Australian cosplay photographer turns cityscapes into pop-culture dreams
A self-taught cosplay photographer is receiving plenty of attention for his stunning takes on regular cityscapes.
Leigh Hyland, the Australian man behind cosplay photo project Steamkittens, is becoming known for his creative photographs of cosplayers around the country.
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With his Canon DSLR, a few studio lights and his Photoshop prowess, Hyland takes his photographs out of this world and turns them into artworks inspired by games such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and animated series such as the Legend of Korra.
Credit: Leigh Hyland/Steamkittens
Hyland, a childhood Star Wars fan and self-admitted sci-fi nerd, went to his first con, or convention, in 2012, and became mesmerised by the amazing stormtrooper outfits that were on show.
The name of his photo project, Steamkittens, is an acknowledgement of his love for steampunk culture and his former job as an animal photographer for the Australian animal welfare organisation, RSPCA.
"Animal adoption photography was what I did for about five years," Hyland told Mashable Australia. "But there's only so much you can learn from photographing animals. I wanted to get more into creative photography."
Originally coming from a graphic design background, it was the combination of cosplay and Photoshop that finally delivered the perfect creative pursuit for Hyland. "It was the creative outlet I was looking for," he said. "It made me want to learn photography too, I didn't have any [formal] training, so it was just to experiment."
An experiment that has now gained him a loyal following.
Credit: Leigh Hyland/Steamkittens
Preferring to take photos of characters with dramatic lighting, as opposed to the beauty portraits that are a big part of cosplay photography, Hyland takes his subjects into dark corners or the lush greenery for photographs when he's at conventions.
He then uses Photoshop to take the characters out of their real-world backgrounds and places them into fantasy scenes.
Hyland said people are often surprised when they learn his photographs are taken at conventions, due to the typical bad lighting in these environments. For example, in one photo he took of three Mortal Kombat characters, he used a single handheld strobe light for lighting and then removed the background in Photoshop to create an amazing image.
"It was done to prove that if you have bad lighting and a bad location, you can still get the basis for an image you can work with," he said.
Of the people he looks up to for artistic inspiration, Hyland said he's inspired by other cosplay photographers such as American David Love from Florida. "[Love] takes most of his photos in his lounge room, and then he'll go out to the zoo and photograph exhibits or bits of textures, before building these amazing compositions based on his own photos," Hyland said.
Credit: Leigh Hyland/Steamkittens
Hyland also uses his home town of Adelaide as the set for some of his photographs and has managed to work with local authorities like the National Trust to secure access to areas that are normally off-limits.
Some of his more intriguing locations include a former insane asylum that had been shut for 30 years and an old Victorian manor. "The type of buildings I want are older, run-down sheds or warehouses," Hyland said.
"The location scouting is the main thing, and if I find it then I think, 'who do I know would suit the environment, who would have the costume,' so the locations are the hardest, and they're generally the first thing I find," he added.
Credit: Leigh Hyland/Steamkittens
Credit: Leigh Hyland/Steamkittens
Hyland is trying to make it to every Oz Comic-Con this year, where he is hoping to collaborate with cosplayers around the country to add to his extensive collection of out-of-this-world cityscapes.
[h/t ABC News]
