There are many things I have learned about myself as photographer at shooting at a place like Emerald City ComicCon. The first and very most important thing I learned is, I need to be comfortable capturing the moment. Which this one caught me by complete surprise. You see, when I asked to photography my nephew’s funeral I had switched into photographer mode and had to keep switching out. However, attending ECCC was my own pleasure and I was photographing out of pure fun.

This is a problem. I ended up feeling too awkward at moments to photograph. I felt like I was invading on someone. Even though they dressed up in some elaborate costume I am sure they are hoping people would photograph their efforts. I couldn’t get into the frame of mind that if you are there expect to photographed.

Second thing I learned was if I am by myself I don’t worry as much. There is no offense to my amazing friends who joined me and helped watch my daughter. But, I found that when I ventured off on my own I didn’t have to worry if the person with me was annoyed or didn’t get why I was stopping to take the shot. I am sure they were fine with it but sometimes my own insecurities get in the way.

Third, I get so wrapped up in watching everything and being sucked into the events around me I forget that I have this device that capture what it is I am seeing. (This is where I should smack my face.) There were so many interesting people and great things to see and how much of it did I capture? 150 images all of which about 40 I liked. Sad. I was there from 11:30 to 5:30. I have shot more images of my daughter in our living room in twenty minutes. There was a giant tower of T-shirts, hundreds of people in great costumes, there were interesting artists and set up of merchandise, and the cool guy/creator from Night Zero that I was having a conversation with before I realized he was the creator. (Another smack in the face.)

And the fourth thing is I loved it but, I need more practice. I loved it when I got out of my geek person mode and into my photographer mode to capture the moment. I still have a lot to learn and because I loved it I definitely want to do more. I like being in the photographer mode and I have to learn how to be in that mode. Another photographer talked to me, nice guy, and so I looked at some of his shots he took. Great stuff. The stuff I captured wasn’t bad but I could see what he did that made his shots better. I am not used to this sort of photography but I definitely want to do more of it.

Just some other highlights of the day:

Talking to the creator of Night Zero, a Seattle based photography comic about the zombie apocalypse, and finding out that everyone involved is a volunteer, um can you say cool?

Seeing issues of Deadpool for super amounts of money, okay, so not cool because I have no money but seeing some that I do own for that much if I ever have to sell, I can make something from it. It is a good thing I arrived poor because I would have left poor.

That giant tower of shirts, wow. that was huge and cool. (Again, did I photograph it? No.)

Seeing the giant line to Will Wheaton.

Getting lost and talking to the photographer. This was a funny story that maybe sometime I will incorporate into a romantic comedy.

Seeing my daughter look at all the awesome people in costumes. I cannot wait for next year, she will almost be two. Deadpool costume I am thinking.

But last and more important highlight is some of my fellow NCAD classmates sitting at their tables selling and promoting themselves. Way to go! I can’t express how proud I am that they put themselves out there. It is a scary thing to do. So my hats off to them for their amazing efforts and I hope they get a great return for doing it.