Last December was a really amazing month for my hobby life. My very first photobook, My Tiny Toy Photography Book Vol.1 was published and then also, this month I got invited twice to become a guest speaker for toy photography!

This post is about my experience participating at one of the major anime conventions here in our country, OzineFest 2015. It all started with a quick chat with Ozine's editor who reached out to me about getting featured in the magazine, then weeks later he messaged me again to ask if I'm interested in having a talk about toy photography at OzineFest.

I said yes, why not haha, all for toy photography so I'm in! It's also very fitting because the theme of the event is all about anime figures in general, so a seminar about the basics of getting started in toy photography is much needed! ;)  This wasn't my first time getting invited to speak to a large crowd (I was a guest speaker for ArchCon and ToFiCon too!) so everything's going to be all right I guess. :) Oh, I also became part of the sponsors for this event too because I provided photos for the event materials like posters, flyers, tickets and even event IDs. I was there for two days of OzineFest. :)

On the first day, I arrived early and as a guest, they provided me with my own table so I could sell some of my stuff there. It's my first time having a booth for myself so I layed down all of my wares and even put up a small banner behind me. My friend, Samay was with me that day and she helped me setup everything to even assisting me with sales lol.

On my table I have photocards, posters, mini nendoroid boxes and extra copies of my photobook for sale. I even met some of my fans there whom I had a chitchat with and some funny because they thought I'm a guy. XD

My seminar was all about my experience as a toy photographer and the basics of toy photography. I get to talk about stuff like light setups and common camera settings that I use for my photos. I also answered a few questions from the audience too! 

When my talk was finished, Bryan handed me the 100th issue of OtakuZine which I'm featured in! It's super cool!

I was about to leave when I got invited to participate as a guest judge for the event's cosplay competition! I just said yes! Haha So many activities in a weekend, so much fun! XD 

It's my first time judging a contest and wow, it's kinda hard to judge them overall because I don't get much time, the time to judge them while catwalking on the stage is too short! Or either I'm too engrossed at their performance!

Overall, OzineFest is a really great event and I'm super duper happy I get to experience it in all levels upclose: as a hobbyist, an exhibitor, a guest, and a sponsor as well! A big shoutout to the staff of Ozine especially to Bryan for making this happen! ^_^

Thank you so much for the awesome experience!