black girls

Percy Jackson Cosplay Photoshoot

Photog Blog

If you know me then you know that the Percy Jackson series is my favorite book series! In honor of Disney+ bringing my favorite books series to life with a television show and casting the main three characters of the first book series, I decided I would do a little cosplay photography for one of my favorite characters in the Percy Jackson Universe: Hazel Levesque.


In the second Percy Jackson series (The Heroes of Olympus) Hazel Levesque is introduced as a teenage girl born in 1920s New Orleans but currently living in present-day San Fransisco. Sound impossible? Well, they explain how this happened in the series and you’ll just have to read it to find out! Hazel also has a curse that summons gems, these gems can cause those who possess them to suffer in different ways.


For this cosplay look, I ordered a popular shirt from the series on Amazon and matched it with some jeans and sneakers. Next, I bought some rhinestones to look like Hazel’s jewels and would hold some and scatter them around my feet for different looks. Next, I took the pictures on a self-timer using my camera. Now came the time-consuming part: Editing.


I edit using Adobe photoshop. To get myself looking like Hazel, I had to make it appear so my black curly hair was brown and my dark brown eyes appeared gold like Hazel’s. I also had to touch up some of the photos as you normally do when editing with a backdrop. If you’re a fan of the series

Black Girls, Anime, and Photography

Photog Blog

I know, I know….It’s not often that you see these three topics together in a sentence, much less a blog, but that’s what today’s post is all about. 

In case you’re not familiar, anime is an animation style that originates from Japan. They’re sometimes based on manga, the equivalent of an American comic book or graphic novel. Becoming popular in the U.S. in the 1990s, anime left a mark on many American childhoods, especially in the black community. 

While one may usually see more black males talk about anime, there’s a huge black female audience that enjoys it as well….including myself and my model for the photoshoot we’re talking about today.

My friend Lena and I wanted to do a styled shoot that showed Black Women and their love of anime. So we ventured to one of my favorite vintage clothing stores in Cincinnati called Casablanca to see what we could find. This place has every type of clothing from every decade that you can imagine. We soon settled on the idea of Lena cosplaying as Usagi Tsukino AKA Sailor Moon from the Anime Series of the same name. The staff was able to help us find the perfect outfit to bring our vision to life. 

After that Lena did her make-up while I set up my studio. And the rest as they say is history. We created one of my favorite styled shoots that I’ve done so far. I enjoyed this shoot because it felt like it was highlighting a different side of Black women that the world doesn’t usually see. 

Check out the video of me and Lena’s adventure here.