Scott S. (aka. Robot, aka. Saihawkeye) and I took the long road trip from northern Illinois to National Harbor Maryland last week to attend Katsucon 19. It is a large convention that is kind of a little sister to the largest convention in the area called Otakon. I had attended Otakon in 2011, so I can at least provide a little perspective on how they compare. I'll say right now that I liked Katsucon more.
I literally decided to attend around a week before the convention. Without a room, I ended up finding one of the lower cost options around 1.5 miles from the convention on Oxon Hill Road (Clarion Hotel to be specific). The hotel itself was pretty nice, but I still kept my gear with me at all times throughout the trip to be on the safe side. Ideally, I would have much preferred a hotel on-site, but it was good enough and didn't hinder me too much. There is a bus called the NH1 that travels to National Harbor and has stops near the hotel making it workable if you time things right (the bus hits each stop on a 30 minute interval). My days were from morning to late evening.
Katsucon registration price spans from $35 to $70 depending on when you get your badge. Given my last minute trip, I ended up paying the full on-site price of $70. That price is a bit over the top considering my home convention called Anime Central tops out at $60 and is a much larger convention. I can't really comment much on the level and quality of panels, but the schedule shows 24-hour programming, which is nice. Registration on Friday morning wasn't too bad. I ended up waiting a while, but nothing too extreme.
The best thing about Katsucon, at least to me, is the cosplay. If you are interested in cosplay and photograph, this a convention you should plan on attending. The location is amazing and the cosplay quality is high. National Harbor and the main hotel called the Gaylord have some really amazing backdrops that help make your photos even better. The one negative is that you should expect the best locations to be very busy and difficult to access at times. The other negative is that February on East coast can have large fluctuations in weather. Friday had great weather above 50 in the daytime, but Saturday and Sunday were cold and windy with a little snow at times. I did buy a badge, but ended up spending the majority of my time just walking around taking photos of cosplayers. The convention is so packed full that it isn't difficult to spend all day taking up photo opportunities if that floats your boat.
Weather on the harbor isn't really an issue in regard to getting nice light because the main hotel has a large open area with a gigantic glass top. This hotel alone is worth the trip. There are multiple levels with even a few little slanted roof buildings inside.
Inside the Gaylord (convention hotel)
I ended up with over 1000 uploaded photos this time, with from 1 to 5 photos per person. As you might know, I spend most of my time doing hallway cosplay photography. This time I took a few photos of friends and friends of friends quite a bit on Saturday.
Impromptu Magi Shoot
The convention went pretty smoothly, but there were a few quirks. On Friday, the popular gazebo area was blocked off due to a youth convention that was happening at the same time. There was said to be various problems with them over the weekend, but I was personally pretty oblivious to any issues besides the access restrictions. The Gazebo was eventually split into to parts, allowing us to get our photo ops, which was nice.
Katsucon and Otakon have a different feel. I like Katsucon a bit better due to the location and 24 hour feel to the convention. I was off-site so I can't say from first hand experience, but if you manage to get a room at the Gaylord, you should be able to experience the convention all day or night without having to worry about the weather or your safety. As I also said, they have programming that spans the early hours meaning there should always be something to do. At Otakon, the place gets a bit unappealing after dark, so it isn't quite as fun in my opinion (though August daylight hours are longer, which is good for Otakon).
A great location for constant convention action.
I personally had a nice experience at the convention and would
eventually like to return. The expense of big trips like this makes it
difficult though. Overall, if you have an interest in large conventions
and want to see some great cosplay or even just want to stay at a really
amazing hotel for a weekend, Katsucon is worth checking out.
I was able to attend a convention far outside of my usual stomping grounds. I found out the convention existed through a fan page of one of the guests. It seemed like a good way to start a visit with my aunt and uncle that I occasionally see while they are living in Arizona.
I might as well mention the added bonus that I've used twice before. My home city has a smaller airport that has a direct flight to Mesa, AZ. It might be a bit more expensive than O'Hare in Chicago, but it is extremely easy If you are a resident of either the Scottsdale/Mesa, AZ area or Rockford metro, IL area. The Rockford Airport (RFD), for example, has free parking and you can expect the check-in and security screening process to take only a few minutes. There is a flight to Vegas I'd like to try out if I can someday afford the flight and hotel costs for a convention I've heard of near the airport.
Taiyou con (Facebook page link) is a convention in Mesa Arizona that was on its third year for 2013. The convention floor consisted of an area past what I assume was the main lobby of the Hilton. Some of the panel rooms and the dealer's room were a bit small, but the rest of the areas such as the artists alley and main programming rooms were spacious. The main area with artists booths was the one I spent most of my time in. It was a good photography area with skylight in the daytime and enough room to not cause any traffic flow issues if I asked for a picture.
The main area with artists booths had enough room to work in.
I need to mention the badge. They had a map of the convention on the back! This is a great idea and I ended up using it a few times before I knew where all of the panel rooms were located. I arrived late Friday and registration was out of program books, so the badge helped. Nicely done.
My time at the convention consisted of about two hours on Friday night and full days on Saturday and Sunday. I ended up with around 715 raw files before my edit and selection process.
I was able to attend a few events and panels such as the Masquerade, Voice actor Q&A, Cosplay for Beginners, and the Maid Cafe to name a few. All of the panels and events that I did attend were interesting and informative. There was one quirk in regard to placement and scheduling that I noticed at the "Cosplay for Beginners" panel. Whatever event was scheduled next to it had extremely loud music playing half of the time, making it hard to follow what the panelist was saying. It is difficult to fault the convention though, because this happens at most to some degree. Especially with smaller conventions that don't have as many options available to isolate louder events.
The Masquerade award session.
This was my first time attending a maid cafe at a convention. This specific event was $10 for up to an hour of activities such as go-fish, special maid skills like caricature art drawings, general small talk, dancing, and group activities like jan-ken-pon to win a prize. I'll probably try other ones at future conventions in my area. I decided to pay an extra $5 for an instant photo of me with the two maids that handled the table I was at.
My table maids and one of the other customers.
The difficult thing about attending a convention outside of your area (in my case many states apart) is that you probably won't know anyone. I haven't experienced this in a long time, but had that situation at Taiyou Con more than I've ever had before. It's a good and bad thing. Good because I can meet a lot of new people and do some networking, but bad because I'm not exactly the best at doing that. I did strike up some conversation with a few photographers I randomly ran into. It's a bit more difficult to talk with cosplayers for various reasons. Usually, I just ask and then take their photo without even making small talk afterward. I don't want to take more of their time unless they make some type of indication they want to talk. They rarely if ever do that, so I just move on to the next photo opportunity that presents itself. Photography itself is a good way to enjoy the convention, so I use it in that respect and always have a good and busy time. Like many have said before, conventions are what you make them. It's up to you to make them enjoyable.
You can tell the girl in the background knows how to have a good time at conventions.
The one somewhat familiar face at the convention was the photographer of Cosplay in America. I talked with him a bit and also hung around his booth on occasion to take hallway cosplay photos. It was a good location that wasn't usually busy. You can check out his site and the video he made for the convention. If you look closely, you can see I seemed to have "videobombed" his video on two occasions toward the end.
Cosplay in America interviewing a cosplayer.
Overall, I really enjoyed the convention. I never once had any issues with staff and thought things ran smoothly. They did a good job making the convention a success. I'm not sure when I'll be able to visit another convention in the west due to the expense, but I would like to eventually make it out for more.
I attended Kollision Con 2012 on Saturday and Sunday (24th and 25th of November 2012). It is a convention in my general area, more specifically it is located in St. Charles Illinois at the Pheasant Run Resort.
Edit, here is a video I put together to go along with the articles:
As you would probably expect, I spent most of my time doing cosplay photography, but I did attend a few panels, most of the Masquerade, walked in on a concert or two for a few songs, and played a some video games.
Props go out to Charles, Kersten, and their crew for hosting the "Posing tips for the Cosplayer" and "Photography advice for the cosplay photographer" panels. They did a good job touching on specific details and not just a slideshow of their past work like other panels I've seen over the years. I found both of them informative.
Knowing is half the battle. Attend panels.
I stopped by both The Pillowcases and V is for Villains concerts for a song or two, though my ability and desire to handle loud music has gone down a bit over the last number of conventions. Probably from the times I've been up close to powerful stage speakers as I'm taking photos. Maybe the next time I'm asked to do that, I'll bring a set of earplugs. I didn't even bother taking photos, because of the potential hassles that come with photographing concerts with no press/media badge. I don't think I know anyone running this convention, so it wasn't worth the trouble.
It had been a long while since I utilized the game room at a convention. In the case of Kollision Con, It wasn't too busy, so at one point, Erik of CVFTA and I spent some quality time dispatching zombies on the PS3. I also tried out the Wii U on Sunday for a few moments. The controller is novel and has functional benefits, but it won't shake my old school love for the NES and SNES controllers.
The convention, in general, seemed extremely laid back. Besides having badges checked at a few of the main events and to borrow a game controller, there wasn't much else people attending had to deal with in the form of security. I much prefer it this way. Of the few things I did attend, they were on time and well executed.
Samurai Dan doing what he does best.
There were quite a few cosplayers around, especially considering the general size of the convention. While many of the cosplayers were focused on the given trending costumes of the day like "Homestuck," there were quite a few more elaborate, impressive, and unique cosplays around.
A friend from my hometown with his elaborate costume.
I did some hallway photography, but as you can tell from my photo sets, a
lot of the time was spent with people I already know or my photographer and cosplayer friends
know. I'm not sure what to say about that except it is easier to take
photos with someone you know because there isn't as much initial effort
involved in getting things setup. It's actually pretty fun to get more
into the details of extended photo sessions, because there is room to
expand on lighting and framing technique with more time.
A photo taken between taking photos.
I was even able to get a few choice photographing moments outside with one cosplayer on Sunday. The weather was quite warm for this time of the year, and I'm glad it worked out. Using completely manual settings on the camera with a manual flash presents special challenges outside. I won't go into details here (check my related article on photographybanzai.com for details once that is available), but I'll say it worked out well without too much hassle.
I'm glad the weather allow for some shooting outside!
One thing I noticed was that most of the photographers had a lot of camaraderie and teamwork at Kollision. Some of us helped each other with aspects like holding lights or if we needed something in general. We also took turns with cosplayers at times when it was more difficult to find someone to work with. Overall, it was a great demonstration of how Midwest cosplay photographers can work. I don't really know what other areas of the country are like, but I'll try to find out in the future.
Three photographers, one lighting assistant, and one cosplayer working together.
All things were not perfect. There was one unusual fellow bothering women by getting a bit too friendly and giving them autographed self-portraits of himself in drag. Also, a new friend of mine had an incoherent drunk quiz her about the convention scene among other things. I seem to remember hearing his statement about having a beer bottle collection at one point, which seems fitting. The person wasn't part of the convention, but a guest of the resort for holiday most likely. I guess bothering young women was on his drunken vacation to-do list. So that's about it for my report of Kollsion Con 2012. I'll leave you with the photo below for my rating of the convention.
Maybe I'll see you next year. My regards to Erik of CVFTA for the epic bi-level room at Pheasant Run Resort.
It's been quite a few days since I got back from Youmacon 2012 and boy was it insane! I originally scrapped Youmacon from my convention list this year but added it back when a friend asked me to join staff. Although a lot of my time was spent on standby for staffing I did manage to get quite a few awesome photoshoots in this weekend.
Here are just a few photos from Youmacon this year:
There was a slight inconvenience for some people at this con. The main hotel required people to wear a strange paper wristband to prevent the room from having more than four people. Of course, many con-goers have more than this number to make their costs cheaper. It made the convention a little rocky at the beginning but in the end it worked out alright. Just a note, the wristbands were NOT Youmacon's fault. The hotel sprung that on them with little or no prior notice. Even us staffers were surprised!
Another issue I've heard came from a few artists. This year, Youmacon moved the dealers hall and artist alley to another building down the street called the COBO. It did seem like a good idea to help spread the traffic and that second building did have a LOT of room for the events that were moved over there. The problem for artists was that the artist alley was kind of hidden in the back which didn't allow as much through-traffic for people to impulse buy the products that artists were putting out.
Youmacon was still a great con and I will most likely return next year if I can! I missed many of the events but they're doing a great job expanding their events like the Battle Opera (fighting games) tournament they started this year. If you would like to see more photos from the con feel free to stop by my main website at http://saihawkeye.com
A few weeks ago I had created a group on facebook specifically to get cosplayers from Rockford, Illinois together. To kick it off, I also created an event at Edward's Apple Orchard in Poplar Grove. It's a yearly tradition for me to head out there and buy a few dozen donuts to pass out to friends and family. The turnout was pretty great but it was an even split between Rockford and Chicago area people.
It took us a while to actually get out to the orchard to pick our own apples since the tractor used to ride out there was a little out of the way and hidden. The price was a bit insane but totally worth it to be able to get photos out there. If only it were a bit warmer. @_@
The day was rather cold but it was fun being able to hang out with a bunch of cosplayers at the orchard. The staff and other visitors were surprisingly very accepting of cosplayers in this area. Even better, the cosplays were kept pretty tame at the event!
Since the event went so well this year I may possibly be organizing another meetup at the orchard next year. One thing is for sure though; there will be many more meetups throughout the years to come for the Rockford Cosplayers group!
Yesterday I went to a meetup at a place called Edwards Apple Orchard. There are actually two places with the same name in this area, but we went to the one in Poplar Grove, IL.
We
met in the early afternoon. Even so, the temperature was extremely
low. The place had a small stall where they served hot cider, which
was great benefit given the situation, and reasonably priced at $1.20 plus tax. After the cider was finished, I eventually went back to my car for gloves and a hat. I'm incapable of handing the cold like most people.
Some of the buildings.
There
were multiple barns that each housed different types of food and gifts.
One had classic American foodstuffs like hotdogs and chips. Another had
their specialties like apple donuts, cider and pie. The main building
had a large gift shop with a produce section as well as a fudge shop and
more access to their specialty donuts. As we had plans to eat dinner after this excursion, so we only focused on the specialty goodies.
Their specialty apple infused donuts.
I ended up trying their donuts and lemonade. The donuts were still warm with a crispy sugar covered coating, yet the inside had a fluffy texture. I can see why people are so excited about the orchard's donuts. It's the type of food that works best with the right conditions of having them from the kitchen to the customer, although I'm sure they are good when they are cold as well. The lemonade wasn't a common store bought variety, but appeared to be made on the premises with some pulp in the mix.
The orchard also allows people to pick their own apples and pumpkins from their fields. Our group decided to use that opportunity to have our main photo sessions out there. The farm area was very busy, so we were unable to find a sufficiently decent spot to take some photos of the people in cosplay. To access the apple orchard, there is a minimum fee involved where you must buy at least one basket of apples at $40 + 3 for the basket. So whether you fill the basket or not, you will end up paying at least $43. The fun part is that you get to ride a tractor with a flat bed trailer attached to the actual orchard.
The main photographer taking photos!
The orchard turned out the be a great location to shoot in. Each row of apple trees were pretty thick, allowing for a nice natural backdrop.
Our basket of hand-picked apples.
I was using a simple Pentax Optio WG-2 digicam, but I am happy with the results. While I don't currently have any DSLR camera bodies, it was fun to use something small and of lesser technical quality to challenge myself.
Smaller gatherings and meetups can be just as much fun as conventions if you allow them to be. If you know a group of people with similar interests, I'd suggest trying to set something up. Enjoy your mutual hobbies is possible in any setting.
The only decent photo I have of everyone including myself.
I attended Ramencon 2012. It is an anime convention located in northern Indiana somewhat close to Chicago, Illinois. You can learn more about their yearly convention here.
I already wrote about the convention on my photography website that includes a few details about what equipment and techniques I was using. I also included a few of my favorite photos from the convention on there. To keep things fresh, I'll select a few different I liked to display here.
The convention was small, yet fun overall. This is one that
everyone should consider attending if you are in the northern Indiana
area. I personally prefer larger conventions most of the time due to
things like a larger layout (I can only walk around a small convention
so many times before getting board) and more people in cosplay, but
that's just me and how I tend to go about convention photography.
I like to talk about the social aspects of conventions on cvfta.blogspot.com, but this time I'm going to do a mixture of that with something related to convention photography. Don't worry, I won't be talking about things like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO! I'll actually be writing somewhat of a rant on the subject...
In the case of a smaller convention like Ramencon (2012 is only the 2nd year), you can see I tended toward small photo sessions instead of a large number of unique cosplays, which really is not possible in this situation. Luckily, I had some photographer friends around who were part of helping to set things up, or others who were part of the session as models that put in the time and effort to work with me. I don't usually go out of my way to set up sessions like that, so what you see above is from mostly others putting in some motivation or effort to include me. Thanks guys. :)
I had my first outright denial for a (group) picture as I, somewhat abruptly, asked for a hallway cosplay photo as I passed by a group of cosplayers. Well, probably not the first, but it is so infrequent that I don't recall, off hand, any specific instances from the past that were so extreme.
I'll state, as I have in the past, I and other photographers don't get that much out of this hobby, and most of what I or others do here is for the people in costume and also to help promote and document the convention. I make the best images I can, given whatever the current circumstances are, for the person(s) in the photo. I like getting acknowledgement or other benefits from this as I think anyone else would, but as of yet, it isn't nearly what the expense in time and other costs are.
The purpose of and goals of a convention photographer are often
misunderstood as some type of fandom or a potentially selfish/negative thing. While I or other
photographers might have a fondness for a given character that can help motivate us, there is a
good chance we won't even know who you are cosplaying (that won't stop us from asking and incorporating what we learn from you into the resulting photos).
Having the main focus on photography and documenting the convention for the sake of it doesn't make
the request for a photo any less genuine or valid. We might recognize the
detail of your work, or some other aspect that makes it worth our effort and
time to ask. The photographer really has no true use for the final work. The images don't have any intrinsic value after it is taken, post-processed, and displayed.
Occurrences like this are rare and it isn't something to get worked up over (I laughed it off at the time and went about my business). I generally have my own internal guidelines for who and when I ask for a hallway photo, and in this case, I think I probably was a bit off the mark and the result spoke for itself. Live and learn.
If you have any to say on this, feel free to start a discussion in the comments section.
