M. J. Lato Photography

10/20/2016

When it comes to Halloween costumes, some parents peruse the aisles of Target and call it a day. Others pull out the glue gun and some cardboard and create a m

10/20/2016

Nadyasonika as Spider-Gwen by my boy Jason Chau Photography.

Nadyasonika as Marvel's Spider-Gwen at New York Comic Con.

10/20/2016

Logan In Theaters - March 3, 2017 Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Dafne Keen Directed by James Mangol...

10/16/2016

I've been wanting to do a Batgirl cosplay for a year now! I love the DC Superhero Girls design. Plus, I got to use my trusty Ms Marvel/Black Cat mask and forever be the laziest cosplayer ever. 😏

09/22/2016

As you’ve probably heard, there’s a live-action version of the classic manga The Ghost in the Shell with Scarlett Johansson coming next year, and now the first teasers have arrived. The spots,...

05/01/2016

Always does phenomenal work and is a sweetheart. Keep it up Bindi

03/25/2016

Couldn't not share one of these anymore. Here's me as the Ravager- Rose Wilson by Scifeyecandy I always LOVE her bikinis and after I put this one on I didn't wanna take it off. Haha. Shot by The Otaku Crypt

I really feel like she's a character that is truly my personality and tbh I just learned about her from this shoot. It was a connection meant to be ;b

02/26/2016

The cosplay community has grown a lot since I started going to conventions. I believe that social media has played a large part of that growth. The whole landscape has changed as information flows freely on social media. Cosplayers and photographers no longer have to rely on message boards to learn new techniques and share information. With a simple search on Google, we now have access to an unlimited amount of resources. Cosplayers want to look their best and we all work hard to capture that character's essence and bring cosplay passions to life.

As with the growth of any popular community, social media aggregators want a piece of the action. Our images bring traffic to their page and website. Images are reposted without proper credit or shared in a manner where the original creator sees little engagement. Cosplayers become clickbait. Photographers become disheartened and afraid to share because of misuse of their images. Nobody wants to be misrepresented. I didn't watermark my images when I first started. I changed that stance after one of my images ended up on a Chive article featuring Jessica Nigri in 2013 without credit. Chive never answered my email. I learned fast. Want to share a creator's work? Social media platforms have built-in tools that help you share content. Twitter has retweets, Tumblr has reblogs, Facebook has shares and even Instagram has regrams. Use them. Make sure that both you and the content’s original creator achieve a mutually beneficial level of engagement.

Be proactive:
1. If you see photos are being misused by some aggregator accounts, report them on the social media outlet it appears on.

2. If you are a cosplayer and unsure how to report, please contact the photographer.

3. If you are a supporter of the community, also contact the photographer so they can report them as soon as possible.

Please share this message or create your own. Know your self-worth as a photographer or as a cosplayer. We are all artist in this community and should work together to protect our work.

02/09/2016

Some pretty badass stuff in here

01/30/2016

This is awesome.

01/21/2016

Not a big fan of Michael Bay's but I got admit this was a dope cosplay.

Photo via Thy Geekdom Con

12/03/2015

Zack Snyder's BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE is in theaters March 25, 2016. http://batmanvsuperman.com http://www.facebook.com/batmanvsuperman