Tag: conventions

SDCC: Parting Thoughts

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To me, posting all of the photos from Comic-Con is what officially makes Comic-Con a thing of the past now. Memories and faces, old and new are all viewable to all eight of my regular visitors and the rest of the would-be inquiring internet. I’ve shared most of my thoughts about the experience as a whole, and people I’ve photographed may or may not be pleased with the pictures of them that I took.

But before I shift my focus towards back to what lies ahead, I had a few more sporadic thoughts, opinions and words I’d like to get out before I officially close the book on the whole SDCC Experience and try to get back to somewhat of a regular schedule.

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SDCC: Friday and Saturday photos

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Hopefully, it was worth the wait, but here’s the second batch of my Comic-Con photos, which encompasses most every picture I snapped on the Friday and Saturday of the convention.

After feeling like I wasn’t getting a whole lot of costume pictures due to the fact that either the quality wasn’t up to my expectations, or I simply couldn’t find any I wanted to photograph, I pretty much spent most of Friday and Saturday seeking out costumers, amidst trying to be creative and taking funny pictures of friends as well.

Admittedly, I felt a little weird putting watermarks on the photos of my friend Cliff in his Sterling Archer costume, as frankly I’ve never taken picture taking that seriously, nor do I think I’m particularly good at it to really warrant it. But I do believe in the ideas and the direction we went with the photos, and I figure if these shots gain any sort of notoriety, may as well try to segue them into credit nobody else can claim.

Anyway, the pictures from the rest of my Comic-Con trip, after the jump. 

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SDCC: The 2013 Review

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As the months turned into weeks, and the weeks narrowed down to days leading up to my first Comic-Con, I didn’t really know what to expect. Typically, I don’t go to any conventions with a whole lot of expectations because I am pretty boring like that, and I tend to prefer to let things happen as they come, and to simply roll with the punches. The only sentiment that I was really forewarned about was to prepare for lines, and lots and lots of lines.

To cut to the chase, I can say that I had a pretty good time out in San Diego, and Comic-Con itself was pretty worth it. I’ll admit that there was a moment in which I grew exasperated with the incessantly endless crowds and I thought that I wouldn’t want to come back, but as the convention went on and I figured out how to cope with, and avoid them, that sentiment dwindled. I’d consider going back again if the opportunity presented itself.

The thing is, this is not going to be a review where I gush about how Comic-Con was the greatest experience of my life and how that it was the best convention evar. In the grand spectrum of things, I had a good trip, but I don’t feel the need to sugar coat or not mention the things about it that are worth mentioning, good or bad. Which is kind of another way of saying that I did have some gripes, but I’m going to try and be as eloquent as I can when addressing them. But really, there was a lot to like about the event as well.

This is pretty much going to be a verbose post with a whole lot of words, so if you’re waiting for the rest of my photos, I’m still working on them, and they’re going to take a little bit more time.

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SDCC: Preview Night and Thursday

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Since I have over 250 pictures that I have to go through, sort, process, edit and upload, I figured it might not be a bad idea to break them up. In a perfect world, I just split the RAW files down the middle, and call it two even batches, but that wouldn’t be very cohesive and I’m anal retentive like that. So the first 80 or so images contain pictures from Wednesday the preview night, and Thursday of Comic-Con, which means the next batch is going to be massive, and will likely take an extra day or two, as I try to settle back into a daily routine again.

If you’re looking for pictures a lot of costumers, I’m afraid I have to say that there really aren’t that many in this post. Contrary to my expectations, and/or maybe I just wasn’t ever in the right places at the right time, but costuming in general doesn’t seem to be as prevalent at SDCC as I suppose I’m used to with like Dragon*Con, so by virtue of there not being as much on top of my fairly picky choices of what to photograph, there aren’t a lot of costumer photos, although there are a few here and there. There will definitely be more in the next batch.

These pictures mainly focus on beautiful San Diego itself, examples of some of the horrendous lines and crowds that I quickly learned despite expecting them, were the most absurd things on the planet, my obsession with Richard Walker’s Pancake House, and a few pictures from the Facebook party and other night gatherings.

The highlight of these two days, and possibly the entire convention for me, was getting to meet Chuck Palahniuk, my favorite author (Fight Club, Choke, Haunted), and not only getting to simply meet the man again, but to also be one of a hundred people to actually receive an advance copy of his next book, Doomed.

Photos after the jump!

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The SDCC hiatus

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Not that I’ll be disappointing my seven readers, but there won’t be any updates for the next few days, as I’ll be in San Diego for Comic-Con. Despite my insensitive nonchalance about the fact that I’m going, I actually am excited about this trip. This is the first convention I’ve gone to on the west coast since like, Anime Expo back in 1998, and this is still going to be vastly new territory, since as it’s so very well known, Comic-Con is gigantic as heck, and is going to have like a million people attending.

Ultimately, I have two primary objectives while in San Diego, which will be acquiring a number of convention exclusive items, and going to Richard Walker’s Pancake House, which is within walking distance from the hotel and convention center. Otherwise, my itinerary is pretty wide open with the exception of whatever help I need to give the girls when it comes to media stuff, so ultimately, I’m hoping for a fun weekend of seeing and photographic costumes and friends, hopefully seeing some stars that I admire, and just taking in the chaos and insanity that is Comic-Con.

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Photos: Momocon photos, all five of them

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Yeah so, the Spartan Race and Momocon were on the same day. I didn’t have much idea to just how long the Spartan Race was going to take, and I had difficult tearing myself away from the spectator section of the finish line to watch people get pummeled by the two gladiators. Needless to say, the Spartan Race consumed more of the day than I had thought it would, and by the time I cleaned up and made my way back to downtown Atlanta for Momocon, most of the day was gone. But it was all good.

Typically, anime conventions don’t really interest me these days, because they’re just a reminder of just how old as fuck I am, and I think that most of the kids that go to them are also fucking retards. But this one’s right in my backyard, and I knew that there would be a few people I’d be interested in seeing, so I decided to give it a whirl. It was a good choice, even if I took like, barely any photos.

Sure, Momocon succeeded in reminding me of how old I am, but more importantly in spite of how little time I actually spent there, it was well spent catching up with my boy Orrie, whom I’ve known for just about almost 15 years now, but haven’t really seen in ages.

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Confessions of a grown-up cosplayer

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Over the weekend, I unearthed this old Chu-Chu costume that I wore twice in 2000, thirteen years ago. God damn, that’s a long time ago, and I’m once again reminded of just how old I am now. Given it’s age, it’s still in pretty good condition, and could very easily still be worn today.

The scribbles on the ear of Chu-Chu are from the creator and the manga artist of Utena, Kunihiko Ikuhara and Chiho Saito, respectively. I do have a fond memory of the bemused looks of surprise and amusement on their faces when I plopped a gigantic papier mache head onto the table, and the recognition set in to what was actually right in front of them. Hey, at least it adhered to the strict policies that no bootleg merchandise was to be requested to be signed.

At one point, I loaned it out to someone else to wear at a convention, and my mom even wore it to work once for Halloween and won an at-work costume contest, which is the most success it has ever received.

Otherwise, when I think back to a lot of the memories associated with this costume, there really weren’t that many great memories to be had, to be perfectly honest.

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