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.
We recently visited a restaurant off of East State Street in Rockford Illinois specializing in Mexican food.
The interior is top notch with elaborate furnishings and features like a fountain and clouds on the ceiling. It is probably designed to mimic the style of high end homes and buildings in Mexico.
Walls were textured and adorned.
All three members of CVFTA were present for the excursion.
We ordered :
Quesadilla Dinner
Taco Dinner (steak)
Super Nacho
Guacamole Appetizer
I ordered the iced tea.
Quesadilla Dinner
The Taco Dinner
Super Nacho
I had the taco dinner and the iced tea. The prices were reasonable and the food was pretty good. I especially liked the iced tea. It had a light sweetness to it as well a taste of lime that went really well together. The tacos came with flavored rice, beans, and some guacamole. The flavor of the tacos was decent on its own, but they seem to be flavored mildly enough that you should use the bottles of hot sauce that are available on the table to get your ideal level of spice.
Overall, the food was pleasant and the restaurant was fun to look at inside. It's worth revisiting in the future to try out more of the menu.
A few days ago I decided to visit a local restaurant called Hachi Hachi Express. They specialize in sushi and hibachi styled meals at a decent price. They are somewhat between a chain fast food restaurant and a full restaurant. The seating area is without a waitress, but their food and prices are a bit above what you would pay at somewhere like McDonalds or Burger King. It's really easy to spend $20 on a full meal of sushi rolls.
My order consisted of:
Bagel Roll: $4.50
Shrimp Tempura Roll: $5.75
California Roll: $3.75
The Tempura and California rolls.
The bagel rolls.
As mentioned before, I had takeout, so they put them together in as few packages as possible. Portions for the price are a bit small, but that comes with the territory of this specialty offering.
My favorite of the three rolls were the tempura shrimp. They have a great overall flavor and texture. The sauce covering the seaweed wrap adds to the overall enjoyment as well.
Tempura rolls were the best tasting of the group.
The California rolls and bagel rolls didn't appeal to me much. The bagel rolls had an odd after taste, probably from the smoked fish or just the combination of the ingredients. They were alright, but just not too appealing to me.
The bagel roll up close.
The California rolls were better than the bagel rolls, but still not something I'd order again. I probably should have put some of the included sauces or condiments on them to add kick to the somewhat bland ingredients.
California rolls
I have been to Hachi Hachi quite a few times. It's a quick and easy way to stomp out that craving for Japanese style food without having to go through the whole sit-down restaurant experience with a waitress. They probably have around 40 different sushi rolls and over 10 hibachi meals, so there is a lot to choose from. I really like the shrimp tempura rolls, but I need to try more of the sushi offerings to find other favorites, which I'm sure exist.
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.
Hey there! CVFTA just visited another convention. This time it was a new smaller convention in Rockford, Illinois called "Anime Apocalypse" that happened from the 21st to 23rd of December at a hotel called the Clock Tower Resort. Maybe you can see the Mayan calendar doomsday reference there? We are still alive, so that didn't pan out for the doomsday theorists, but we did have a nice convention to attend and my photos taken there will be appreciated instead of burned in an apocalyptic world ending cinder.
Anyways, I enjoyed the convention and will certainly be back next year (maybe under a different convention name this time?) if it turns into a reoccurring thing. For me, it is close enough that I don't have to fork out the expense of a room, which is great. Not often does that happen, but it is a welcome occurrence. I was able to attend at least a few hours of all three days.
The convention was one of the smaller ones I had been to, but it still had a nice turnout.
I took a considerable number of cosplay photos and I also attended a few panels and events. The links to all of the photos are above, but here are a few highlights of the convention:
I met a few members of the photography group called The Enthusiasts that had a photo booth setup. A nice group of people. Check them out at conventions for photos if you get the chance.
I attended a few panels and events such as the cosplay auction for PAWS benefit, cosplay contest, cosplay photography, Robotech, prop safety and etiquette, foam sword battles, Super Tokusatsu, and intermediate cosplay construction. All of them were interesting and worth checking out.
Probably the best part of the convention, besides being a short drive for me, was the staff. They were polite and hassle free. I never once had any issues and was able to photograph things like the cosplay auction without any restriction. It was a pleasant change from larger conventions.
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!
