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Masquerade Line-up
I headed after grabbing bit to eat at Swiss Chalet. I expected a line-up but this was ridiculous. Down the hall, out the door and circling the parking lot. Attempts were made to make the line-up shorter but the line only grew.  I must have dropped my tripod over 6 times during the wait. Good thing it was a Velbon. I'll be looking for lighter one for next time.

The staff this year was alot better and marked improvement in handling the line up over two years ago.  I think the sticker method has to be the best method so far. Better than the armband or tickets and is clearly seen.  One line-up staff, masquerade veteran agreed the no flash photography is outdated. Since lights of the stage drown out any light from the crowd, it's also pointless to use flash when it's range at best is only 10 feet even at best conditions. Flash in the hall is massively distracting and doesn't get your picture.

Suggestions?  Switch to switch off flash, set or use 400 ASA and keep to optical zoom then crop later as mentioned below.

Suggestions to con promoters?  Sell booth space to a camera store so they can teach people how to use their camera settings.

Suggestions to con goers for next year?  Get larger memory cards and practice shooting in the evenings outside. You don't have to keep the photos you take. Try ALL the settings. READ the manual.

Still the postponement of the Kotoko concert only pushed getting the chairs setup for masquerade. Lots of people were worried as line grew on whither they would get in. Still the number of stickers were suppose to be the number of chairs. I wonder if I was going to get a decent seat at all.

The delayed stretched into hour and half. Not only was setup for the masquerade delayed but also a lock down for lost kid only added to the misery of the heat of the day.  You think after searching the line-up for the child... no one fit the description. You think that moving the line into the hall would allow people to see she wasn't there. Clearly there needs to be better system for this.  At least they had a blow horn as oppose to trying to yell all weekend. (One of my gripes from 2004. Along with con staff having flash lights for blackouts.)
 

Cropping versus resizing Original Sides cropped the resized 600 Bottom cropped to 800 Occasionally it's good not to zoom into a subject. Digital zoom can leave pictures grainly. The one key is stretch the optical to it's max. then crop. method I used is crop the shortest margins to crop in. This case, the sides then resize to 600. This leaves cropping top and bottom to 800 for web pages.  Leaving more details of the picture less compressed by resizing.

Once in the hall, I scope out two things... an isle seat and water.  I lucky found both on the right hand side of the room just sitting beside the sound board. Still stretch for camera but with 20x optical, I could catch the stage and zoom in on a character.  More than a digital camera with only 3x optical.

There were a couple of cameras on risers and shotgun mike. They could have mike the stage with peso (sp?) microphone mounted on acrylic sheet. Used in boardrooms by placing on the table and highly directional.  The 404's took the stage briefly only so those people could get seated. Improv is tiring and repetitious for me to watch.

The host was more in tune with the crowd than last year's MC. Still many thought the acts weren't up to last year's bar. Videos will be posted. Considering I went through 2 batteries and 3 tapes it will take a while and be it's own gallery. With up to 99 entries with only a few obstainers, it can be a daunting task. I had two tapes prepped with 30 second blanked lead and labelled.  Having the tripod was godsend. I couldn't imagine holding a camcorder for over two hours ... even with a mono pod.

Still I made sure I wasn't blocking anyone's view by turing and asking those behind me.  I could concentrate on the masquerade but when the first battery showed signs of early depletion, I worried. Yes, it conked out right in the middle of a performance. I might have to have fluorescent sticker to make which way is up and which battery is which. It only added to the delay of changing a camcorder battery in the dark.  I immediately put the write protect on the miniDV tape to make sure I wasn't going to re-record over usable footage.

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Masquerade on Parade

One of the poorly advertised events was right outside the masquerade. Cosplay parade was photo shoot of cosplayers after they left the hall after their performance. A makeshift photo backdrop with lights was setup.  Giving those with flash cameras a chance to take pictures up close without being yelled at.
 

Line-up for the dance was outside the hall after the masquerade. Tired most of them waiting for hours passed the start time.  I found out later that hotel had no crew for setting up chairs. This made delays even longer.

Hallways are always questionable lighting at best. Sometimes a mixture of incandescent, fluorescent and whatever. Sometimes even flash is not enough.

Alot of cosplayers had already left because of the late start. At the bus stop I met Nightko of the forums on Studio of Masquerade Arts. He just got a digital camera and was interested in the panoramas I created. I gave some tips. The bus came and unfortunately packed as it was, he took the next bus.

Note: At Anime North 2007, I met once again with Nightko on the bus leaving the con. He meantioned that he was on the SMA's forums and not with SMA directly. My apologies and I have made the corrections.

I didn't even bother with internet cafe based on previous night's experience. I headed to bed and placed my batteries on charge only to get up to change batteries during the night. The camcorder is the charger which is one of it's flaws I didn't like.

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