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jjmaccrimmonThis week has been a freakin rollercoaster. I really am starting to wonder where my spare time is disappearing to. This past weekend, the family and my friend Heather ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
e_phemera packed into the car after work Friday evening to drive down to Birmingham, AL. The goal was Imagicon 2009 and more particularly the Friday Sleep When You’re Dead” show. Despite a comedic episode at an Arby’s (fast-food shop) on the relatively peaceful drive down, we managed to find the hotel and Con site without much fuss. Why ‘comedic’ you might ask? The person taking our order couldn’t get anything right and eventually simply stopped talking to us over the remote microphone. We drove up to the window and made the manager take the order all over.
We went to ImagiCon on a shoestring budget. I knew I’d be getting in on a Media pass but had no idea how I’d get the kids in. Originally I’d been hoping to get in the kids on a guest pass to help with the SCA That option faded away due to several reasons and Brenna elected to buy her own day pass for Saturday. I was prepared to buy one for Chris when the Con’s PR person appeared at the registration booth with an interesting problem. None of the photographers the Con had contacted to document the event had shown up. After a bit of negotiation, I became the “Official Photographer for ImagiCon 2009” and added another line to my resume. Note to self, always bring lots of business cards to conventions. Additional note, bring air mattresses when putting four people in a room with two beds.
Turns out we didn’t need to rush down to get the the SWYD show at the Con. It was delayed behind a couple bands performing (or trying to) and wasn’t scheduled to start till 10pm. Sorry, not trying to be mean spirited, but one one band (cna’t recall the name but they had a female lead singer) really impressed me. The delay gave me time to check out the lay-out of the event and get a feel for where I could get good photos. When the show kicked off, I was impressed by the size of the audience. Some had to be more educated about burlesque, but overall they were appreciative & the show went exceptionally well. Backing them up were DJ’s Nemesis and Lechter. These guys had the crowd dancing till nearly 3am (well after I left for bed at 1:30am). I also shot a number of photos of time exposure (no flash) shots of a Star Wars “Jedi” doing lightsaber drills with his glowing Force FX Lightsaber. Wow. In the very near future, you guys will start seeing more and more burlesque shots from these and other shows.
Saturday was a marathon. I managed to wake up the gang and get going by 8:30 that morning. With Chris in tow, we were out and about for the next 18 hours. We photographed several discussion boards, shows, two costume competitions (including one that he won) and several demonstrations (including SCA fencing) and got one inadvertent group photo. The group photo was because someone set off the smoke detectors in the Birmingham Jefferson County Convention Center. After dinner (and terribly slow service), Heather and I went back to the Con for the evening entertainment, while Brenna and Christophe went to the hotel room. I almost wish I hadn’t gone back to the entertainment venue. The bands on stage were progressively more awful. The Suckiness culminated with the Birmingham band “Mindtrip” which should better be called “ear rip.” OK, there’s a simple truism of live concerts. Good bands mostly play at volume/dB levels where they can be heard and understood. Bad bands crank up the volume levels so high that the distortion level and mass of sonic crap is so high, they think no-one will be able to tell how awful they sound. Understand that each band was only supposed to have a 1 hour set. These guys did a 45 minute sound check during what was supposed to be their on-stage time. Sadly the sound check was better than the performance. The sound levels all were set too high. Bass levels +20dB, midrange +10-15 dB and the high range was so distorted it was hard to tell. The singer didn’t sing so much as screamed in some alien dialect.
They actually drove 60 to 70 people from the hall by the 3rd song. We hung on till the 4th song then left to the open commons outside the exhibition hall they played in. We figured that the lack of (sober) audience would convince them to end early but an hour into playing (1+45 since they took the stage) they were still going strong. The Corpse Dollies (tribal gothic dancers) were supposed to go on at midnight based on the delay, but when I asked the sound guy, I was told that the band was “going to get the time they paid for.” I told him about the crowd drove out and that the band sucked arse. He then became beligerent so I grabbed my camera bag and returned to the commons. Shortly after this 2 of Birmingham’s police entered the Hall and shut down the show. A certain zombie girl asked them nicely to remove the band. :) Sadly the Corpse Dollie’s act was not what the audience was expecting. While they were setting up, I had a 20 minute conversation with the executive manager of the convention discussing the the situation, the entertainment situation and the potential for the event. All went well.
On Sunday we returned for a few more hours of fun and games before driving home. We caught a magic act, Chris got to duel with lightsabers for nearly an hour and we caught one last pass through the merchant’s area. Overall it was a good time. ImagiCon has already told me to expect being back next year as their photographer. I also think that I may be advising them about entertainment and bands. We’ll see. I now have 1200 photos to deal with from this event.
e_phemera packed into the car after work Friday evening to drive down to Birmingham, AL. The goal was Imagicon 2009 and more particularly the Friday Sleep When You’re Dead” show. Despite a comedic episode at an Arby’s (fast-food shop) on the relatively peaceful drive down, we managed to find the hotel and Con site without much fuss. Why ‘comedic’ you might ask? The person taking our order couldn’t get anything right and eventually simply stopped talking to us over the remote microphone. We drove up to the window and made the manager take the order all over.We went to ImagiCon on a shoestring budget. I knew I’d be getting in on a Media pass but had no idea how I’d get the kids in. Originally I’d been hoping to get in the kids on a guest pass to help with the SCA That option faded away due to several reasons and Brenna elected to buy her own day pass for Saturday. I was prepared to buy one for Chris when the Con’s PR person appeared at the registration booth with an interesting problem. None of the photographers the Con had contacted to document the event had shown up. After a bit of negotiation, I became the “Official Photographer for ImagiCon 2009” and added another line to my resume. Note to self, always bring lots of business cards to conventions. Additional note, bring air mattresses when putting four people in a room with two beds.
Turns out we didn’t need to rush down to get the the SWYD show at the Con. It was delayed behind a couple bands performing (or trying to) and wasn’t scheduled to start till 10pm. Sorry, not trying to be mean spirited, but one one band (cna’t recall the name but they had a female lead singer) really impressed me. The delay gave me time to check out the lay-out of the event and get a feel for where I could get good photos. When the show kicked off, I was impressed by the size of the audience. Some had to be more educated about burlesque, but overall they were appreciative & the show went exceptionally well. Backing them up were DJ’s Nemesis and Lechter. These guys had the crowd dancing till nearly 3am (well after I left for bed at 1:30am). I also shot a number of photos of time exposure (no flash) shots of a Star Wars “Jedi” doing lightsaber drills with his glowing Force FX Lightsaber. Wow. In the very near future, you guys will start seeing more and more burlesque shots from these and other shows.
Saturday was a marathon. I managed to wake up the gang and get going by 8:30 that morning. With Chris in tow, we were out and about for the next 18 hours. We photographed several discussion boards, shows, two costume competitions (including one that he won) and several demonstrations (including SCA fencing) and got one inadvertent group photo. The group photo was because someone set off the smoke detectors in the Birmingham Jefferson County Convention Center. After dinner (and terribly slow service), Heather and I went back to the Con for the evening entertainment, while Brenna and Christophe went to the hotel room. I almost wish I hadn’t gone back to the entertainment venue. The bands on stage were progressively more awful. The Suckiness culminated with the Birmingham band “Mindtrip” which should better be called “ear rip.” OK, there’s a simple truism of live concerts. Good bands mostly play at volume/dB levels where they can be heard and understood. Bad bands crank up the volume levels so high that the distortion level and mass of sonic crap is so high, they think no-one will be able to tell how awful they sound. Understand that each band was only supposed to have a 1 hour set. These guys did a 45 minute sound check during what was supposed to be their on-stage time. Sadly the sound check was better than the performance. The sound levels all were set too high. Bass levels +20dB, midrange +10-15 dB and the high range was so distorted it was hard to tell. The singer didn’t sing so much as screamed in some alien dialect.
They actually drove 60 to 70 people from the hall by the 3rd song. We hung on till the 4th song then left to the open commons outside the exhibition hall they played in. We figured that the lack of (sober) audience would convince them to end early but an hour into playing (1+45 since they took the stage) they were still going strong. The Corpse Dollies (tribal gothic dancers) were supposed to go on at midnight based on the delay, but when I asked the sound guy, I was told that the band was “going to get the time they paid for.” I told him about the crowd drove out and that the band sucked arse. He then became beligerent so I grabbed my camera bag and returned to the commons. Shortly after this 2 of Birmingham’s police entered the Hall and shut down the show. A certain zombie girl asked them nicely to remove the band. :) Sadly the Corpse Dollie’s act was not what the audience was expecting. While they were setting up, I had a 20 minute conversation with the executive manager of the convention discussing the the situation, the entertainment situation and the potential for the event. All went well.
On Sunday we returned for a few more hours of fun and games before driving home. We caught a magic act, Chris got to duel with lightsabers for nearly an hour and we caught one last pass through the merchant’s area. Overall it was a good time. ImagiCon has already told me to expect being back next year as their photographer. I also think that I may be advising them about entertainment and bands. We’ll see. I now have 1200 photos to deal with from this event.
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Date: 2009-04-04 03:53 am (UTC)http://www.myspace.com/corpsewax fwiw..
All I've heard is that it's a STRONG possibility of it existing next year. Still awaiting full announcement stuffs.
I hope I can do photo next year with ya... I got to see very little of the con, but got to help out where I wanted to... Sunday I mostly walked around and helped break stuff down.. ok so I consolidated the signs seeing as I couldn't find anything else to do.. and helped empty the VIP Lounge.. and unstuff 2000 or so bags at Registration.. lol
Glad you had fun here, though!