226. AX LIVE Gathering

Whooo another photo dump! Even though I was just totally in Los Angeles last weeekend for the Hotarubi shoot oAo uwawawa. But at a last minute decision, we went to the AX LIVE Gathering at Miles Square Regional Park.

It was super hot and warm out and thanks to all the cosplayers who came out and were total troopers in wearing their costumes in the dramatic heat! Click on the photos to enlarge them.

225. Hotarubi no mori e

After a few weeks, another photoshoot happened! Yes! *w* I'm not sure how you guys do it but I think a lot goes into planning shoots even as simple as this one lol. Not to mention the challenge of finding the perfect location.

For this one (like most of our shoots) we ended up packing our bags and venturing to LA again to a park in Hollywood - no correction 'a recreational area' type park lol... we wanted to go there mostly for the water fall creek type thing and the super mini "Japanese Garden" they offered.
I had every intention on doing some shots of Hotaru playing in the water but there was a park ranger that was walking around lol and I think our group definitely caught his attention oAo;;

The annoying part was, when we finally moved onto the bridge area, kids were wadding in the water =A= like it was nothing then our stuff got surrounded by a bright colored group of people shooting their Quinceañera D8

The story of Hotarubi no mori e also known as The Light of a Firefly Forest revolves around Gin and Hotaru. Gin is a spirit who lives in the mountain and Hotaru is a naive little girl from the city who goes to visit her uncle in the country side. One day she gets lost in the forest by the mountain and runs into a spirit - Gin who helps her find her way back. Since their meeting, Hotaru had promised to come back to see Gin every summer.

So as you can tell, they develop a strong bond between each other, the story progresses from Hotaru as a young kid to seeing her grow into a young woman. The biggest catch is - she can't touch Gin. No human is allowed to touch him or he will disappear! :o

This is a pretty tragic story and it only runs for 44mins. Lol, whut super short, I know!

I'm totally just going to spoil the story for you as you continue to see this set ohohoho *w*;;

Year after year Hotaru keeps coming back to see Gin, and one of the cutest quotes from the series is:

"Gin, I thought of you during winter. Even during autumn and spring. Gin, don't forget about me." -Hotaru 

You're prolly wondering why Gin wears a masks right?... "If I don't wear this mask, I wouldn't look like a spirit." -Gin
If I remember correctly, Gin was abandoned as a baby at the base of the mountain, and died coz he was left in the dead of winter??? But the spirit god took pity on him and turned him into a Spirit. (I could be wrong - I need to rewatch it again lol)

I'm missing a few photos on this portion which I need to add when I get home GDI /fail/ so I really shouldn't be publishing this post right now tbh lol.... 

  One of the things we missed out on shooting is the scene where Hotaru comes back wearing her Middle School uniform to prove to Gin she's growing up - more like a rights of passage. But its ok, we totally skipped that and went straight to the summer festival portion ohoho oAo;;

NOW THAT WE'RE AT THE END OF THE SET I'm just going to flat out spoil it for you *w*
Gin and Hotaru attends a summer festival hosted by the spirits that lives in the mountains made to mimic the humans summer festivals. In the beginning of the series, Hotaru mentions that her uncle once attended a festival hosted by the spirits but wasnt exactly sure. Coz the forest area she goes to play in has a folklore story that people get lost there and etc.

And how humans tend to wonder into their own festivals without knowing about it...
In the end, we get to the more lovely dovey portion of the series *w* omgee where Gin is all sneaky and puts his mask on Hotaru and gives her a kiss. Omg lol whut?! Feels!!! lol.

As they continue on their walk by the lake with the fireflies walking a kid runs into Gin and trips and Gin being the hero he is, grabs the boy to keep him from hurting himself. Little did they know the little boy is HUMAN! And Gin starts to fade into oblivion oAo!!!!

In the end he finally says "Hotaru~ I can finally touch you" So she runs into his arms! END! SOBS

"Gin....no matter what, I can't touch you, can I?..." "If I want you to stay..."

"Your warmth will remind me of our summer memories together, Gin....thank you"

224. BTS Hotarubi Shoot / LA adventures

ohohohooo ok not much for a behind the scenes post coz I didn't really take MUCH behind the scenes photos, well I probably did but I didn't get /all/ the photos up coz really, their just pretty boring )':

and we didn't really have any epic set up tbh lololol...so you just get some food pr0n from our adventure in LA

 

 

The shoot took place in a 'recreational area' in Hollywood OwO (damn all these driving!!!) I didn't really get a chance to snap a lot of behind the scene photos since we didn't really have a helper with us during the shoot, it was basically me, another photographer (Anh, yay) and the 2 lovelies Hannsel and Yuki for this Hotarubi shoot, I did took some videos on her camera but I am definitely not looking forward to scrubbing through the video. Was planning a full blown amv style but, yeah, didn't happen. Since its impossible to shoot still and video at the same time - it would have happened if we had some more helpers with us. But oh well!

SUPER CONDENSED PHOTO BLOG ENTRY UWAWAWAH....After rolling in dirt all day lol ( why do I always end up doing that hahaha idk why. Its probably to get all them angles!!!) we crawled our way to THE GROVE, apparently a super swanky super expensive mall oAo but we were desperate for food...but we managed to stumble on the Farmers Market which - to us Asians, reminds us of HongKong or the night market back homes looool.

stalls and stalls of vendors selling different kinds of food from all over the place! *w*!!!

Clearly, my favorite part of walking through it was the desserts hahaha

we were all probably shamelessly oogling at them. (I know I was eyeing them Macarons badly)

 

A sustaining meal from La Korea (seriously, is it 'The Korea"? or LA as in Los Angeles Korea?!)

we walked around the mall owo;; but didn't venture very far...

Sunset view! :o ok not really but look at the sky!

Lastly the trip concluded with going  to Puenta Hills for some desserts at Genki Living *w* and custard / red bean filled Taiyaki ohohoho (which is basically waffles lol)

um yeah maybe I'll edit this post with more photos or something, or I'll get around to scrubbing through the footage I have for some form of video ;A;!!! loool So much fail.