Huge Disney Cosplay Photoshoot

Hello! So, a few months ago, I was browsing through facebook, and a post came up on my newsfeed from a local cosplay page I'm part of. This particular post was from a girl who said that she and some friends wanted to get a group of Disney princesses together to do a huge photoshoot. She listed the princesses they already had, and asked if anyone would want to join. I, of course, jumped on that ship ASAP. I told her that I could be Anna. And they rest has been history.

Somehow we were able to find all of the 11 "official" Disney Princesses, and Elsa and Anna, to participate in the shoot. We scheduled a date that worked for all of us, and made a huge group chat so we could all talk about costume updates, picture ideas, and other princess-related randomness. 

A couple weeks ago (after some minor hiccups, and weather-related location changes) we had our photoshoot. Unfortunately, Tiana never showed up, but all the other princesses (plus a couple of random princes) came, and we were able to do our photoshoot, and walk around a mall for a while getting pictures with kids. It was such a fun day, and we have already started to make plans for another--even bigger--Disney photoshoot! Before I share pictures though, I want to share some tips on doing a large group cosplay photoshoot.

1. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! I cannot stress this enough. We thought we had everything planned out, and we still didn't get everything done that we wanted too. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, and we got some great pictures, but there was more we wanted to do and didn't get a chance. 
2. OVER ESTIMATE THE TIME IT WILL TAKE. This goes along with planning. Honestly, we just way underestimated the time the shoot would take. Make sure you don't plan on starting to shoot until at least half an hour after you're planned start time. Also, remember that with so many people, posing is going to take more time than just a single shoot.
3. PICK ONE LOCATION AND STAY THERE. It is so hard to coordinate getting 14 people from one place to another. Find a nice spot that fits in with your theme, and just stick there. Yes, you can move around a bit, like do inside and outside a location, or walk across the street, but don't think you can go to more than one area. We had planned on going to three different locations, and ended up going to one and a half (half of us went to a second location across the street while the other half took one of the girls to the train station because she had to go home.)
4. HAVE MORE THAN ONE PHOTOGRAPHER. We had one, and it worked out ok, but we would have been able to get way more pictures if we had another photographer or two. That way, if you do some individual shots or smaller group shots, the rest of the group doesn't just sit there watching.
5. HAVE IDEAS FOR POSES/SHOTS. Google and pinterest are your best friend for this. Find poses or awesome ideas for shots, and share them with the group and photographer. 
6. BRING PROPS. Merida had her bow, we had a lot of side-kick plushes, we had tea cups and books and fans. Find props specific to your character and/or group, and bring them! Some of my favorite shots from this had props!
7. USE YOUR LOCATION TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. Our main location was a big empty ballroom. I love the shots in there, but somewhere with more... things would have been better. But, one thing our ballroom had was a ticket booth (since it was an old train station), and we were able to use that to get some cool shots. Our other-ish location had a fountain and street lights, and a balcony, and steps, so we were able to more with that.
8. HAVE FUN. Yes, getting good pictures is important, but honestly, who cares what the photos look like if you were stressed and upset during the shoot. You'll see the pictures and be reminded of the bed time you have. If you just remember to have fun, then you'll be reminded of that great time when you see the pictures. :)

Now, here are the pictures, which are the most important part, right? ;)  Also, like our group cosplay page on Facebook! (click here)

First, you can see all these pictures with some music and a couple of "behind the scenes" videos in this video if you don't want to scroll through them. :)