In case you haven’t noticed, cosplay is a thing. The hobby and, in some cases, profession has only grown in recent years. It’s why Cosplay Friday exists. The increasing number of cosplayers means photographers can keep busy shooting pics of people dressed as their favorite fictional characters, and we’re putting the spotlight on one of those photographers today: Pat Loika.

Pat started taking cosplay photos in 2011. He’s a familiar face on the convention circuit and seems to know everyone. He says his favorite part of working with cosplayers is the collaboration aspect and making friends. Aside from his friendly personality, he makes beautiful photographs—I’d want to work with him if I still cosplayed! See for yourself:

Collaboration with Ghani Madueno

Collaboration with Ghani Madueno

It’s not all about massive scale shoots with fancy photo retouching though! As mentioned, Pat attends conventions and captures pics of cosplayers in and around the exhibit hall. If you’ve attended DragonCon in costume, you’ve probably run into him at some point. He captured this Kylo Ren at what looks like WonderCon:

Scroll to the gallery below to see more of Pat’s cosplay photography. And when you still can’t get enough, keep up with Pat’s latest pictures on Facebook, Flickr, and Instagram.

I want and need your submissions for Cosplay Friday! If you’re a cosplayer, get photos to me by leaving links in the comments, tagging or mentioning me on Instagram, or hitting me up on Twitter. If you have a long history of cosplaying, we can make the gallery all about your work. And obviously, the same applies to cosplay photographers. Get in touch with me via the above methods or email me (alratcliffe at yahoo dot com) and show off what you do so I can show you off.

Images: Pat Loika