Vanessa Vancleef has been a passion project for my long time friend Kiga (Blackwater Cosplay) some time. You can see her progress on her instagram here:

If you don’t know Kiga mandatory reading here: So when she asked if I’ll be a part of this project it was an automatic yes.

The idea was to recreate the world of Westfall which was admittedly a little tricky with Canadian winter starting up but I think we did alright with choosing a nature conservatory up north.

The weather was beautiful but cold. As such I tried to keep things simple and agile in terms of photography. In the cave I used a single speed light with a gel to achieve that fire in a cafe look. Out side in the field we used a simple reflector for a little fill and to capture nice catch lights in the eyes. For environmental portraits i usually keep my lenses pretty wide so that the subject feels like they are sitting in an a world. A longer lens i find will often have the opposite effect isolating the subject from their environment.

Kiga on the other hand has been working on this costume for months, you can see some of the progress reports below but please follow her Instagram for the full set.

And on that note i’m happy to present Vanessa.
Cosplayer: Blackwater Cosplay
Assistent / crafter: Alex Ren Designs
Phootography / Video: Paul Hillier Photography

Check out more of my work at

Instagram Cosplay: https://www.instagram.com/kamerapeople/
Instagram Documentary: https://www.instagram.com/kameraninja/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulHillierPhotography/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaulHillierdesu
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/roadragebunny