Hi everyone!
This was my biggest event this year and I kept a little quiet about it, because I didn’t want to give people FOMO.
But what is Scotland, year zero? It was a fantasy/cosplay journey for a week, organized by DmvdBerg and the Bearded Creator. The call for attendees was early 2025 and I (in a big “fuck it” moment) applied. And I was selected to be one of the twelve attendees! There was an about even split for models and photographers and 12 attendees was the hard limit. Hence I decided to not be loud. I didn’t want to create too much noise and create pressure on the organizers. From the 12 attendees, I knew one photographer for about a year and another for just a month. There were some video calls before the event, but that doesn’t really make me feel like I know people. Was I nervous? Yes. I mean, who wouldn’t be after being treated like trash by a different group in the community? But I saw chances! So the big fuck it moment was also motivated by wanting to meet many cool people and creating a new friend group!
And yes! Scotland! A place I visited once before, half a life ago. All I remembered, was that it was pretty… So I was looking forward to going there again! I recalled a little about the boat travel and made sure to pack a separate night bag. But other than that? I just went in blind. I have never been to a bigger photography event before… I tried to pack smartly. Bringing Fern’s default, winter and Halloween outfits to save room by needing only 1 wig and 1 pair of shoes was pretty neat. Gwendolyn’s dress is also collapsible and went with me in 1 bag. However, the FFXIV Miqo’te was not a good pick. The belt was too fragile and the staff kinda sucked too. I lost my patience with that one. 🙁 So that one needs a revamp before I will wear it again. (And I have immediately started that.) Also, I made sure to not pack a new outfit for every day. There were fantasy dresses that we could borrow and I wanted to try one of those at least. I ended up packing half a car full for a week.
Lets start with a day by day diary:
Saturday I packed the last bits and drove to the meeting point for the bus. Met up with 3 others and started car tetris. And the storage room in the bus was already running out. Whoops. We agreed on re-organising the luggage everytime we picked someone up and that worked. Boarding the ferry went smoothly and we braced ourselves for a stormy night. (Wind force 9 or something in that direction.) Sleep did barely happen for me, but that was fine.
On Sunday, we arrived in Newcastle and had another long ride ahead. The ferry also arrived with 2 hours delay due to the storm, which ended up being the reason the first shooting day was cancelled. Taking it easy after a rougher travel than expected, was a very welcome happening for me. I didn’t sleep in the bus, so I was a bit tired.
We arrived at the house we’d stay in and man, it was perfect! It was big enough to host us all comfortably and the garden was sooooo big! We all saw possibilities for early or late photoshoots there. The evening was spent watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I always enjoy. 🙂
Monday was the real start of the photography filled week. The entire group went to Doune castle, a location where parts of the movie we watched the day before were filmed. I switched from Fern to Gwendolyn in planning on a whim. (Which was the best choice, cause those windows were magical for Gwendolyn.) I started shooting with DmvdBerg and moved to Cameradryad and Assheey later. There were plenty of other tourists, so we had a few nice conversations about what we were doing and people asking us for pictures together. There were “snipers” too, but in this setting I can forgive them a little. I mean, we didn’t exclusively rent the location and they didn’t push the photographers out of the way, trying to get a better shot. We were just a weird group of people to them and they weren’t overly disrespectful. So yeah, it was okay this time in my opinion.
We also ran into fellow Dutchies, who were like “Wacht, zijn jullie Nederlanders?!?”. I enjoyed those little interactions, as they can improve the perception of cosplay in general and the people I talked with were all genuine and curious. Bringing the “princess outfit” to this location might have also helped with looking approachable. I feel like the princess-like characters I cosplay, usually open up the best non-cosplay interactions. (Hence I keep doing it.)
By DmvdBerg Photography
Tuesday was at a very pretty ruin and I brought Fern’s winter outfit. It wasn’t that warm outside (12 degrees Celsius?) and I melted. This outfit keeps me so warm, it’s insane. I yet have to find a climate that suits this outfit, but I also don’t want to. I started this day with modeling for Assheey, moved to Roland, DmvdBerg, JustinthePicture and Cameradryad before I melted. In my melted state, I did some photography assistance. I love to assist with photography and in this more colour balanced outfit, I wouldn’t ruin pictures by being an out of frame reflection screen. (Have a look at my dance dress for Fern to see what I mean with being a big reflector screen.)
This time we didn’t have many encounters with other people, so it was a nice, chill shooting day. And I was not allowed to climb ruins. 🙁 For my own safety, mind you. But I really wanted to, cause pretty and everyone else could! And in the end, it didn’t prevent me from hurting myself anyway. Just didn’t happen that day. 🙁
Picture by DmvdBerg Photography
Wednesday was packed! I went with my Miqo’te to Glencoe Viewpoint. This wasn’t the best choice. It was very windy there and the fragile belt kept breaking. Stupid thing. 🙁 Luckily, the Bearded Creator still got some nice shots of me, before I decided this costume wasn’t good enough anymore. I’ll be repairing her soon, as she has so much potential.
Picture by the Bearded creator
I took a lunch break, changed shoes and was “ambushed” by DmvdBerg to get changed into a rental dress and help him by modeling for some Outlander pictures he had in mind. I had not seen the series he had in mind for inspiration, but I can work with just a little information. This was a true 10 minute adventure, just before we headed back to the house. The wild hair looks were “sponsored” by the wind and wearing a wig just before. :’) How to volumize my hair 101.
Picture by DmvdBerg Photography
At the house, we decided it was time to do the coven shoot with all the models. White dresses, flower crowns and natural hair colours were the main points for this and I tend to stray away from my natural hair for photography. So doing that twice in 1 day and going barefoot was unique for me. Sadly, my luck ran out and I twisted my ankle badly while walking in the grass. I finished this shoot and noticed the pain getting worse, so I went to bed. Sadly, this didn’t alleviate the pain, so May (a fellow model) came and wrapped up my foot to keep it in one place to heal. I was flooded with emotions (mostly disappointment and frustration of this being the second time* this happened) and cried a lot. The upside to this not being my first time that my ankle decided to not work with me, is that I know how to get around and take care of myself despite the situation.
Picture by DmvdBerg Photography
On Thursday, I opted to stay at the house. Going with the group would make me feel miserable, because I could only sit and look at people enjoying a shared hobby. So home I stayed, showered and watched some anime. I found that Cameradryad also stayed at the house for a package he ordered. It really helped me that he allowed me to help with the assembly of his new toy, because that’s a good way of getting my mind off things. I do have to admit that I struggled when everyone came back from their photoshoots and got to discussing their shoots and plans for Friday. I was only able to gently “walk” on my foot again from that evening and I was not sure if I could participate. (It might have looked different to everyone else, because this was not the first time I had the ankle problem. The different walk, how to shower and go up and down stairs in alternative fashion are burned in my mind. ) I have been excluded from all kinds of activities since I was 5, because of my body being weak (mostly ankles + no depth perception) and I really felt like shit because of fearing that same outcome. Luckily, I wasn’t seen as weird for that and that helped with accepting those difficult feelings. I did kick myself to bed quite early, in order to not give those feelings more room than I already did.
On Friday, there weren’t many shoot plans. So I could hop along (heh) to the whisky distillery we planned to visit and buy Fhant a nice bottle of whisky. I promised him that and I don’t like to not fulfill my promises. The distillery was very pretty and I enjoyed looking around in the gift shop and the cafe was also really nice. In the afternoon, I was brought to Lawers dam for a fantasy dress photoshoot, as I hadn’t been able to do one yet and this was an easy location. DmvdBerg and Assheey made sure I wouldn’t trip another time, while walking over wet grass, smooth rock and tule of the dress, while others where shooting on the dam. It was nice to wear a pretty dress from Studio Wonderland, pretend I am a fantasy princess and just make my brain go blank. Assheey made some great pictures of me, in a relatively short period of time and while fighting with the harsh sunlight (a lake is a big reflector). She also managed to grab one of the silver fingertips, which fell between rocks near the end of the shoot! And luckily, my ankle behaved nicely and I had a good time during the shoot. 🙂
Picture by Assheey
Saturday was the first day of traveling home. We did take some quick breaks, in order to be a bit fresh when we got to the ferry. We made it to the ferry and… realized we were just in time! (We messed up and forgot that the ferry communicated in EU time even in the UK…) The boat left before we got to the “walking” deck, so we were shocked when we looked outside and saw that the boat was moving! After we recovered from the shock, we went to play Cards against Humanity to kill time before dinner. These people be really nasty, I tell you that. 😛 Dinner time was a lot better this day, because I could actually eat and not be shaken around. Wind force 2 is a walk in the park for the ferry and there was barely any wavy movement. Another reason that I was really happy with that, was because of my ankle not yet being fully up and running.
On Sunday, we woke up quite early and grabbed breakfast. We went to the bus and had our first goodbyes at a car park. Then we kept dropping people off and goodbyes kept happening. I was one of the last three people in the bus, so I had to wave goodbye to everyone. 🙁 When I was back at my car, I moved the stuff back to it and prepared for another hour of travel. My ankle sadly decided it had to hurt again when I was 15 minutes from home. Fhant was very kind and unloaded my car for me, so I could sit down relax my foot. Dalischa didn’t want me to pet her, as she kinda grew used to Fhant and I don’t know how I feel about that. She left me alone on the couch and that hurt a little in a different way. Fhant and I had dinner together after this amazing week and I really wish I had taken the Monday off too.
It was an amazing week even though I have terrible luck with my body. I’m happy to have met so many amazing new people and feeling welcome in this hobby again. Right now, I am looking forward to seeing everyone again at the Midwinterfair in the Archeon. <3
Keep on crafting!
Amirine
* This happened to me before in Germany in 2018. Then I injured my ankle in such a way that I needed to go to a hospital for it and got my ankle X-rayed. Not the pictures I expected to get that Dokomi weekend! And once before when I was 4-5 years old(?).