Con Report Notes
(Updated: 4/24/2003)
The Con Reports are structured in chronological order with a number of digressions along the way. I'm not going to claim that they are filled with brilliant insights or that they are even all that interesting. They should provide some context for the hundreds of photos I took during the various conventions.
I've put links to the photos in the Con Reports in place of using either the photos or thumbnails. This was done to keep the load time of this Con Reports reasonable. Clicking on the (Photo) links will open the photo in a new window. Clicking on the (Link) links will open a web page in a new window.
The Con Reports themselves are the only pages that I've specifically tried to make load in a reasonable amount of time. Some of the other pages in the Con Reports have an insane number of thumbnails on them and might take a while to load. If you don't have a broadband connection, this site might be a little slow.
It takes a while to organize the hundreds of photos and an eternity to actually sit down and write the Con Report for a convention. I try to start the Con Report shortly after the convention is over but it usually takes me a while to finish it. There are a number of photos that I haven't been able to properly match to a vendor and there are probably a number of photos that I have incorrectly identified.
The Photos
A few words about the photos are probably in order. I use a Sony Mavica CD-1000 digital camera. I've learned a few things about photography in the process for taking the photographs for this website:
- Autofocus can be your friend.
- Autofocus can be your enemy. (Photo)
- Autofocus is slow.
- Don't move the camera when taking a photo. (Photo)
- While it may look bright, the exhibit hall is dark (especially during exhibitor only hours). (Photo)
- Objects in viewfinder are blurrier than they appear.
- Sometimes the flash helps, sometimes it hurts.
- Your flash can be your friend. Other people's flash can be your enemy. (Photo)
- Digital cameras are slower than film cameras. It takes a few seconds between photos.
- Make sure you have enough batteries for you camera. (And make sure you know where you can get more.)
I took a number of the photos while the exhibit hall was closed to the general public. A lack of people in front of a booth in a photo is no reflection of the amount of interest in the booth or the amount of business that the booth did. I tried not to be an annoyance to others while taking photos. Since I had a good zoom feature on the camera, I tried to take some photos from a bit of a distance so I wouldn't be in the way of people trying to get autographs or sketches. In a number of cases, people were very considerate and let me take my photo before walking in front of me. In other cases, not so much. (Photo) So, when trying to get a nice photo of a booth like this: (Photo), I sometimes wound up with worthless photos like this: (Photo). It gets very frustrating at times.
I've tried to label the photos as accurately as possible but there might be a few where either the booth number or the name of the exhibitor is incorrect. If you can positively identify any of the "Unknown" photos (or any the I've identified incorrectly) and provide reasonable proof for that identification, please email me. Please provide the booth/table number and the exhibitor name as well as the photo number (which is the DSC0????). Only email if you can convince me that your identification of the photo is correct. The justification needs to be more than "I'm pretty sure that…" to convince me.
Advise to Exhibitors: Have a clearly visible sign with your company name on it (that matches what is in the Event Guide listings) on your booth.
The Indexes
I set up a series of index pages so that pages in the Con Report can be navigated more conveniently. There are indexes for Artists Alley, the Exhibit Hall, the Expo Hall and the Small Press Area. In addition, there is a general index of the aisles and other major groups of photos. These pages are all text (except for the page header graphics at the top of the page) and they indicate how many thumbnails are on each linked page. The indexes are in alphabetical order.
For the Exhibit Hall Index, the entries are alphabetized by the exhibitor name as found in the Event Guide. This means that if you are looking for the booth that has the Freedom Force game, don't look under "Freedom Force" or even "Irrational Games" but look under "Electronic Arts/Crave Ent." because that is how the booth was listed in the Event Guide. The links go to the section for that booth on the appropriate aisle page.
For the Artists Alley index, the artists art alphabetized by last name. The names were taken from the Event Guide, mistakes and all. The links go to the section for that table in the appropriate aisle page in Artists Alley.
The Exhibit Hall Map
The best overview of the convention is the Exhibit Hall Map. The exhibit hall floor is enormous and there is a lot more to each convention than just the exhibit hall. This map should provide a sense of the scale of each convention. The Exhibit Hall Map is a huge and it will require scrolling no matter what resolution you are running. Each booth at the conventions tend to be 10 x 10 feet.
Each aisle label is clickable as are each of the booths and tables.
Clicking on an aisle label opens up a page for that aisle in a new browser window.
Clicking on a booth or table opens a new browser window with the page for that booth or table.
The Aisle Pages
I've set up a page for each aisle of booths/tables at each convention. The pages for each aisle contain the thumbnails for all of the photos I took of the booths on that aisle. I try to take a photo of every booth. In some cases I took more than one photo of the booth. In a few cases, I took a lot more photos. Some of these aisle pages might load slow due to the number of thumbnails on them.
The Booth/Table Pages
I've set up a page for each booth and table at each convention. These pages contain the thumbnails for all of the photos I took of that particular booth or table. Due to the number of booths and tables I was unable to get a photo of all of them. The tables in the Small Press Area and Artists Alley are the ones that I tended not to get. A large part of that was because I ususally hit those areas early in the morning as the exhibit hall opens. This is not the best time to photograph these areas and there isn't much point in photographing unoccupied booths and tables. There never seemed to be a good time to take photos of that area. The Small Press and Artist Alley areas also tend to be the more dynamic with people sometimes changing locations from day to day. The photos from these area also tend to be hard to identify afterwards.
Advise to Small Press Exhibitors and Artists in Artist Alley: Have a clearly visible sign with your company name on it (that matches what is in the Event Guide listings) on your booth. If you step away from you table, have a sign indicating when you will be back.
In some cases I took more than one photo of the booth. In a few cases, I took a lot more photos. Some of these aisle pages might load slow due to the number of thumbnails on them.
The Thumbnails
Clicking on a thumbnail on one of the aisle pages will open a page with a medium sized version of the photo. Clicking on the medium sized image will open up the full sized photo.
The photos I took are 1600 x 1200 pixels at full size. The thumbnails are 200 x 150 pixels and the medium size images are 640 x 480.
The Copyright
All characters, trademarks, likenesses and other copyrighted materials in the photographs belong to the respective copyright holders. All of the photographs themselves and the rest of the content on the ComicBookPage website is copyright (C) John K. Mayo.
It took a significant amount of time and effort to take these photographs. They are copyrighted material and may not be used without my express written permission. If you find copies of any of these photos on another site, please email me and let me know the URL where you found the photo.
The Bottom Line
If I get enough positive feedback on the Con Reports, I'll continue to do them. If I don't, I won't.
