Cosplay Weekend at the TexRenFest 2021

The third weekend that I attended the Texas Renaissance Festival was the Cosplay weekend called ‘Heroes and Villains’.

I ended up with 458 pics and 5 videos. I kept with my tradition of arriving earlier than everyone else. I enjoyed getting early morning shots.

This weekend, I also started getting some pics in the big King chair located at the entrance. It’s a great Photo-Op.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, some days I was allowed into the Kingdom before it was open to patrons. These next pics are Before and During the festival so you can see the transformation.

This area is right inside of the main gates. There are always people, cast and crew here. Some are exiting, some are just entering and some are working as characters for TRF.

This is a great area to sit and chill while you people-watch. Seeing all of the costumes, outfits and garb is always a lot of fun.

This next pic doesn’t show just how crowded this area gets.

I have breakfast at these little tables in the early morning. Hard to get a seat later in the day.

And you can see that for yourself in this next photo. The TexRenFest entertains over 500,000 people every season. People gotta sit somewhere.

On Saturday morning of Cosplay weekend, I had a ham, egg and cheese quiche with milk. It was delicious and filled me up for a lot of walking and talking during the day ahead. I got it at the Queen’s Pantry, one of my favorite places for breakfast.

I always tried to get pics with the staff of Catskill Mountain Moccasins. Here I am with Sara. She works at other RenFaires around the country. Cool job.

My friend Greg was always nice enough to let me store my backpack and coat at their booth when it got hotter in the day. That helped me out a lot.

Had more good comments about the STORM Factory business cards.

These ladies were always a lot of fun to run into. I loved getting their pics each weekend. I plan to shoot video of their act next TRF.

Jade is one of my most favorite people to photograph while working at the Texas Renaissance Festival. She’s so beautiful and her make-up is unreal.

I think you’ll enjoy the special post I do just about her.

I enjoy shooting group photos. It’s an opportunity to make a lot of people happy in one pic. This group might have been the biggest group that I photographed. Twelve people.

I always enjoy taking photos of people that put in the effort. This group looked great.

And when someone puts in that effort, I like to reward them with close-ups to show just how fabulous their work is.

A lot of time went into these looks. Planning, designing, buying, building, creating, and then putting it all on to go to an event.

After I took the pic below, I noticed that it was a woman. Before I could catch myself, in a surprised voice, I said, “You’re a girl!”

She busted out laughing. As I was walking away, I heard her repeating my line to her friends. “You’re a girl!” Then they laughed all over again as they were walking off.

The beautiful Lilly, dancer for the bagpipe band Tartanic. I’ve mentioned her serious headwear game and she never disappoints.

I love that her make-up always goes so well with what she’s wearing. Lots of style that Lilly has.

I love this next guy’s look.

“Hold on honey. We can’t go to TRF yet. I forgot to put blood on my face.”

I tried to eat different things while at the TexRenFest. The pic below is of fried alligator. It was very good. Tastes like chicken, haha.

I have run into Logan at several events this last year. He’s a very talented cosplayer and I’m always impressed with what he wears.

I agree.

Another fun group shot. I photographed many groups and made lots of people happy with my work.

I always try to get pics of Skidmark.

It’s always good to see Pirates at TRF no matter what themed weekend it is. This guy had a good look.

Ran into Leos again. I loved seeing “Renny’s” because it made my job easier, in that I could hit my quota for pics faster.

This is a good pic. I’m sure they were happy when they saw it.

This girl was my favorite Pennywise. She wore a mask most of the weekends except for the last weekend. That last weekend, I was super thrilled to get a pic of her face in full make-up.

I don’t usually post things out of order, but here is that pic from the last weekend of TRF and when she didn’t wear a mask. Her face looks fantastic.

Another Pirate. I think this Pirate married a Mermaid and turned her into a Pirate.

My cute friend Chelsea. I look forward so seeing and talking with her next season at TRF.

This next photo was picked as one of our top pics from TexRenFest 2021. Easy to tell why.

The shows at TRF can get packed and turn into SRO. (Standing Room Only). Every show and act is worth watching. There are some unbelievably talented performers at the Texas Renaissance Festival. You should consider visiting.

I love the color in this pic. Her make-up is superb. The wig, the hat, her face, all perfect for her look.

If I had a choice between a girlfriend that was pink with pink hair or a girlfriend that was yellow with bright yellow hair… I prefer the bright yellow hair.

Nuria was a lot of fun to run into. I think her character is the Spanish Queen Isabella.

This is a great pic. One of our favorites.

Another great group shot of family and friends enjoying their day at the biggest RenFest in the U.S.

This guy was happy to pose for me and I always appreciate that.

This next costume is a favorite. Do you remember Fat Albert and the Gang?

The kids would watch a SuperHero on TV called the Brown Hornet.

I give you… The Brown Hornet. Thumbs up.

And any fan of the Simpsons knows about Duff beer. This is a great costume. Hats off to him.

I like this girl. She poses with a lot of people and gives them great pics to remember their day at TRF. I’m sure she does pretty well in Tips.

Philip was voted as one of the 10 Best Pirates of the TexRenFest for 2021 by our staff. His clothing is spectacular.

The hat, the hair, the hook… it all works so well together. Kudos to Philip for a job well done.

This cute girl’s pic was used as the feature image for the Saturday Cosplay gallery of photos and videos.

When I look through my galleries, I get a smile knowing that when my photo subjects see their pics, it makes them happy and sometimes excited.

These next photos are from the Sunday of Cosplay weekend at TRF. I’m an early bird again this day.

I was always able to find someone to snap a pic of me on the King’s chair. The people at the Texas Renaissance Festival are some nice folks.

The Front Entrance crew was always nice to me and I photographed them quite a few times. I even shot their Season-End photo on the King’s chair. You’ll see that pic in a later post. It turned out great.

Jana is a great person to photograph. This was the first morning that I met her and she impressed me a a lot with her look.

I ran into Jana another day at TRF and got her pics then also. You’ll see them in a later post as well. It’s easy to tell why I love shooting pics of Jana.

On Sunday morning, I had a BLT sandwich. (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomatoe). My blog is read in over 180 countries. Some don’t know what a BLT is. This could be the best breakfast in the Kingdom. It’s sold at a food stand next to the Queen’s Pantry. The name of it is Tea and Strumpets.

In the morning. some of the cast and characters put on a show near the entrance to entertain the patrons. TRF goes all out to give people their money’s worth. And they succeed, in spades.

In my experience from working at TRF this past season, Sundays are a bit slower than Saturdays. I’ve always felt that Saturdays at any event I attend are better than the Sundays. People are more apt to drink more and be in a more festive mood on a Saturday because they don’t usually have to work the next day, Sunday.

I love being in the Kingdom in the early morning of the day. And it’s fun to watch the crowds grow as the day goes on.

Here are those two Wenches again, lol. I love these ladies.

Skidmark never disappointed. He was always disappointing. Just kidding. I loved getting his pics a lot.

Erika works in Booth 211 for Asgardian Armory. She yells out to get people’s attention. Since they sell swords, axes and other killing weapons… she yells out, “Welcome to bloodbath and beyond.” That’s a great play on words with the Bed, Bath and Beyond company name.

I was happy to have a booth to go hang out at during the long days. And Greg was always fun to talk with. He’s a great guy.

I really liked Sara’s headpiece. It looked like a crown or tiara, not sure which.

I have 3 tankards from TRF that I’ve purchased over the years and 2 wine chalices. I love the drinkware at the TexRenFest.

Here’s Lilly on Sunday. Her make-up looked great and her hat was impressive, as always.

I will find out this woman’s name next year at TRF. She always looked great and had a lot of variety in her looks.

This is Scott and Amanda. Every morning around 10am, I would come by and get my first beer from Amanda. I’d drink it while we chatted about the day and the festival. Amanda is a great new friend.

Here’s Chelsea on Sunday. Great smile.

Nuria also enjoys cosplaying when she’s not Queen Isabella at TRF. I recently saw her as Wonder Woman at a Xmas Toy Drive. Wow, did she look great.

This is the band Saxon Moon. I photographed them twice, interviewed them and also another interview with their Fire Dancer, Violet. Great band and great guys and gal.

I enjoyed my interview with Violet and learned a lot about Fire Dancing. She is very talented and a lot of fun to watch. I look forward to seeing her next season.

Pirates on Cosplay weekend. I love it. This is a good looking couple and they look great.

This next photo is of Cirque Olympus. I watched their act several times and shot video of it. They are each so talented and when the perform together it becomes a helluva show. I told you that the shows and acts at TRF are fantastic. You should visit and see for yourself.

This pic is of midday in the Kingdom. As you can tell, it’s a little slower on Sundays. A great time to visit.

I love these shots of looking down on the festival. So much to see and take in.

I’d like to thank the Food Stand Tea and Strumpets for letting me go up on this patio to shoot these shots. The pics help tell the story of a day at the festival.

This angle is always my favorite one from on the Tea and Strumpets patio. You can see people way off in the distance. I love these pics.

This cute girl was selling flower wreaths for a girl or woman’s hair. At TRF, there are 400 on-site shops and vendors like this girl all over the Kingdom. It’s a shopper’s paradise.

Here is another beautiful and talented lady that works at TRF in one of the shows. Her act is another one that I’ll shoot next season.

I bought a few pickles while at the TexRenFest. They were great. I started taking pics of all of the pickle vendors. You’ll see more of them in future posts. The pickles are delicious.

I photographed the Red Queen several times and she always made a great face. She’s a favorite to photograph.

Here’s another beautiful dancer from the Texas Renaissance Festival. Are you seeing a trend? Persuading you to visit TRF is becoming easier, lol.

I shot pics of the Food stands and the bars. These girls work at the Sea Devil bar. I enjoyed going by every day to get their pics. And they were always excited to see me because they knew it was photo time. The girl in the middle is Kay and she’s a sweetheart of a girl.

I saw Alex Draco on this day at the festival. Alex was always a lot of fun to talk with. He taught me some things about RenFaires. There’s patrons and Renny’s (Rennies). There’s a costume and then there’s garb.

A costume is what you put on to go to a party. Garb is more about a lifestyle choice. Pirates would wear garb and not call their clothes a costume. Alex knows a lot about RenFaires. I plan on learning lots more from him.

The kids could even pet a Velociraptor while at the festival. How they train those things is amazing.

Here’s Mickey again. I mentioned in my last post that Mickey was a bartender at the Wyrmwood Public House out at the TexRenFest. Today, I’ll show you more.

The Wyrmwood also has a burlesque show with some very attractive ladies. I believe this is the only bar in the Kingdom that serves hard liquor. I love that.

This is Mickey and Monsieur Bunny. He prefers being called Daddy. I shot a video of Daddy yelling down heckles to the patrons from this upstairs patio. The video is hilarious. I’ll tell you how you can view it at the end of this post.

Daddy, Mickey and Shelbelle Shamrock. Great people that work at the Wyrmwood Public House in the TexRenFest Kingdom.

I ordered several kamikazes from Mickey over the weekends at the Texas Renaissance Festival. Soon, I never had to order or even say, “The usual, Mickey.” When he saw me enter the Wyrmwood, he’d start mixing my kamikaze. Now that’s service. I felt like I was in the James Bond movie about Voodoo.

The bartenders at the Wyrmwood are fantastic and lots of fun also.

I met Blaze while she was working at a Cajun Food Stand. I ate there several times while at TRF. And I began to photogrpah her and her co-workers every day I worked out there. Blaze is very photogenic and I loved getting pics of her.

Here’s another group shot and one of my favorites. I’m sure they enjoyed seeing this pic and then downloading it from the site. I love seeing smiling, happy faces. I know I’m doing my job well when I see this.

That other large group photo was 12 people. This one came close to beating it with 11 people.

I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but I’m a big fan of using contact lenses to change the look of a person’s eyes. Many times it completes the look and often times sets it off.

Another of our top pics as voted on by our staff.

When I asked this family for their photo, the dad said, “Okay girls. Get into position.” Then they all posed like this. That was awesome. Another of our favorite pics from 2021.

The Texas Renaissance Festival is my new favorite event or festival to cover. This season, I shot 3,105 pics and 47 videos. Next season, I’ll have an assistant and should come close to doubling our pics and videos from the festival.

Next season, I want to focus more on the food. I can’t afford to buy food at every stand just to take a pic and taste it or I’d go broke fast. I’m thinking I can talk to some stand managers and ask them to prepare something that I can photograph so I can promote the great food at TRF.

It would be great if the Texas Renaissance Festival gave me a Per Diem each day so I could buy food so I could review and promote the Food Stands in the Kingdom.