Early last month I made my way up to Clifty Falls State Park to meet up with the lovely Oh My Sophii and Termina Cosplay for an on-location photoshoot of their Final Fantasy X Rikku and Paine. The drive up to the park was very quiet there really wasn't anyone on the road and also the town that the park is near is super small but very charming. The park itself does have a small $9 ish dollar fee to enter the park which is not bad at all. If you're going to be going in and out of the park just keep your recipe and it's good for the whole day. 

Luckily Termina Cosplay and Ried of Breasel Photo had already scouted the location and knew where to go. So we made the trek down to the base of a river bed. The hike down the large hill (bordering mountain) wasn't awful but was kind of steep, and I already knew I was going to die after the shoot, haha. The river bed area was honestly really freaking cool and I could have stayed down there for a while. I wish there was a little more rainwater so we could have had more of a river scene, but it was pretty dry.... at least it was at the beginning. We finally chose a spot down the way where these AWESOME boulders and little cliff area was, and got to work.

The shoot overall went really well. I had the girls climb up on a few ledges under this massive boulder to give a stacked group shot that I really really liked. Then we split to do some individual shots, starting with Oh My Sophii, which I was excited to FINALLY work with her after knowing her for over a year. However, when we finished and started to move forward with Termina Cosplay's individuals off of the ledge the air pressure went cold and you could just FEEL the rain coming. The wind picked up and the clouds opened up and we were rained out. So sadly I wasn't able to get more individuals of Termina, but I'm happy we were still able to get a few in before the downpour.

 Now, remember how I said I knew I was going to die after this shoot from going back up the hill? Well, I was RIGHT, haha. That climb was ROUGH and a little slippery due to the rain. My body is still there, the spirit of Alexandra is the one that's typing all of this out right now. Yes, that's right you're reading a message from the other side. Anyways, yeah the climb was rough, but it was WELL worth the trip, and I would be more than willing to do it again. We had planned to do another quick shoot and went back to the hotel to rest and get changed. However, after realizing some parts of the costume were missing we decided to call it a day, look around the park for some more future shoot spots, and then headed home. 

 I absolutely love on-location shoots, I feel as though it gives the cosplays and characters a little more life. However, my favorite is when I'm asked to do an on-location shoot, and a composite with a similar location which is what happened here.  Being able to incorporate the landscape the subjects are on straight into the composite can make it a little more believable. Plus a little (a lot) photo bashing some Final Fantasy builds can also be a lot of fun.     

If you're interested in the stock images from this location for your own composited images check out my store here!