july 21, 2007
four chan at otakon
the amount of creativity and the degree to which a lot of the young attendees dress up at otakon blows me away. there's a fierceness and a fearlessness in the air that's remarkable and refreshing. imagine downtown baltimore with its white collar workers and supporting blue collar laborers being invaded by 20,000-30,000 anime loving youngsters, half of whom are decked out as their favorite characters. and downtown baltimore definitely has some ruff sections. one wrong turn and you start to wonder which way back to kansas. but that all seems to fall by the wayside for otakon.
sometimes i wish i could just concentrate on taking photos at otakon and not have to work. otakon is perhaps the biggest anime convention on the east coast and people come to see and be seen. at least it's the biggest one i've been to, and i've been to my fair share by now. half of the time i'm busy handling customers, the other half i'm totally exhausted and wondering where my next wave of energy is going to come from, and the final half i'm trying to figure out how to move product. that's a whole lotta halves to put together. really, the photos would just be ridiculous if i could focus solely on that. happily, i learn tons from everything outside of my camera. and i still manage to get a grip of great shots.
sometimes i wish i could just concentrate on taking photos at otakon and not have to work. otakon is perhaps the biggest anime convention on the east coast and people come to see and be seen. at least it's the biggest one i've been to, and i've been to my fair share by now. half of the time i'm busy handling customers, the other half i'm totally exhausted and wondering where my next wave of energy is going to come from, and the final half i'm trying to figure out how to move product. that's a whole lotta halves to put together. really, the photos would just be ridiculous if i could focus solely on that. happily, i learn tons from everything outside of my camera. and i still manage to get a grip of great shots.