DragonCon Report

[varjohaltia]

DragonCon Report

Okay... Having returned from DragonCon, dealt with all the work that piled up in my absence, the schoolwork I was supposed to be doing in the interim, the new SEVIS fees and other junk, and three days of frantic, sloppy photo editing, I'm done!

Done with the DragonCon pictures, that is. Now it's time for the report!

This was my second year at DragonCon. A lot of my friends have been going for a while, and last year they succeeded in grabbing me and some other DragonCon virgins, and we were hooked. Just as last year, I roomed with Darin and Oscar, and this time Sean, Darin's boss at Animenation, joined us. He was a pretty cool guy, and can be found at any Tampa-area crafts festival selling nifty jewel bugs (spiders, fireflies, ants, scorpions and the like).

Thursday

We had heard scary rumors about I75 being all slow and stuffy with construction, so decided to take US 19 to Georgia and then wind our way towards Atlanta. This took us several hours longer than I75 would've taken, but for the most part US19 and the other routes we took were four lanes, new pavement, and almost empty. Very pretty and stress free driving. And there's even an S-mart on the way!

We made it to the Marriott in Atlanta Thursday afternoon, and pretty much went to register as our first order of business. The program claimed registration opened at 6 pm, but in fact it had opened much earlier. We got there maybe twenty, fifteen minutes before six, and only had to stand in line for half an hour or forty minutes. By the time six rolled around, the line had about tripled. I really wish they would send badges in the mail... The registration the next morning sneaked out onto the street--and mind you, this is the pre-registered line!

Having registered and all we milled about the Hyatt for a while, and my friends decided to settle down into the mostly empty gaming room and do some Battletech. I snapped a view from our 28th floor window, and got sleep. See Thursday Gallery for pictures.

Friday

Friday found the con pretty much at full swing. Last year I missed all panels and a lot of other programming, so I figured I'd try to plan my visit better this year. I actually went over the whole program and wrote down my own little schedule, which proved out to be very helpful. The first events I attended were on the Lord of the Rings track, and by the Evening at Bree celebration I had switched from my vinyl into ren-fest garb, to better blend in. By this time people in costumes already wandered the hallways. I took it pretty easy, and went to bed early again. See the Friday Gallery.

Saturday

Saturday the fun really started. I woke up in time to see the parade, which I think was worth it. I also visited some more panels, including the Firefly one and Elvish 101, of which I caught the tail end. The crowds trying to get into that one had scared me away for a while. Comparing to NecronomiCon in Tampa, the panels were more tightly and specifically focused, but not really any better. Especially the Elvish guys were nice and undoubtedly hobby-linguists, but they didn't make good teachers. By the time this was all done the Hyatt was jam-packed with people. The ballroom level banned photography between 8 pm and midnight, so I ended up staying out of the way--I missed some costumes in the lobby, but I also missed the crowd and annoyance of having to fight for room to do photography.

DragonCon, like most other cons, is a very fast-paced environment for photography, one that leaves little room for compositional niceties or error, and especially the lobby at full swing was just a bit too much for me. I visited Amanda, Aric and Steve in the miniatures gaming room, snapped some pictures, then ran into a group of rather friendly people I had seen before in the Florida Anime cons, and hung out with them for a while.

As it happens, I ran into Moonwolf, Shadow_kat and Spoon_child on LJ! Very neat--I like meeting new people, and they certainly seem nice. Disturbingly small world, though, as I see posts from Mach and Genesis on their pages, and those would be friends of my friends from elsewhere. Six degrees of separation? I also bought ($1!) art from Spoon_child!

Regardless, pictures at my Saturday Gallery. (I'm not getting predictable, am I?)

Sunday

After not sticking to any of Saturday's room parties, it was bed, a bit of sleep, a relatively early wake up and yummy stir-fry breakfast on the last real day of the con. I started by attending the Lexx panel. I'm not really a Lexx fan, but hey, I think Louise Wischermann is really pretty! Well, she was. Afterwards, the girl from the info booth demonstrated that she was willing to literally tie herself in knots for patrons (see gallery).

Aric was out in costume, having a blast. After much waffling I decided to go to the Masquerade instead of Ru-san's. A heart-wrenching--or rather belly-wrenching--decision, since Ru-san's has the best Sushi I've had. What I like is that instead of just standard fare they make elaborate specials involving many layers and ingredients. So, I kept on my Chiken-in-a-Bisqit and trail mix line of nourishment. I was rewarded, though. I got a beautiful seat at the Civic center for the Masquerade, and am exceedingly pleased with the pictures I snapped--and the remarkably decent performance of the S2 at high ISOs. (For those in the know, I even used my Nikkor 70-210/4-5.6, not exactly a low-light wonder in aperture or rendition wide open.) Kudos to the lighting folks of the event! Also kudos to those who compiled the slide show preceding the Masquerade. It had the audience in tears with laughter several times.

I skipped out of the Masquerade right after it was done and roamed the hallways some more. The wee hours I spend at a slave auction, and ran into another Floridian kitty, though didn't manage to get her contact information. Finally, around 3 am, I returned to the Marriott and ran into Sean and Chiana and a few other Farscapers. We chatted for a while, and then it was bedtime, preparing for the drive back home on Monday. I was quite impressed by Chiana and the girl behind her. Incidentally, she either has a twin, or shows up in my gallery wearing another costume, just as professional as the Chiana one. No, I'm not going to tell which one :-) Oh, yeah. Gallery.

Final Thoughts

It was an utter hoot. DragonCon isn't exactly cheap, but it's still well worth the money. I don't go there to game or buy stuff, just to enjoy the mingle, the long weekend of costume party. Perhaps it's the overwhelming amount of costumes, the universal mindset of fun, the open and accepting nature of people, or perhaps it's just that three or four days I get to forget everything about "real life." Compared to NecronomiCon it's a lot more encompassing, more intense and longer. Alas, it was a bit too crowded. Perhaps another venue, an additional hotel or something of that ilk would be worth consideration. Still, if you've only been to small convetions, or want to go to a sci-fi / fantasy con, I warmly recommend DragonCon.

As far as mechanics go, the S2 was a sheer pleasure to use after last years suffering with my Casio. Once I get the flash metering fixed, it should be even better.

Looking through my pictures there is so much I never noticed. I should actually go through the originals with time later and do enlargements of costume detail--many are wonderfully complex and intricate, something that gets easily lost if you just glance at the costume.

I didn't really get to do much artsier/in depth photography, and ended up settling for just documenting costumes. Overall I'm happy, though, with the results. Some facility to do better lighting when the time exists would be nice though. Maybe I'll bring the umbrella next time. Or rig up the Lumiquest again. And business cards. I had planned them for this year, but got seriously short of time. Something to hand out with rudimentary contact info and the web site address. This of course is a double-edged sword. All the people who get a card, and end up having no picture due to my goof-ups make it a bit awkward. But still, I do this for my own fun and hopefully as service to those who take the time to costume, and it's a pity many of the latter never see the pictures.

Incidentally, if you see a multitude of pictures of the same silly costume or person, this is for one of two reasons. 1) I was fascinated by the person or costume 2) they were a friend of mine.

Also, I need to figure out how to dress next time. The simple ren fest outfit got a lot more attention than all the dashing vinyl-and-collar ensemble. Something new is in order, I suspect.

Comments

Correction

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

Well, I got mail from Chiana--a really nice person too--who pointed out that I in fact had misidentified her twin. Weird--even my roommate agreed that they looked really, really similar. So, good thing I didn't point it out, since I'd have to be even more embarrassed!