was cosplaying Harley Quinn. It was obvious in hindsight that the green hair was signalling The Joker, and the two-tone, blue and red jacket and jeans were signalling Harley Quinn. So, this is an example of a cosplay sub-genre called crossplay. Get it?

By the way, Puddin is apparently Harley Quinn’s pet name for The Joker. How touching! 

Of all the photos I took, this is my favourite. In my opinion, the terrific costumes, the perfect poses, and the incredible colours make for a striking image.

My favourite lens

It was taken at f/5.6 with a Leica SL2, using a Leica 50mm Summicron SL lens. I recently described this as my favourite lens, and it was an almost perfect choice for this event. 

I chose an aperture of f/5.6 as a ‘safe’ option throughout my session. This middle-of-the-range setting gave me some focusing room for manoeuvre in a fast-moving environment. It enabled a degree of subject separation in the image above because background figures were set back. However, in many cases, because of closely packed crowds, this was not possible. A more courageous photographer might have selected the maximum aperture of f/2.0. My excuse was that I had my hands full engaging the subjects, framing them, and focusing accurately!

Shadows and light

A further challenge in this crowded environment was dealing with the angle of the sun. Typically, I spotted, then engaged, a potential subject among the torrent of people flowing towards me. Given the tight quarters, I was effectively stuck with the direction they happened to be facing. It was impractical to steer them into a location where they were optimally illuminated.

I therefore shot with exposure compensation set at -⅔ EV and hoped for the best. The idea was to minimize blown highlights while recovering shadow detail via the stellar SL2 sensor. The female warrior above is a case in point. Her face was partly in shadow and partly in full sun. This lens-sensor combination was nevertheless able to capture significant detail. And, even a digital zoom, corresponding to a 6% crop, still retains a huge amount of detail.

Although the 50mm lens was almost perfect for this event, occasionally its field of view was a little too narrow. Several times, when photographing groups of people, I was unable to back up sufficiently. In fact, I found myself apologizing to people behind me for bumping into them. So, a 35mm lens would have been preferable in those situations. It would probably have been fine for many of the individual portraits, too. But, I do not own Leica 35mm Summicron SL lens!

Comic-con cosplay categories

I could categorize the types of cosplayer I saw at Comic-con in numerous ways. In the sections below, I will illustrate this through the photos I took. I included some examples of these various cosplay cohorts earlier in the article.

DC Comics

The first group are the classic ‘DC Comic’ crew, such as Batman and Wonder Woman. Remarkably, these very characters appeared from the crowd, directly in front of me. It seems that in the cosplay world, unlike the real world of comic characters, people age. Thus, Batman is sporting a distinguished head of grey hair. Wonder Woman looks in wonderful shape, but is not a twenty-year-old.

Using my Spidey sixth-sense, as well as the evidence of Wonder Woman’s wedding ring, I deduced these two are married. Perhaps they have a long history of marital cosplay. As the saying goes, families who cosplay together, stay together…

I also saw many cosplay Jokers (coming soon) but none in the proximity of a Batman.

Marvel Comics

The next group are the ‘Marvel Comic’ characters, including Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk. If I had a dollar for every Spider-Man spotted at the event, I might just have enough for a beer at one of the downtown hostelries. This fellow was heavily back-lit; nevertheless, I was able to dig out a lot of detail from the shadows. The make-believe web, which he fired at me as I took the shot, sat just outside the focal range.

The hulk character had one of the simplest costumes I saw. He was bare-chested and covered in green paint, with muscle-groups defined using darker paint. He looked a bit too fearsome to be quizzed about whether it was a DIY job, or he had help.

Helmeted cosplayers

Comic or TV characters portraying heroic warriors often wear an enclosed helmet. I came across several such helmet-clad heroes on my perambulation through the Comic-con crowds. Two members of the Mandalorian sect crossed my path – a male and a female. The dents and scrapes on their body armour provided convincing evidence of recent bounty-hunting escapades. With a microphone and speaker built into their helmets, they not only looked like, but also sounded like, Mandalorians. Such devotion to detail!

Still in the Star Wars universe, here’s the archetypal helmeted cosplayer: an Imperial Stormtrooper, along with a couple of buddies. I have no idea who the side-kicks are, but they looked pretty scary. The Stormtrooper’s costume is impressive though – very clean and shiny. But, unless he/she has some air-conditioning in there, it must be hotter than a sauna on Tatooine.

I am not sure what the collective noun is for a group of Power Rangers, but here is one such group. As far as I can tell, these two were portraying Tommy Oliver (in green) and Jason Lee Scott (in red). Their helmets and suits were pristine, so, unlike the Mandalorians, they clearly had not battled any dastardly foes recently. I do not think Jason Lee’s raised hand indicated that he did not want to be photographed. More likely, he was trying to swipe my camera through some kind of telekinesis. Better luck next time, Ranger!

Female characters

It’s tough picking a winner from among the cosplayers I photographed. But, the person in the next photo has to be on the shortlist. She is playing Betty Ross, also known as the Red She-Hulk — a love interest of the aforementioned Incredible Hulk. Her costume is spectacular, all the way down to the yellow contact-lenses. I assume she is wearing some type of latex suit, which gives her those impressive muscles, but her face make-up is superb. I would definitely not want to run into this Betty in a dark alley.

The other females I saw included elves, demons, queens, ice-maidens and minstrels. Apart from Queen Amidala of Naboo, shown earlier, identifying them has been beyond my internet-sleuthing capabilities. Their costumes ranged from simple to highly intricate. Some were in full sun and some in full shadow. As discussed earlier, I had to shoot them as I found them, and deal with the lighting challenges in-post.

Male characters

If The Red She-Hulk was a contender for the most impressive costume I saw, Aquaman was a contender for the most ironic. A DC comic character who first appeared in 1941, Aquaman was recently featured in several big-budget movies. It is difficult to imagine an interpretation departing more drastically from the rippling muscles of the shirtless comic/movie characters. Good for this bloke for bringing some visual humour to the party.

Like the females, the other male cosplayers also covered a range of comic genres. Next to Spider-man, interpretations of The Joker were the next most common. Mario the Italian plumber put in an appearance, as did evil Art the Clown, grinning, of course. The others ran the gamut from native warrior, through Wolverine, to a nearby waiter, clad in a striking yellow shirt, who joined in the fun and posed for me.

Cosplayer groups

It seems some cosplayers like to travel in pairs, or even larger groups. The stand-out example of a cosplay ensemble was the Barbie trio. Decked out in pink or glittery outfits, each encased in a classic presentation box, these gals were a massive hit. Each sported a sticker featuring a sentiment expressed by Barbie in the movie. Their coordinated costumes were both clever and funny; they would have made Margot Robbie proud!

The next group was an entirely different story. I could not make out if this sinister, knife-wielding pair, were a ‘real’ comic twosome, or just two cosplaying buddies. Their coordinated threat suggested they had at least practised being a pair. I suspect the glasses being worn by the fellow on the right were not actually part of the costume. They were probably useful in seeing his next victim clearly, though.

You have seen a few of the group members before, as individual cosplayers. It appears that Marvel superheroes, elves, and punks also travel in packs.

Finally, I included some shots of people who were taking a more casual approach to dressing up. These were groups who were not trying to cosplay at a world-class level, but rather casual participants in the fun. But, once again, they were happy to be approached by a photographer and put on a smile.

Comic-con cosplay conclusion

As highlighted by Tom Lane in his article about a Steampunk festival, cosplay events are a photographer’s dream. The mix of wild costumes, happy crowds, and people delighted to be photographed is difficult to beat. I learned a lot about street photography in such an environment. In a crowd, opportunities come and go quickly, and you have to think fast. I found having a simple camera-lens system with a standard preset configuration was key. I could then concentrate on engaging the subject, quickly framing and focusing, and grabbing the shot. In addition, having a camera that could handle a range of lighting conditions helped enormously.

I enjoyed the whole experience, and am delighted with the results. I shall definitely be returning to Comic-con in 2025.

Here is the first article in this series

And here is the most-read article in this series

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