Icewlf's Photo Blog
Awesomecon 2016
by Eric Henson on 06/12/16
Last year, I enjoyed the one day I spent at Awesomecon so much, that I decided to go for all 3 days this year. I also bought a VIP pass, to give me front of the line privilege, and allow me into the hall 30 minutes early on Saturday and Sunday. The VIP status was well worth the money! The other thing I did differently was to book a hotel room in the city, so I didn't have to go home every night. This was a really good idea, but added significantly to the overall cost. The lines were far more insane than last year, but they also had 2 guests who were bigger draws than any in the past. Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman were on tap to be present on Sunday only (and man did they pull in the lines =P). Every year, in addition to the regular VIP badges, they offer "guest specific" VIP badges for some of the guests. These give the attendee a free autograph and photo-op with the celebrity, and offer front of the line privilege to said autograph, photo-ops, and Q&A sessions if applicable. I upgraded to the Jenna Coleman VIP when it became available, mostly because she's my favorite companion from Dr. Who. They had a cool one for both Capaldi and Coleman, but it was way too expensive for my taste, and I just don't like Capaldi enough to spend that kind of money to meet him. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a great actor, but I knew the lines would be horrendous, and of the two, I'd rather meet Jenna.
I spent the day Friday getting to know some people in the line (I have a bad habit of showing up very early, but with lines thousands of people long, this can be a good thing). I walked the convention floor, taking pictures and checking out booths. I checked the guest area to try to plan out who I wanted to get autographs from, and when to do so. Most of the celebrities were not there on Friday (there were several other cons going on around the country that kept them away on Friday). I did see one that I met last year, and was very surprised that he remembered me. I had to get another picture with him, and an autograph. If you ever have the chance to meet him, say hi. He's a great guy and is really friendly. Mr. Ming Chen of Comic Book Men fame @mingchen37. If you do meet him, be ready to discuss comics, or pop culture. You will not be disappointed!
I took another pic with him on Sunday. I'd realised I had not yet taken the timet to meet Jeremy London of Party of Five and Mallrats fame. I asked what it would cost to get a pic with him and Ming...well, Ming jumped in for free. We even joked that if you get a photo with Jeremy, you'd get a Ming for free =P. At that point on Sunday, they'd have been willing to try most anything to distract some of the lines for Capaldi photo-ops to the other booths. Jeremy was a really cool guy too, and I'm glad I got a cool pic with him.
Last year, I missed any of the panels and other parts of the con that were not on the exhibit floor. This was mostly due to the fact that I was unable to figure out how to get off the exhibit floor and get back in. They fixed the issues this year, and it was very well marked and easy to go between the different levels. I still didn’t make it off the exhibit floor much. Next year, I need to do fewer photo-ops, so I can make some panel discussions. The only one I attended this year was a special one Friday night, with Kevin Smith as the guest. If you’ve never seen him in person, you are missing out. His show went for 2.5 hours, and he had us rolling through most of the night. He talked about JJ Abrams, his daughter, Star Wars, Mallrats 2, Dogma 2, and lots of other things. In answering the question of one fan, he gave us a 15 minute inspirational speech. The seating was cramped, and the night was late, but it was totally worth it!
It was also fun to watch his poor sign language interpreters try to figure out how to translate some of his off-color comments into ASL.
The next two days were a blur of seeing lost of really cool cosplay, taking pictures, playing video games, buying cool merchandise, and getting some awesome pics with celebrities. Two of my favorites were Ron Pearlman and Summer Glau. I am starting to get a bit of a complex though. Last year, I got a photo with John Reese-Davies, and discovered that I'm bigger than he is. I'd expected to look small compared to Ron Perlman....but I'm not....I make him look smaller than he is =P
Ron was really cool, and I was happy to see that he had a Beauty and the Beast picture availble for autographs, as well as Hell boy and one or two other roles he'd played.
I got Summer Glau to autograph the professional shot I got with her. This was the first time I'd set it so I could get the photo of me with the celebrity autographed. I'm glad I did, cause the picture was cool.
The t-shirt I had in both was from @teeturtle (www.teeturtle.com). They have some really fun designs. I enjoyed meeting Summer enough, that I went to her booth on Sunday to get this picture autographed, and got a selfie with her. I'd asked if I could have a hug when she came out from behind the table, and well.....her assistant thought the two of us hugging was cute enough to make it the selfie-style picture with her. This picture made the whole con worth it for me.
I should have blogged while the con was going (I could have made long posts for all 3 days). Instead, I'm going to end the blog post here, and encourage you to look at the rest of the photos on my awesomecon 2016 photo page http://www.icewlf.com/AwesomeCon2016.html
I'm looking forward to next year. I'll actually leave with just one more photo, cause I loved the outfit, and the handmade toothless. Handmade by @IndigoMagnolia (https://www.etsy.com/shop/indigomagnolia)
Awesome Con 2015
by Eric Henson on 06/01/15
This past weekend (really it was only Friday) I went to my first con. I decided to try out Awesome Con here in DC. I figured it would be a good "first" as its not really dedicated to any one discipline (not specifically set up for gaming, comics, anime, etc). I've got to admit, at first I felt really underwhealmed. I waited in line for an hour for the con to start, just to wander through a half set-up, concrete floored warehouse =P It appears that many vendors and artists did not arrive the day before to get their stuff set up, nor did they arrive early the day of. Instead, they arrived about the same time we, as the attendees did. Thankfully, as the day went on, everything got better.
As I wandered the vendor hall, there were some really cool things I spotted right away. Several booths sold lego figures painted to look like different super heros. In the first booth I found, there was a legion of superman and superwomen.....it would appear more than just the son of Jor-El escaped Krypton....
The booth that had these had a legion of differnet figures, both large and small.
As the day went on, I was able to see more people in cosplay outfits (some of them were trully amazing) and got to take a number of pictures. I also found a guy who makes chain mail Jane hats from Firefly (http://whitetreechainmail.com/) Gotta give him some love by sharing the website. Really friendly guy, really good merchandise.
When I decided to go to this particular con, a large part of the decision was based on the fact that Bryan Johnson and Ming Chen from Comic Book Men were going to be there doing photo ops. In addition, John Rhys-Davies was going to be present. I've been really shocked over the last 4 days as to just how few people around me know who John Rhys-Davies is. In case you happen to be one of them, he was in Shogun, Indian Jones, Sliders, Pirates of Dark Water, Robin Hood (the TV series), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and a TON of other shows and movies. He is also an absolutely amazing guy. His photo op was at the end of the evening, and made the entire trip, and every dime I spent worthwhile. I don't have the picture of he and I up here, as I've been too lazy to scan it. Same with William Shatner. I sorta got side-tracked when I was about to say Shatner was there Friday. That was a bonus, but not a reason for going.
Anyway, I wandered the celebrity area, and decided to go up to Bryan and Ming to say hello. Imagine my surpirse when I could get an autograph, and a photo with both of them for far less than I paid for a pro-photo with just Bryan (Ming got Shatnered cause of time and money...) =P Anyway, I talked to Ming more than Bryan. Ming was a really cool guy. He couldn't seem to believe that I went to the con specifically to meet him and Bryan. He asked me several time, saying things like "you mean you didn't come to see John Gallagher, Kevin Eastman, Mark McKenna, Mike Raicht, and Mike McKone". I wasn't interested in big names in comics. I came for the Comic Book Men...and I got to meet them.
While I was standing at the booth talking, Brian O'Halloran came up and started talking. Ming introduced me to him, and asked me to take a picture of the two of them together. Unfortunately, it was only with Ming's phone, rather than my camera =P. When I wandered over to where Brian's booth was, I realised someone else was there (and I got an autograph and photo from him).....
Mr. Jason Mewes....Jay himself...Snoochie Boochie! He was a really cool, friendly, laid back guy. Very personable, and very interested in his fans. In fact, while I was waiting for my photo-op with John Rhys-Davies, a guy came up who was late for the Jason Mewes photo-op. He talked to the attendant who apologized, but explained that the guy was 15 minutes late, so Jason had left. He told him he might still be in the hall if he wanted to try to find him. The guy took off at a run. 5 minutes later, Jason came, leading him, went right into the photo booth, found the photographer, had her set back up, and took a picutre with his fan. What other celeb is that cool to his fans???
There were a bunch more celebrities that I should have talked to......Casper Van Dien (Rico from Starship Troopers), Dina Meyer (Diz from Starship Troopers), James Marsters (Spike from Buffy), and Brian Tee. All the Power Rangers, all 4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (plus April) were also there, and a slue of other celebs, not to mention all the comic artists. Instead, I met a few cosplayers. I got to talk to a lady going by the name Intraventus (www.facebook.com/Intraventus; http://intraventus.storenvy.com/; http://intraventus.deviantart.com/; http://instagram.com/intraventus/). She was an amazingly sweet and friendly lady. If my back hadn't been hurting by that time of the evening, I could have spent a lot of time at her booth just talking. She though I made a good choice for my first con. She said that the people at awesome con were just the friendliest just about anywhere.
I also met two who were wandering around, enjoying the show. Beryla Gann (www.facebook.com/berylaganncosplay) and Keller of Quartermaster's Cahce (www.facebook.com/TheQuartermastersCache). I asked if I could take their pictures and they happily said yes. After I was done, they both asked if I couldn't mind sending them copies of the photos. Its the only way they get to see themselves all dressed up (besides a mirror) =P. I was happy to send them my pictures. I hope they both enjoyed them. Anyway, they are below. Beryla is the one dressed as Ty Lee (Avatar the Last Airbender) and Keller is Booker Dewitt from BioShock Infinite. I thought he would look good with an older looking photo, so I did some editing with a B&W utility I have and got the picture below.
I used a slightly different effect for Beryla.
At the end of a very long day, my back was screaming, by legs were screaming, and my feet were screaming (I still need to build up more stamina - especially for standing in line), but I went home happy.
I never really thought I'd like going to cons, but I must admit, I wish I'd bought the 3 day pass and spent the entire weekend there. Next year, I think I might just. I'm even thinking about trying to put together a costume to wear at least one of the days. I doubt I'll go that far (unless I can figure out a Jimmy Olsen outfit, so I can fit my camera into it), but, you never do know. All I know for sure is, I will be back. It was too much fun to not to go again.
To see the remaining picures I took, feel free to look at my AwesomeCon phot gallery at http://www.icewlf.com/AwesomeCon2015.html
Thanks for readying the whole blog post!
Eric
