EnBiCon 2014 Review and Images - And Now For Something Completely Different

I've put this off a while, as I do with most of my con reviews, I feel it helps me reflect better. Post convention and post editing I'm typically still worked over small issues that don't matter in the long run and would rather not have them addressed in the post. So first of all, EnBiCon, what is it? Well, it's a small gaming convention, mostly focused on tabletop style games. This year's convention is actually a revival after several years of absence. The new organizers wanted more then just games to bring people in, so after a few hasty chats with them and other friends in my community, myself and long time cosplayer Port City Kitty decided to run some cosplay events and draw a new crowd in. We decided to run a costume contest and I would set up a photo and we would keep it simple for time.

So how did it go? Well, we had little time to market, but I did manage to drum up some big support and we had a turn out of about 30 to 40 cosplayers, not terrible at all for a first year go. This is not the first time I've helped on the internal of the convention world, but certainly the first time I've mostly organized an event. I learned a few things on the journey for do and don't next time as always. But that was my little contribution to EnBiCon, how was the rest? It was awesome. Lots of gamers came out to play, and despite the rolling power blackouts we suffered during the day, they kept on playing. It was a complete success for a first year back, it was only a few days after that they announced the convention in 2015. So do I recommended it, yes, and I'm not just saying that cause I was helping run some things. It generally seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves.

Ok, so now the images.

Here's a few from around the con first.

Notice that last one with Darth Vader, that's one of the special guests I had come in, Adam Foster (I've photographed him before), he's a member of the 501st Legion. Speaking of special guests, we had a great turn out, which also composed our judge panel for the contest.

From Left to Right, there is(Cosplay names are being used here) Nathan DeLuca, Jessicka Zombie, Adam Foster, Port City Kitty, and Brody and Jen from Rhetorical Cosplay. Not pictured is Bronwen Robbins from Delirium's Edge Designs who had to leave early before the contest due to illness, but is no less important.

So on to the contest, we had some great entries, lots of people I know from the con circuit made it in too. The best part of the conventions is reconnecting with people. Sometimes it's the only time you see them in the course of a year.

Other then that I took a few special images for a few other people there, it's not always about volume, as I was happy with every image on every aspect this time.

No matter how many times I update this image, the color keeps coming out funny, very strange.

I even had time to do some special edits, which I love too. I was mostly happy with the speed of my editing, mostly due to my new seamless, vinyl backdrop. Finally I don't have to sit there for hours smoothing and editing the background. This should mean I can get the other cons edited much faster this year. Next up is EnBiCon in May, looking forward to spring weather and more cosplay! And also looking forward to the next EnBiCon!

-Larry M. Holder