Yesterday, armed with my new very-small-sensor Ricoh GRD IV pocket rocket, I went to San Diego's Comic-Con convention. Went with a friend who loves comic books, and, well, this massive downtown blowout fanfest isn't about comic books anymore. Not at all. It is totally Hollywood now... promos for upcoming movies and ... the most money of all these days ... soon-to-be-seen TV shows. Sadly lost on us two old guys ... we had to ask, over and over, "What's THAT about?" But this show is a Big F*****g Deal, as our Joe Biden is wont to say. Tickets are sold out online in 1/2 hour, months ahead -- and the Convention Center can only hold 130,000 people at any one time (take that, football fans). It is on the waterfront, with Gaslamp District nearby -- restaurants, bars, and huge, huge crowds. Good crowds... not drunks like the Super Bowl fans. This one? Sort of a giant nerd party, very fine.
Hollywood, spending the big bucks. Wrapping whole buildings with ads for their shows... and wrapping our streetcars with even more ads! Happily as counterpoint to this corporate culture heist, we found scads of suitably repulsive zombies roaming here and there. But -- even the zombies are going corporate, like the 'Scream' group you'll see below. The whole place was such a visual treat. Ladies dressed like sharks dancing around tall guys on stilts -- another promo. A little girl in a cute pink outfit, who actually was about 35. And, right on the busiest corner, some evangelist group set up shop -- with their minister using a Tim Curry -- Rocky Horror lookalike to point out the wages of sin to the crowd, many of whom seemed to be turned on rather than horrified.
So many people spending so much time making their costumes, hours and hours getting their makeup just right. Amazing, when you think about it. Halloween in mid-summer, but here you make your own costumes. Very creative and inventive and all a tribute to these TV shows and movies they watch. And, now and then, an honest-to-God comic book Super Hero -- like Superman, who I think started all this, back when.
Before we left, went out to the back of the Center, which overlooks the bay. Down below, the loading dock where all the exhibit crates are stored -- and where the famous Hollywood actors go in and out. Joined three excitedly screaming teenage girls yelling to get the attention of their favorite star -- "Sam! Sam! Up here, Sam!" we all yelled, and sure enough, he looked up and waved, and I thought the kids would pass out, mega OMG sort of thing.
Photos below. Hopefully, proof-positive that a pocket camera with a good lens in front of a teeny sensor can do the job -- thanks to plenty of sunshine and Comic-Con!
I usually take my K30 with DA40 and 18-135 WR with help of Metz 52 Flash as a compact con kit
(If you want to cosplay but don't want to give up shooting 
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