Comic-Con 2010

        After attending Comic-Con and taking a few days to think about the experience, in particular how I could have made the experience better as well as things I flat out didn’t like, I’m ready blog about the entire experience. Photographically, it was not challenging AFTER the first day. It was a lot of fun.

        The people and their costumes were the highlight for me. After spending time amongst them, I’ve learned there are no levels or degrees of a Comic-Con fan. They all sit at the same tables and wait in the same lines. When you consider that thousands of people rode (in full costume) to Comic-Con on public transportation after flying to San Diego from locales all over the world, you start to realize that the playing field is even for these ladies and gentlemen.
        For the press, professionals and celebrities, it’s a somewhat different story. Everyone there is NOT on the same level and the game is rigged, which is not surprising but still disappointing. The big, well known media outlets like to do stories and shoot video of what or WHO the big, well known studios are presenting. This created two issues for me that I… Didn’t like. The first was that even though I had a press pass, I’m not a big media outlet, so I wasn’t granted any exclusive interviews with any big studio guys or one on one interviews with network stars. The second thing was that the smaller, unknown artists, illustrators, etc. seemed to be ignored by mainstream media. These are the guys that would get the biggest boost from the media exposure, so I’d like to see big media giving more time to small print and up & coming artists next year.

        I did not attend any panels, film screenings or have any autographs signed for me. All of those things required waiting in line, and I just didn’t want to wait in line. I spent most of my time roaming up and down the aisles of the convention floor as well as the autograph signing area (The Sail Pavilion), which turned out to be the best place to get celebrity pictures. This is my first tip for better photography next year: After you find out where the signing will be, look around and try to deduce how they will be brought to the signing area, position yourself somewhere along that route a few minutes BEFORE the celeb is due to arrive… And wait. Everyone in the autograph line will STILL be in line 90 minutes after you already got your shot. This method turned out to be very time efficient because you need less than 10 minutes of lead time so you can just swoop in, take the shot and move on to the next thing.

        My main reason for attending Comic-Con was to take photos. There are any one of (at least) several common “main reasons” for attending Comic-Con, and that is what I wanted to capture. I was very fixated on taking pictures so I had to make conscious efforts to stop and smell the roses. One of the roses that I didn’t smell enough was S.W.A.G.
        My primary mission was photography so I didn’t want to be fettered down with stuff other than my photographic gear, which was my Nikon D5000, a 55-200mm and a 18-55mm lens, all contained in a Lowepro SlingShot 200 AW. I was also using one of my custom camera straps. I have a SanDisk Extreme III 8GB card, which allows me to take 538 RAW photos. I brought extra batteries and cards but never had to swap out either one (I get over 1500 shots per battery on my D5000). I averaged around 200 shots per day, with 15-20 making it into my daily blog posts about Comic-Con. For the most part, I was at 1000 ISO on the convention floor and 200 ISO and in the Sail Pavilion.
        Next year, I will bring an f/1.8 lens. A 1.8 would have made the shots a whole lot better and required less time in Photoshop. That being said, I’m going to see if next year I can worry less about gear, and more about the show itself. That’s my second bit of advice: Bring extra batteries and cards with you to San Diego, but you probably won’t need them at the show. In the case of my D5000, one battery and one card were enough for each day. Maybe next year I’ll spend some time in panels or try to collect my body weight in S.W.A.G. You never know and a year is a long time from now, but I’ll be back, and I’ll have my camera with me.

Klingons Invade Gaslamp Trolley Station During Comic-Con 2010

Jack In The Box & A Woman In Red

        This post will contain photos taken throughout the four days of Comic-Con 2010 I attended. These are pics that didn’t make it into my blog for the daily postings I was doing while Comic-Con was going on, but that I ultimately thought people might like to see. I attended the preview night, which was on Wednesday, as well as Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I did not go to The Con on Sunday, the 25th of July.

        The reason I referenced “the cutting room floor” for the title of this post is because for one reason or another, I feel there is something technically or photographically wrong with the pics used in this post. Composition, messy background, bad exposure or not being tack sharp are the main culprits, so when I was making my decisions about what would make it in to my daily posts for Comic-Con, these pics didn’t make the cut.

        I have never liked it when tabloids print embarrassing or bad photos of celebs making a funny face. That being said, after attending Comic-Con this year and taking a bunch of celebrity photos, I think I understand why they do it… Sometimes a bad photo is the best photo you were able to take. With Comic-Con being a mad-house of 160,000 people, sometimes you are luck just to see the celebs with your eyes, let alone through the viewfinder of your camera. Above we see Mark Valley and Chi McBride during an autograph signing.

        Of course, it is next to impossible to take a bad photo of Kari Byron. The photo of Katey Sagal was taken when a security guard actually allowed me within about three feet of her. She was looking at me, but listening to the person that was in front of her, so whatever he told her caused her to make that face, not my camera. She was with Ron Perlman promoting Sons Of Anarchy.

Elvira Announces Her Return To Television

        Comic-Con is an imperfect place, and I think the photo above may help to illustrate this. Elvira held a press conference inside a room that is supposed to be for press only. Notice that in the photo above, taken just as Elvira’s press conference was wrapping up, there are nothing but people holding up camera phones, not journalists and reporters absorbing a story.

        A couple of flashbacks from the 1980′s were present at Comic-Con. To the left we see the metal skeleton from the Terminator movies, one of my favorite movie trilogies. Above is the actor Dirk Benedict, who played “Face” on the awesome, totally radical 1980′s TV show, The A-Team. I will not be watching the theatrical version of The A-Team because I think some things should just be left alone, and George Peppard as Hannibal Smith is the ONLY way I want to see Hannibal Smith.

        Star Wars is another story altogether. I’ll eat up just about anything that has to do with that set of movies, except for that asinine character Jar Jar Binks, of course. Comic-Con really is a natural habitat for Star Wars fans, especially those that want to arrive in costume. The R2D2 you see on the right was brought in by a fan and was operated by remote control. He slyly stayed a good distance away while operating his robot, so most people walking by actually thought there was some one INSIDE, working the controls, just like in the original movie. Someday, I’ll build my own lightsaber and tie-fighter, not necessarily in that order, but someday I’ll build them both.

        It is important to remember that Comic-Con is a place to have fun, meet people, look at costumes, dress in costumes, eat bad food, take pictures and collect S.W.A.G. If you have well thought out plans or an agenda, you will probably end up being disappointed because Comic-Con is a very fluid place, and plans will generally fly out the window once you arrive and hit the crowds.

Just Dance At Comic-Con!

Arrested At Comic-Con 2010

        It seems to me that fuses and tempers are starting are starting to run a little short at Comic-Con. On the convention floor, fire marshals are actively patrolling, enforcing the “no sitting” rule, security guards are preventing fans from taking decent pictures because we “have to keep moving,” one fan stabbed a fellow fan below his eye for sitting to close to him, and at least one fan has been tackled to the ground by a mob of non-peace officer security guards for apparently cutting in line for one of the discussion panels.
        On top of all that it was SUPER crowded today, so I was able to get only a few good shots. I was just not at the top of my game today. I think we all just need to take a deep breath, count to ten and relax.

An Alleged Line Jumper At Comic-Con 2010

        I mentioned earlier that I was not at the top of game today, and I’d like to elaborate on that point, but first let me explain the video above. I shot it with my keychain camera and it’s about 2 minutes long, but only the first 50 seconds are interesting. At that point, when one of the security guards pulls the kid’s hair to keep his head on the ground, I let go of the video camera, pulled my Nikon D5000 out and took the photo at the top of this post. The reason I didn’t edit the video once the video camera is pointed at my bag is because I want you to hear the audio. At about the one minute and thirty second mark you can hear a guard yelling “STAY DOWN! STAY DOWN! Then another guard comes up to me and another photographer and says, “You guys, will you put the cameras away please?” The guard then says that, “He doesn’t need to be encouraged.” You can then hear me say that we are not encouraging him. Anyway, no one put their camera away, and I got my shot.
        As for me not being on top of my game today, it should be pretty obvious… I was inside the convention center, on my way to the Elvira press conference yet I didn’t even have my camera out yet! On top of that, my big 200mm zoom lens is what happened to be mounted on my camera when I pulled it out, so that’s why the shot is so tight. Had I prepared properly, my camera would have already have been slung on my body with my 18mm lens, so the shot would have included all the security guards that were involved. Lesson learned.

Elvira -- Mistress Of The Dark

        Elvira held a press conference at Comic-Con for a very special announcement; Elvira is returning to television this Fall! She has a new Movie Macabre with over 20 films she will be hosting. It is going to be funny and scary and with Elvira bringing her iconic brand of humor to every film in the line-up, I think it is the perfect venue for her to introduce herself to a whole new generation of people. Her press conference was the highlight of my day. She is so beautiful, has perfect comedic timing and told us that she HATES the Twilight movie series. Awesome!

        The beautiful women were out in force today at Comic-Con. Above on the left is Pauley Perrette from at least two acronym shows: CSI and NCIS. She was very warm and cheerful to everyone that came up to her for an autograph. I said earlier that for some reason security guards won’t let us plant our feet long enough to take pictures of celebs while they are signing, we have to “keep moving” so I had to circle around the CBS booth about a dozen times to get this shot. I mentioned in my last post that planning ahead can help you get some great shots, and my shot above of artist and mythbuster Kari Byron, is a good example of that. I noticed she was scheduled to do a signing at the same table that Olivia Munn had been at the day before. I didn’t get a great shot of Olivia on that day, but I did take note of WHERE security lead her into the autograph signing area. I figured Kari Byron would be brought in the same way, so I went around to the bayside patio and waited. Sure enough, Kari and the security entourage walked right past me so I was able to get the above shot as she was about to walk into the autograph area. Remember, my fellow photographers, patience and planning will help you get some great shots.

        Two of Hollywood’s baddest bad boys were on hand today. Sid Haig, on the left played the great Captain Spalding in two of Rob Zombie’s films: House Of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. If you haven’t seen them then you should go out and rent them right now. Ron Perlman, above has a bio sheet longer than my arm, but my two favorite roles of his are as Johner in Alien Resurrection and as Hellboy. To me, he is just one of those guys that is flat out cool, no matter what he does.

Katey Sagal

        Katey Sagal was a favorite of mine when she was playing Peggy Bundy on Married With Children and she still a favorite of mine now, providing the voice of Turanga Leela on Futurama.

Mark Valley And Chi McBride

        Mark Valley And Chi McBride are currently working together on the TV show Human Target, and they were happily signing autographs today at Comic-Con. For the most part, the celebrities seem to go out of their way to be nice to the fans, smile and pose for pictures. They are very personable, and I’m sure that means a lot to the fans, especially the ones that have traveled for across the United States just to come to San Diego to meet them.
        So… One more day of Comic-Con left. There is light at the end of the tunnel my friends! This week has been exhausting and sleepless, but has been worth every little bit pain & suffering I’ve endured. Cheers!

The Second Day (Friday) At Comic-Con 2010

        Friday was the most crowded day yet at Comic-Con, and I don’t just mean the number of fans. There were more celebrities, security, police and handlers then I have ever seen ANYWHERE before, and to top it all off, there is a new “no sitting” rule on the convention floor. The 160,000 fans are now only allowed to sit in chairs and NOT on the floor… We’re gonna need a bigger boat!

        There were a couple ensemble casts signing autographs today, as well as several individuals doing signings as well. The cast of “The Big Bang Theory” seemed to be the big hit of the day, even though they were surrounded by lots of security, I managed to get a couple shots. It would seem to me that the best way to get a clean shot of any celebrity at Comic-Con is to take a shot while having them sign an autograph for you. The problem with that is that the lines for the signings are long, move slow, take a long time, and even if you are in line, the celebs might bail before you get up there. Above, on the left, Kunal Nayyer glances around during the cast signing, and on the right, Kaley Cuoco reacts to finally being done signing hundreds of autographs.

Jessica Hamby Is Interviewed

        Directly above the cast signing of The Big Bang Theory, the cast of the HBO show True Blood conducted interviews and milled around with those that were worthy enough to gain access to that upper level.

        Comic-Con is not only for the new kids on the block, there are some faces that have been familiar to us for many years as well. Stan Lee, the godfather of comic books was on hand signing posters for a throng of fans. He was very cheerful and even stuck around longer than he was supposed to so that everyone in line could get an autograph. What a classy dude! Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark was also present, sans make-up doing a signing as well. I’m covering a press conference with her tomorrow and we have been told that we must address her as Elvira (not Cassandra Peterson) during the conference, so I think I’ll have some very different photos of her to share on my next post.

        I am a very big fan of candid, unposed photography. People smiling into the camera while they saying “cheese” is one way to take portraits and there’s nothing wrong with it, but I love it when I can get a shot of someone in a more natural looking way. Above, on the left we have Lafayette Reynolds from True Blood reading a magazine, and on the right is Cindy Morgan, looking at a line of fans in front of her.
        Cindy is known best known for her role as Lacey Underall in the cult movie classic, Caddyshack. Caddyshack was the first R rated movie I ever saw, and to this day, watching that movie is a right of passage for anyone that would aspire to be a movie buff. Just about every line in that movie is memorable, and even today, 30 years later, if you want to distract or mess some one up from what they are doing you just have to shout, “NOONAN!”

        Morena Baccarin, on the left, even without her long, dark, curly hair is elegant, classy and beautiful. I know her best as Inerra Serra from the sci-fi show, “Firefly” but she is now starring in a remake of “V.” Alison Haislip, above is a member of the ensemble show, “Attack Of The Show.” Morena was not the only Firefly cast member I saw at Comic-Con today. Ron Glass, who plays the shepherd was also there, but I don’t have a photo of him. Want to know why? Because during his signing, he had people around him that held sheets of paper in front of my camera, preventing me from getting a shot. They told me that Ron requested that no candid photography of him be permitted. Can you believe that?!? An actor in the middle of Comic-Con that had people physically preventing photography! Whatever, dude. Morena is way more photogenic then you anyway.

Olivia Munn Is In There Somewhere

        The last two photos I’ll be presenting in this post are to demonstrate just how difficult and time consuming it can be to get a good shot in a room with 160,000 other people. You can’t always get the shot you want right off the bat. You have to be patient and methodical, and even then, you still might not get the shot. So, the shot above, which is the best shot I was able to get of Olivia Munn, was taken as she arrived at her signing table. I was not in the autograph line, so I found a spot off to the side that was about a hundred feet away that I thought might work. It almost worked. Almost.

Kaley Cuoco Surrounded By Security

        The shot above of Kaley Cuoco was taken as she was being escorted away from her autograph signing table. Once again, my careful planning did not really pay off. I actually happen to like to photo above, but it is not the shot I wanted. From watching previous celebrities being whisked away from this particular table, I knew the route that the entourage would take when they left the convention center floor. So, I positioned myself in a strategic place along that route, where there were no other fans and patiently waited for them to come by. Unfortunately, she and her other Big Bang Theory actors had about 20 security guards with them, instead of the 3-4 guards that most of the other celebs had which made my carefully picked spot a moot point. Oh well, tomorrow is another day at Comic-Con and there will be many more costumes, celebrities and merchandise to photograph, so until then, cheers!

Captain’s Log: Stardate 07222010, Comic-Con Convention

        The first official day of Comic-Con 2010 kicked off in San Diego today, and I was there with a press pass and my trusty Nikon D5000. As I mentioned in my last post, there would be a lot more costumes, celebrities and events to see, and here they are.

        Comic-Con means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For me it is a photo-op, for others it’s an excuse to call in sick to work, for die-hard fans it’s a chance to see childhood heroes, and for corporations, it’s chance to make money. This is the second Comic-Con I have attended, my first being way back in 1996, and it has changed a lot. I was interviewed by Alan Maloney of BBC News about the changes that have taken place, as was my cousin another, fellow journalist.
        We each had different, valid things to say about the direction Comic-Con has taken. From my eyes, Comic-Con has changed from a venue that brings comic book fans together with their comic book heroes to a platform for corporations to hock their multi-million dollar actors and movies, which I think is… Not what Comic-Con should be about. My cousin’s view was that in order to bring more money into the our city, it is necessary for the big corporations to take part, because that is what draws the crowds that ultimately spend the money. Both points are valid, both points are accurate, so… Where does that leave us? It really is a can of worms that has no right or wrong answer. Is Comic-Con about an annual event that brings fans a little closer to something they love or is it about pumping money into San Diego? Tough to say. Do the Padres play at PETCO park so fans can watch them play or is it because the city makes money by hosting baseball games? It’s seems like it’s six of one thing and half a dozen of the other to me.

I Am Spartacus!

        Today was a very busy day, photographically speaking, so I’ll try to minimize my text for this post and maximize the photographic content. I got a lot of costume shots, as well as a half dozen or so celebrities, so it really was a very exciting day. Comic-Con really is an awesome event, and there are still three days to go.

        The costumes at Comic-Con are the best part of the show as far as I am concerned. People go to a lot of trouble to build and don their costumes, so they are very willing to have their pictures taken. Comic-Con is so NOT like the real world! People that come to The Con in costume very graciously pose for photos if asked, so be sure to mind your P’s & Q’s while doing so. “May I please take your picture?” should be immediately followed by, “Thank you very much” after you have taken your shot. If you have a business card, offer it to them so they can see themselves on your blog once the photo is posted online.

Star Wars Is A Mainstay At Comic-Con

        Buddy Jesus, with an elegant halo of bright neon blue made his entrance to the Comic-Con, looked me right in the eye and said nothing. That’s OK. After his holiness walked away, a statue of a green female statue caught my eye. Straight up creepy is what this thing was. There’s just something about an undead woman with lizard-green skin that makes me want to not be with her.

        I think a beautiful princess and Captain America himself epitomize Comic-Con. Comic book super heroes and mythical royalty are comic book regulars, and there is no shortage of either one at The Con. I mentioned earlier that I saw some celebrities today, didn’t I? Yes I did, and here they are.

Richard Hatch – Captain Apollo In TV’s Original Battlestar Galactica Series

Gil Gerard From TV’s Buck Rogers In The 25th Century

Erin Gray From TV’s Buck Rogers And Silver Spoons

Mindy Sterling – Best Known As Frau Farbissina In The Austin Powers Movies

Johnny Galecki – Currently On TV’s The Big Bang Theory

Corey Feldman And Jason Newlander From The Lost Boys

Morgan Fairchild Is Best Known For Being A Very Beautiful Woman

        Photographing celebrities is just like photographing anyone else, except that their bodyguards and handlers keep you farther away from them. I had a zoom lens, so this was not a problem for me. My random tip for Comic-Con newbies is to wander around the Sail Pavilion, because that is the autograph signing area, which means there will be celebrities up there. Remember to always be polite and say “please” and “thank you”.

        After I wrapped up for the day, I left the convention center and headed toward the trolley. It was in between these two places that I ran into this motley crew of superheros. It is very neat to see entire groups of friends put on costumes and head to Comic-Con. After the last couple days, I can honestly say that life is good.