For the fourth year in a row we were photographers at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo! Four days of running around the grounds chasing down attendees dressed up in cosplay, attending my favorite media guests panels and stalking them signing autographs.
The Parade of Wonders is always a highlight of the weekend, although the forecast seemed to have scared away some spectators and most of the media guests. They changed the route which made for a less than photographic set up but regardless it was still a great time.
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| Little Rey posing for a selfie. |
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| Star Wars Family! |
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| The photography team refers to this family as "The Family". Every year they dress up in incredible cosplay. |
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| Quick group photo before the parade starts! |
The media guests in the parade waving from their vehicles.
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| Bob Morley (from the 100) and Aly Michalka (from iZombie) |
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Guests from Devouring Dark Cosplay
and Silver Lining Cosplay
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| Mayor Nenshi! |
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| Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob) |
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| Kristian Nairn (Game of Thrones... Hold the door) |
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| Coplayers, Knightmage and Superkayce of "Moderately Okay Cosplay" |
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| Melissa O'Neil and Roger Cross (Dark Matter) |
The cosplayers march in the parade.
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| The Family leads the cosplayers as they begin the parade. |
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| Batman watching the parade go by. |
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| Weeping Angel coming toward me! I must have blinked! |
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| The stroller and mom as the Tardis, daughter as a Weeping Angel, son as the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and the dad as a Cyberman. |
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| Emily Expo and Mayor Nenshi welcome everyone to the 12th Calgary Expo |
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| The Expo is OPEN! |
The Expo wouldn't be complete without tons of adorable and impressive attendees in cosplay!
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| I have shot this boy every year for a few years. He hasn't change much in size, he has a rare type of dwarfism, and has worn the same costume. He is 8 years old. |
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| Who ya gonna call?... This guy! |
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| Star Wars family! Look at Chewie sitting on top of the AT-AT! |
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| Green Goblin and baby Green Goblin! |
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| Baby Batman! |
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| Little Kylo Ren! |
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| Rogue and Quick Silver |
One of the bonuses of being an official Expo photographer: getting up close while the media guests sign autographs.
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| Aly Michalka was sweet and spent lots of time with each guest. |
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| James Marsters (one of my favorites from the weekend!) signing a doll of himself. |
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| Kristian Nairn (the gentlest of giants) talking with an attendee. |
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| Bob Morley was so sweet and sincere with his fans. He stood the whole time and really put an effort in to make each fan feel special. |
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| Peter Capaldi signing a cartoon strip of Doctor Who. |
The Hypno-Twist was entertaining, Lots of audience participation, getting kids to come up and get the participants on stage to do funny things.
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| The "Jedi" put the participants asleep with a wave of his hand. |
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| These adorable kids were asked, "if you could make someone do anything what would you want them to do?" The older one said make them do a funny dance and the youngerone responded, give them a million dollars. So they got them to compete in advancing competition for a million dollars. |
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| He asked do you like heroes or villains, he said, heroes. All the participants were villains and had to beg for forgiveness. |
James Marsters! Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and made guest appearances in Torchwood, Smallville and Supernatural.
James was only supposed to be in 5 episodes. He was told to be a soulless vampire jerkface, he decided he wanted to stick around the show so did what he could to win over the audience and ended up sticking around a lot longer!
They talked about the musical episode how everyone thought it was Joss Wheadon's way of bombing the show so the cast decided to go down swinging and got voice coaching and dance lessons.
James Marsters put on a concert at Cowboys, it was AWESOME! He sang all his original songs, about actors and actresses he worked with, what his characters were feeling and his wife.
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| Signature Spike smirk! |
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| *Whistle* "Yes I am whistling" *Whistle* |
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| Another signature Spike grin! |
Bob Morley from the 100! My favorite media guest of the weekend! Although it started 10 minutes late and cut into precious Bob time it was still a great panel. If the point of the panel was to get you even more obsessed with the show, it worked. Now rewatching it on Netflix. Spoilers below!
<<<<<<< SPOILERS >>>>>>>
<<<<<<< SPOILERS >>>>>>>
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| He sat down and said, "it feels so good to sit down!" The moderator said, "you get to sit here and there throughout the weekend!" He said,"... not really. I stand during the autographs because I feel weird sitting on the other side of the table. I am not anything special, I am just like you guys." The crowd cheered and he sheepishly smiled. D'aaaaaaawe! |
So, Bob's voice is high with an Australian accent, Belamy's voice is deep with an American accent. An attendee asked if he has slipped up with the voice on set before. He said, "No. But once on lunch me and (can't remember who the other actor was, half the crew is Australian) really played up our Australian accents and then when we went back to shooting we had trouble getting rid of the accent." He also said yelling as Belamy hurts his throat and he thinks his regular voice has gotten deeper because of it. In the first few episodes he had a cold so the voice was deeper than he meant to. After taking a few months off between seasons he is still trying to get the voice right so it fluctuates at the start of the season. The moderator asked if he ever uses the voice just for fun... like to scare people. He said he uses it on the dogs sometimes when they are being bad, "go full Belamy on the dogs".
When asked what he thought of his characters less than reputable actions he said at first he thought how can he do that, what is he thinking? But then after going through and really analyzing the events that led up to his decision, the grounders killing off his friends slowly in the camp, turning on them at the last minute at Mount Weather, destroying Mount Weather and losing Gina, and listening to Pick whisper sweet nasties about the Grounders, Bob could see how Belamy justified his actions so he could connect with his character.
The moderator asked in the scene where Belamy is told Octavia is dead how did he turn on the water works with a moments notice. Bob said he is known for taking things a bit far, when he is in character he really thinks Octavia is his sister and that's what helps him create real emotions. In that scene he bangs his head against the bars so hard he left that day with a deep cut on his forehead.
Aly Michalka, from iZombie, Easy A, Weepah For Now and Sequoia (I haven't seen the last two but am gonna hunt them down and watch them!) and also Aly of Aly and AJ who I listened to when I was a kid!
They talked about Peyton's romance choices (some better than others) and what she would do if she was turned (she leaned toward the dye job and shake and bake). The moderator asked what the cast would think about a musical episode and they are divided, Clive and Major against it and everyone else would be up for it.
Jeremy Renner! The Avengers, Arrival, Mission Impossible, Hansel and Gretel, The Bourne Legacy, The Hurt Locker, S.W.A.T. and many more! He had a lot of sarcastic and one word answers, which some have interpreted as charming, entertaining and straight forward. I am torn. A few kids asked questions and he tried really hard to give them a longer than a one word answer, even though the questions were silly.
I missed the start of the Steven Yeun panel so no close ups but I caught most of it and shot a few wide shots. He was very sweet and insightful about his time on the Walking Dead. A few kids asked questions and he asked them, "... who is your parent or legal guardian... we need to have a chat..." He said if he had to go out he is happy it was a good death, that meant someone else didn't have to die and it inspired them to do what will need to be done next. An attendee asked if he would be okay with Maggie moving on. He said, "....... how long we talking?" The crowd laughed and she answered, "people are already shipping Jesus and Maggie."....... "Oh are they now......"
They talked briefly about the Legend of Korra and Steven voicing Wan. He binged watched all of Avatar The Last Airbender and was really happy to be a part of it.
My favorite photographic experience of the year has come to a close! By the end of the weekend my fingers had calluses on them from holding my camera. I did 44 hours of shooting and took 63,356 steps. Looking forward to next year already!
