Con Weekend

[batskeets]

I'm back from spending Friday thru Sunday covering ECCC, and some of my photos are already up on the Mercury blog along with Joe's interview-y bits and recapping. (Day 3 should be up tomorrow morning) I am, understandably, beyond exhausted, but I got to go to a big nerd party with my boyfriend for free, so complaining is definitely something I shouldn't be doing, heh.

In bullet point format:

• Friday was much, much less crowded than I expected, and that was really nice. It was easy to talk with and interview people in the exhibition hall, and I felt like I could actually breathe.
• Having a press badge remains very cool. I've had the experience in the past of saying, "I'm on the press/photographer list," before, but being ushered into a separate hallway for press and guests only, and completely skipping the gigantic line for tickets/entry? HELL YES.
• Being at a con in a work-ish capacity didn't come without sacrifices--I wanted to see the Katee Sackhoff panel, for instance, but we had to pass on that, because we were tasked with chasing down Portland-centric announcements and news. I also missed Wil Wheaton and half of a friend's panel, because we had to get the photos and write-ups posted each morning before we could head over to the convention hall.
• That said, having an excuse to take photos of creatives talking enthusiastically about their work? Completely awesome. Joe did the interviewing, too, so all I had to do was look for the shots.
• Photos of people at panels? Eeeeuugh. Bad lighting, water bottles/candy wrappers/mic wires strewn about, and generally bland setting doesn't make for the pretty. Fortunately, at least some of the panelists were animated enough to keep things interesting. (see also: the Axe Cop panel)
• Speaking of missing out on panels, being at this event really drove home how well-managed PAX is, by comparison. At PAX, panels end pretty promptly, lines are organized, and things generally start close-to-on-time. At ECCC, panels pretty frequently ran long and started late. We actually had to bail out on the George Takei panel, because, half an hour after the panel was supposed to have started? We were STILL standing in line, with no sign of movement. That was highly frustrating, to say the least.
• On the plus side, I now have an I <3 Sriracha shirt courtesy of The Oatmeal, we met Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content, I may have turned Joe into a Buttersafe fan (he really liked the Robot Cat comic they were giving out) and R.K. Milholland drew me a sketch of Pepito saying something in Spanish that I'm sure is completely inappropriate. ;)

We also got to visit with a couple of friends when we weren't at the convention center, so there was also brunch and a fun visit to a goth club. I wimped out on the 6-inch platform boots, but I think I made up for it with shiny pants.

Oh, and there are very few things that are quite as delightful as good cosplay, just sayin':



Anyhoo, now that I'm done editing, I'm going to go home and unwind for a bit before tonight's GAME OF THRONES PREMIERE OMGYES. Hell of a way to cap off the weekend.