V-Con 37 part 1

A few months ago my wife and I tossed the idea around of going to V-Con or Cos & Effect, two conventions held in Vancouver, BC. As we live in Victoria, on a island, and have no vehicle or drivers licence, transportation was an issue for either.

We have been to Tsukino Con, a Victoria anime convention for the last few years. Her as a vendor of costumes and corsets, me as a Cosplay Photographer and staff member, media relations. Something different and away from home seemed to be in order. Costs were weighed and time considered. It was felt that the late September date of V-Con 37 gave better preparation time, and a venue that may react better to the clothing she creates.

The dealers room was set to open at noon on Friday and all estimates had us arriving at the hotel no earlier than 2pm, so we departed on Thursday. Up at 5am, breakfast, final check of items and out the door at 6am. Standing waiting, we had a lovely view of Venus before sunrise then transit zipped us downtown to catch the Pacific Coach Lines bus. On the ferry I spotted a couple of Harbour Seals in the water, and there was a P.A. call of a Humpback Whale on the Starboard side. Everyone hurried over to see, one girl even commented that the ship was likely to tip over with everyone rushing to one side. After five minutes of pering at the ocean and scanning the waters for no signs of the elusive whale, we returned to our seats.

Early morning fog/smog greeted us in the Salish Sea, but dissipated before we docked. The ride into Vancouver was pleasant, but met with a bit of aggravation for the driver as we were detoured around construction near the Vancouver Hotel, only to have the detour lifted as we approached from a different direction. Arrived at the Pacific Central Building, the terminus for the bus, and headed across the street to the Main St. Skytrain Station.

Its been a few years since I've been to Vancouver and I thought all the stations had escalators for some reason. As I couldn't see one at ground level I thought I'd have to carry two large and heavy bags up a pile of stairs to the platform. As I hoisted them up a pleasant elderly chinese woman pointed out that there was an elevator in the corner, problem solved. Once on the skytrain we found a place to stand, as most of the seats were taken, but after a few stops a two seat bench opened up and we moved over.

Our luggage took up the aisle and blocked a few people in, so I was quite prepared to move things as people needed. I held the handles of both bags, just to prevent them from tipping. Everyone and and everything was good until three guys looking like construction day labourers got on. Right away they were talking loud at each other and yelling. The older of the three, looking hispanic and in his mid-fifties with droopy-drunk eyes moved into a seat my bag were blocking, and kept trying to get me to agree with his side of the argument. I just made non-committal nods and tried to ignore him. At a few points one of the younger two would tell the older one to sit down and shut up, "I you get me kicked off the Skytrain again, I'm gonna pound you so hard!"

Truth to tell I was less worried about their argument and the potential for a fight, than I was that this was part of a distraction to steal luggage from some wealthy tourists. Not that I'm by any means wealthy, but the luggage was brand new. I had a death grip on both bags for the remainder of the trip. The youngest of the group got off and things calmed down, a bit, and the other two started talking about what stop to get off at and they agreed the Surrey Central was the one they needed, so did we.

A quick whisper to my wife and we agreed to go a stop further, to distance ourselves. Once off the Skytrain at King George Station we found a Taxi and headed for the Hotel. We had budgeted $20 for the ride from the closer station, but now knew it may cost more. Along the ride I asked the driver if he could recommend any places to eat near the Sheraton Guilford Hotel. He rambled off a good dozen places in his thick East Indian accent, but I caught the gist of it all, 152nd was where all the restaurants were, all within a seven minute walk. Arriving at the Hotel the meter in the cab said $12.79, but seeing as he was so helpful and the meter lower than we expected, I agreed with my wife and made the total $20.

For Sale

Gorge Rd. Church

Been a while since I last posted on this blog, but yesterday was a good day for my photography, so I thought I should mention it. I had my first Gallery opening, of sorts. The store that I work in does consignments, and the boss has been accepting lots of art lately, to get the store ready for what we hope will be a busy tourist season.

Portal to Fan Tan Alley

Last week I got a paycheque from Google for ad content on a few different sites I have. Took a few years to build up to the minimum for them to send me a cheque, but it was worth it. I used to money to get some prints done at Black's Photography, an adventure in its self. I had just enough left to go across the street from work to Opus and get one frame and mat board.

2 signed & numbered

Yesterday I helped a fellow employee find and buy a car real cheap. He sold it today for nearly four times what he paid for it, and threw me a finders few. That was enough to get three more frames and mat boards for the pictures.

So now there are three prints signed and hanging at Barclay's Exchange, with the prospect of more to come.

Tsukino Con 2012

Victorian Lolita by
Astra Crompton

This year's Tsukino Con is over, but my editing of pictures is just getting started. I managed to take just under 1300 images over the course of the four days.

Street Fighter by
Tyler Krembrink &
MJ Brown

Day 1 of the con for me was Thursday February 16th with a noon start to set-up. At the end of set-up I helped with pre-reg badge pick-up. Then I got some pictures of DeeJay Yukkuri 's Unlimited Dance Works over at Vertigo. Various cosplayers dressed up and dancing to the hard beats.

Day 2, Friday the convention starts in earnest and I get in a series of shots of a Street Fighter duo. Tyler and MJ did a lot of posses and I'm actually still editing a few. I had never met MJ before, but quickly discovered how excellent a Cosplay Model she is.

Rachel as Spock
from the new film.

Day 3, Saturday, always the most going on. I think I got in 3 group shoots before the Cosplay Contest at 1pm, then another before I had to get to my do my panel at 4pm. That in its self was an adventure. I went to my panel room 15min early to set up and do a but of a dry run, only to discover the presentation file on my tumbdrive had become corrupt. Its a good thing I have some improvisational skills. I managed to stumble through my Cosplay Modeling presentation with a few picture shown on the screen from my computer, but defiantly not the kind of presentation I wanted to give. I even lost a half-dozen people about ten minutes into the panel.
The day continued with more individual pictures and a few more set, like one with Vanessa in her Black Widow, from Marvel Comics.

Home Stuck

Adobe Bridge is an organizational software application created and released by Adobe Systems as a part of the Adobe Creative Suite. Its primary purpose is to link the parts of the Creative Suite together. Bridge has many functions such as batch rename and utilities to help with organization. Organizational features include assigning coloured labels and star ratings to images, the ability to edit metadata embedded within an image file.

Day 4, I think I was starting to get a little tired, I kept talking to the Home Stuck cosplayers and calling them Home Sick, Home Suck, Home Tuk and probably a few other names. By the end of the day I managed to be part of a gathering of about 40 Home Stuck cosplayers for an amazing set of pictures.

After the convention I've encountered a few editing issues. first my Photoshop kept bogging down, any time I had it and Bridge running. So I started editing one image then shutting down Bridge. A real pain in the rear to have to do every time I want to edit a new image, but I dealt with it. Now my Bridge program is not displaying image preview planes correctly, which makes it really hard to see what files I want to take into Photoshop to edit into a final image.

I'm starting to get some more editing done but I have a full time job to work around. I expect to work on some photos from the Hunger Games shoot I did with Alex and Jen.

Adventure in Chapters

Chapters Gift Card

For Christmas I received about four Chapters gift cards. Mainly thanks to my wife telling everyone that she was just getting me a Chapters gift card, so that I could chose my own presents. And in all fairness my procrastination in not coming up with a list of things I wanted for Christmas.

Boxing Day I walked past the store, as I do everyday, to discover it open before work. Usually I start work at 9am and they don't open till  9:30am. I walked in and the staff were busily putting up signs for the stores Boxing day sales. Huge 30% Off Hardcovers signs were going up everywhere.

In the magazine department I found a photography magazine that I wanted. A British publication collecting articles from past issues, and some new ones, cost is $34, but worth it with 200+ pages.

I walked up to the front counter to ask Chantel, whom I've dealt with a few times, if the store wasn't doing anything special for Boxing Day? Remember that there are Huge 30% off banners everywhere. Without blinking she looks up and starts to say, "Well, there's thirty-percent off all hardcovers and..." I stopped her, because I was kidding, and told her I had actually seen the signs. Her manager was walking behind her and just laughed, saying "Its too early in the morning for us to get your jokes."

I proceeded to quiz her about a Sci-Fi book that I was looking for called Fuzzy Nation. She found the name of the author, but because the book is due for a mass-market edition in the spring, Chapters as a whole is sold out of the hardcovers, no saving for me. A few more inquiries and her giving me the scoop on a hardcover Steampunk novel that I may still pick-up, I headed back to the counter to pay for my magazine.

Lisa helped me out with the multiple gift cards by combining them all into one. That saved my wallet some grief. I paid for my magazine and headed for work.

On my way out I saw Vanessa, the store manager. Stopped her and complemented her excellent staff. Every time I'm in the store I get great helpful and insightful service. She appreciated the complement, as she said it was rare to hear, and as a manager all you ever seem to get are the complaints. Having been a Retail Sales Manager for 13 years myself, I knew what she meant.

Upon opening my bag at work to look through the magazine, I discovered I had the wrong mag. I had grabbed the Photoshop Elements magazine. That does me no good what-so-ever, I don't have that program and the tips in it don't translate well to Photoshop CS3.

The store I work at generally closes at 6pm, but things were slow for the later part of the day so, we managed to get pre-shut-down procedures done early and fast. The boss wanted to go home too, so we were able to leave about five minutes to six. I headed straight to Chapters to exchange my magazine, only to discover that they closed at 6pm for the evening. Elizabeth, who was manning the door asked me if knew exactly what I wanted, to which I replied "I know exactly where the magazine is that I want to exchange, I grabbed the wrong one this morning. " As there was a bit of a line still at the till she let me in. I ran for the magazine section, got the right one, and entered the line. The girl that served me double checked with Elizabeth about the return, just because they don't normally do refunds on Magazines, but she aloud it.

The next morning I was happy to have a new Photoshop magazine with tips on layers and masks, but (you knew there had to be a but) I was missing my umbrella. On a rainy December day and I've left my brolly in Chapters. Their store wasn't open before I had to be at work on Tuesday. So, once I got to my work I called the store, and talked to Melissa, but when she went upstairs there was no sign of my umbrella. Fortunately I left my name and number and five minutes later she called back to say they had it. On my way home I picked it up and went home under a clear and starry sky.

That was my Christmas adventure at Chapters Books.

Up Above

 Sometimes you need to get above it all to really see what is at street level. The building to the left is the Bishops House, here in Victoria. It sits right behind St. Andrews Cathedral and on Sundays seems to attract quite a few panhandlers.

To the right we have a great angle on the Susex Building. A November morning sun to the left and behind with reflected light enhancing the blue glass windows.

The Staples building, or more precisely the building at 747 Fort, with the Staples store on the ground floor, reflects the CIBC building in the next block.

The buildings to the right are over on Yates, but this views the back of the structures. While it may look like I used my tilt shift lens with a short depth of field, it was in fact an hour of time using multiple blur layers in Photoshop. I am really liking the way this effect gives the illusion of a miniatures or diorama set.

Looking down on the Municipal Finance Authority of British Columbia, an older building on Fort St. sandwiched between much more modern ones.

All these shots were taken the same November Sunday morning from the top floor of the View St. Parkade.