All charged up, memory cards wiped, comfy shoes on and bags packed! We headed to Calgary for four days of constant shooting and running around the Calgary Expo! We have worked as photographers for the Calgary Expo for a few years now and it is always a spectacular experience. All access pass to everywhere we want to go and of course we get to take as many photos as physically possible.
The Parade of Wonders! Cosplayers unite for a walk in downtown Calgary.
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Groot being interviewed, I bet the answer
was "I am Groot" |
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| If you dress up as a princess it is your duty to talk to all the little girls that look at you with wonder. |
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| Baby Minion |
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| Mitch in action |
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| Even Supergirl needs to take a break |
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| Team of Princess' visit the kids |
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| Groot! |
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| Dragon Age Inquisition |
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| Guardians of the Galaxy |
Let the Parade... Begin!
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| Female Captain America |
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| Who ya gonna call? |
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| Guardians of the Galaxy, complete with Groot on stilts |
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| Female Hellboy |
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| Sons of Fenrir |
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| Spiderman asks, "Does this pose make my butt look big?" |
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| Quidditch team! |
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| Hail Hydra! |
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| Link from Legend of Zelda |
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| Cosplayer, Jessica Nigri |
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| Graham McTavish |
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| Mayor Nenshi sporting his comic inspired t-shirt |
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| Cosplayers Okageo and Ivy Doomkitty |
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| The beginning of a weekend of stalking Brett Dalton. |
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| Cosplayer Yaya Han |
Media guests make their entrance.
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| Emily Expo and
Mayor Nenshi introduce the guests, Ian Ziering, Kristy Swanson and
cosplayers Jessica Nigri, Yaya Han and Ivy Doomkitty. |
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| Graham McTavish, Garrett Wang and Brett Dalton. |
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| Expo selfie of cosplayers and media guests! |
In my spare time I wandered around the exhibitors display, where a wide range of art and nerd paraphernalia was for sale and shot interesting costumes that I spotted.
Monty python horses... hilarious Nelson and Murdock from Daredevil. Love it.
Shot some lines while waiting for the show to open on Saturday.
Banff crew came for a day at the Expo. Took a few moments to greet them at admissions and take photos of course!
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| Dwalin from the Hobbit and Harry Potter |
First up, a panel where they were doing a podcast about comic creation. The panelists were artists, writers or comic enthusiasts. A Stan Lee impressionist crashed the panel toward the end.
A panel on women in comics caused some tension with an anti-feminist in the crowd. I figured it was a good time to duck out at that point. Up to that point it was an interesting discussion on women being more involved in the creation of comics and being characters.
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A look through the history of monsters in film.
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Alliance Alberta talks about what is involved in LARPing. They arrange
weekend getaways where you become a character, including costumes,
make-up and personality. They hold the events in tucked away cabins near Calgary. There
are a lot of rules and preparations but what a great way to spend a
weekend with your nerd friends!
I shot the spotlight
on wrestler Mick Foley. He was really funny, charismatic and friendly. I didn't
follow most of the context of what they were talking about, specific fights and
such, but still found it entertaining and interesting. Sweet man for such a colourful career.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars, Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry. Luke talked about how he was shooting 90210 during the day and Buffy at night, basically sleeping while on the drive to and from each set. They talked about how they were flattered about the movie being turned into a TV series.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe panel. Alan Oppenheimer, the voice of Skeletor, Melendy Britt the voice of She-Ra, Princess Adora and Catra and animator for the series (whose name I can't find!). They talked about the inspiration for the voices they play, how they felt about the series being relaunched and not being a part of it, and how fun it was to work together! Alan was funny and unexpected and did a few lines in his Skeletor voice. Melendy was very sweet, just like the Princess she plays!
Had a few moments in between panels so stopped by Garrett Wang's routine. Just him, cracking jokes on stage.
Jewel Staite's panel was really light-hearted and fun. One of the few panels I attended where there wasn't a moderator, and she didn't need one, she could stand on her own against silly questions and kept the conversation moving. Shiny!
The evil Queens from Once Upon a Time, Victoria Smurfi (Cruella De Vil), Lana Parrilla (Evil Queen from Snow White), Kristin Bauer van Straten (Maleficent) and Merrin Dungey (Ursula). An artist drew the panel and had it for sale at the charity auction.They talked about how exhilarating it is to play evil characters, being able to strut and talk like a bitch is a great stress reliever!
Last minute announcement, Neil Patrick Harris to attend the Calgary Expo! Sweet and soft spoken, he was quite different than the characters he portrays and what I was expecting from his panel. At the end he took a video for his kids of himself on stage, explaining where he was and then turned it to a screaming crowd.
"I can't stop staring at your boobs!... I don't know who
to talk to!"... "That's all me."
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Mayor Nenshi thanks Neil for coming,
Emily Expo and all the workers and
volunteers for putting together the Calgary
Expo for the tenth year running! |
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| Crowd waving for his video for his kids. |
David Morrissey (The Govenor), Lew Temple (Axel) and Scott Wilson (Hershel) for the Walking Dead panel! (SPOILER ALERT!) All three are now dead in the series, and they pointed out two of them were killed by the other! Scott explained when he first received the script and he was told they wanted him for a few episodes, so he was always expecting to be told he would die in two weeks but he ended up staying longer than anticipated. They talked about the personalities of each of their characters and what it was like to play them.
This girl was so excited to ask her question she was bouncing.
Agents of Shield panel with Ming-Na Wen and Brett Dalton. My favorite panel of the weekend, possibly because my favorite guest was there. *Spoilers* Brett was getting snuffed a bit, as he has become a traitor on the show. I am still partial to the theory that he is still a good guy and will leave the dark side eventually. Maybe if the episode where he worked with Coulson had aired before the Expo he would have had more supporters (he was pretty dreamy in that episode and proved there IS still good in there). I am still a member of Team Skye/Ward!
Ming, super outgoing and funny, nothing like the character she plays
on the show, who is serious and keeps to herself. She joked the
directors would say "more May, less Ming" when they were doing a scene
and she was being a little too bouncy.
Brett commending May on her performance in the
recent episode about May's dark mission that gave
her the nickname, "the cavalry" and changed her forever.
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| Ming taking photos of the crowd. |
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| Ming challenges Brett to a fight. |
Took some photos of the media guests while they were signing autographs.
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| Neil Patrick Harris! |
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| Robert Knepper, Heroes |
Garrett Wang being his usual animated self. I don't know
where he gets the energy!
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| Jewel Staite being super friendly and sweet to her long line of attendees looking for an autograph. |
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Rosario Dawson answering questions while signing autographs.
Working our way through "Daredevil" and she is awesome so far! |
My favorite moment of the entire weekend. I had stopped by briefly in the morning to take photos of Brett signing autographs but there was stuff in the way and didn't get great expressions so came back and moved some of the distracting elements out of the way. I am sure he noticed by now he has seen me a few times taking photos of him, he stops to ponder for a moment, followed by some great expressions for the camera. He says, "do those look awful?", I said, "No, they look great", "You must have some great filters on that camera", "I don't think you could take a bad photo if you tried", "That is sweet of you to say". And then I ran away in star struck flustered delight.
Kristin Bauer van Straten, from True Blood and Once Upon a Time, signing autographs and posing with attendees.
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| Teaching a group of attendees the "Thriller". Moments from becoming a flash mob. |
Master Rim's Taekwondo demonstration. The photos speak for themselves, they did some cool demonstrations, kicking planks of wood into splinters and crazy flying spin kicks (I'm sure there is a technical term). Check out their website!
The Guns of the Golden West is a western themed group
that perform humorous and daring gun slinging shows for all ages! Dressed in Victorian-era
style clothing and equipment used by settlers of the Old West, they teach
history in their shows with a variety of
townsfolk.
Check out their website
The Sons of Fenrir are Viking re-enactors from Calgary. They demonstrated what it was like to fight and live as a viking, creating an atmosphere with cooking authentic meals, creating crafts and live steel combat. Check out their website!
I shot the regional parasol dueling championship. It is a sort of rock, paper, scissors, where rock is "plant", the parasol is planted into the ground, paper is "twirl" where the parasol goes over your shoulder is twirled and scissors is "snub" where the parasol is opened towards the opponent. I'm not sure if they are being completely serious about what they are saying or doing or if they are putting on a show, but nevertheless it was entertaining! It was fun to shoot and very confusing to watch. Such pretty dresses! Check out their Facebook.
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| All the competitors and judges |
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| Steampunk group photo! |
I was scheduled to photograph the kids costume contest. Two local cosplayers were the judges and decided to award everyone with an edible medal instead of a few winners. Here are a few of my favorites, Scarecrow, Hellboy, Assassin's Creed, Michonne and Edward Scissorhands.
Working as an Expo photographer is something I look forward to every year and this year did not disappoint. I met some great people and had a blast shooting the event. I can't wait for next year. Hope to see you there!
