Monday, September 10, 2012

The Best of DragonCon 2012

Is it possible to take TOO many pictures at Dragon*Con? Because I think I did. I've been cropping and tweaking and sorting cosplay pics for a solid week now. EEK!

My pain is your gain, though, as I've weaned down my favorite shots to the best of the best that D*C had to offer this year. So let's get right to it!

The four House founders from Harry Potter. AMAZING.

And while I'm at it, here's the rest of my favorite Potter cosplay from the weekend:

Why yes, that IS Snape in Neville's grandmother's clothes - right down to the vulture on his hat & purse! And Hagrid there spoke to everyone in character, and his voice and accent were perfection. (See his pink umbrella?)

Here's a fun group of look-alikes:


When possible, I love chatting with cosplayers. These next guys were so, so nice; they're actually brothers, and they have some fantastic costumes:

 
You see a lot of girls in Tardis and Dalek dresses, but these are the only male versions I've seen. And those steampunked Wonder Twins? SO COOL. Check out the details:

They made the space monkey Gleek into a robot!
(Confession: I'm not really that good; I had to wiki the monkey.)

Some cute geek girls in spandex:

That's a fabulous Seven of Nine - and such an adorable Harley!


I may have had an extreme fangirl moment with this jaw-dropping GLADOS puppet:
Yes, she really is a kind of puppet, and the guy operating her made her movements perfectly smooth and sinuous - PLUS he had a speaker wired up so that she could talk to you. It was SOOO COOOL.

And this one just made me laugh:


Here's the prettiest portrait I took the entire con, snapped quickly on the street corner while we waited for the light to change:

Isn't her makeup lovely? If only I had sunlight for all my shots! (This seriously makes me want to camp out on the street corner for photos next year!)

Speaking of great makeup, check out my friend Christie again with her sister, Robin:

They were dressed as the Ponies of the Apocalypse, Death and War. They each did everything themselves, from hand-sculpting Christie's rib cage to cutting the sheet metal for Robin's shoulder guards. These ladies are so darn inspiring with their cosplay, it's not even funny. Love it.

The hardest part with big group shots is getting everyone to look at you:

Or getting anyone to look at you. Ha!

I love the girl Spy's coat dress in this group:
Wait - I just realized the one on the left is also wearing a skirt. A matched set!

Some scary baddies:

And a sexy Cat Woman:
 Her cameo has a cat on it. :) I love the lace mask!

This little girl was crawling around on the floor, making me seriously fear for her safety - but doesn't she make a cute dragon?

I think this was John's favorite: they're the soldiers "combing the desert" from Space Balls:
Hee!

And to show you that nothing at Dragon*Con is ever truly what it seems, take a look at this:

I took a picture of the black and white lady last year, and have since been told that she is actually a he, wearing a strategically padded body suit. If you look closely, you can see the wrinkles in the fabric on her shoulder. If it's true that's a guy (anyone know for sure?), then this could be the best illusion costume EVER. I salute you, sir! [Note:Yep, he's a guy!]



I'm about half way through my favorites, so check back soon for part 2!

23 comments:

  1. Is that Korra photobombing the Disney princesses? Excellent!

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  2. The first word after Epbot is "geekery," so post away to your heart's content. Love, love, love the Hogwarts founders, complete with banners and horcruxes.

    One of these days, I'll make it to DC and I'll say, "Jen made me do it." lol

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  3. That Weeping Angel is fantastic! I saw one girl dressed up like a WA but she didn't look nearly that cool. Guess I missed most of the really cool stuff cuz I was at the Con early and left around 5 every day. Oh well, glad YOU got so many cool shots!!

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  4. I can't get over how cool that whole group of Disney characters is.

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  5. When I saw that first picture start to load up on my Google Reader I squealed with glee! The founders! Happy dance of joy!! :)

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  6. Hi Jen - I'm the Helga Hufflepuff in the Hogwarts Founders group. I love the picture you took of us and we're glad you liked our costumes :) We definitely plan on wearing them again next year.

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  7. <a href="http://www.cosplay.com/gallery/207229>Here is the link to look at the black and white character</a>

    and yes, that is a man. He's an avid cosplayer. And that character is his own creation!

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  8. So glad you took such amazing pictures because I missed a lot of these! Plus, your pictures turned out a lot better than mine too! What kind of camera did you use at Dragon*Con to get such awesome pics?

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  9. @ Ashley - I use a Canon 7D, with a 17-50 lens. Dragon*Con was actually a large part of the reason we got that lens in particular, and upgraded from my old Canon Rebel! The 7D has an insanely high ISO for low-light conditions, and the lens is a wide enough angle to allow full body shots from pretty close up.

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  10. I have to be honest...the other day I was walking into Walmart, and a black guy with a big 'fro walked out with a pick in it. The FIRST thing I thought of was "We ain't found s**!" And I about laughed my head off all by myself. So that costume absolutely ROCKS. My favorite of the bunch, next to Gaston and the Hogwarts House founders!

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  11. Amazing!! I can't believe that's a guy. We actually saw 2 of them I think Fri night?

    I didn't see those founders, BOO! Their costumes are EPIC!

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  12. I go to Dragon*Con vicariously through you. Thank you for posting. :)

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  13. Two years ago, you posted a D*C pic of someone dressed as Elvira, probably the finest lookalike I've ever seen (and I'm a HUGE fan, that's met the real Elvira a number of times), so like a lot of your pics, I grabbed it in put it in my SlideShow (for inspiration!). It wasn't until it was in there a while that I took a good look one day and realized-- THAT'S A *MAN*, BABY! As anyone who watches "Drag Race" knows, they're doing AMAZING things with "boob plates" (fake chests that go from collarbone to bellybutton) these days. Some drag hag *I* am; the girls at Lips are gonna disown me if they ever find out that my ability to "clock 'em" was down! ;)

    That being said, if you hadn't told me that was a guy, I would never EVER have guessed. That's a metamorphosis some guys I know would be SO jealous of, just perfect padding in the hips, which is hard to get right; it can often be very lumpybumpy. No sweat when you're wearing an evening gown, but DEATH if you're wearing something that tight; the library WILL open, and you WILL be read for FILTH. So, yeah, all I have to say to homegirl in the black and white is... WERRRRRK!

    Cheers, thanks a lot, keep 'em comin'!

    Storm

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  14. Thanks for your great coverage. It makes up for missing it in person. You spot all the best stuff.

    I must get out there again next year.

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  15. Jen, your photos are amazing! I'm never likely to get to a big con like this (housebound in the UK), but I can enjoy it vicariously here ;)

    Also, I'm sure other people have told you, but - you want steampunk? Watch the closing ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics. Extraordinary - massive vehicles including a steampunk beetle and a huge steampunk cricket....

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  16. I loved those Spy v Spy girls. They would constantly be running around after each other.

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  17. *squee* That's my friend's daughter Jess that is the pretty Avatar Na'vi character. She was actually interviewed by actor Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) last year at DragonCon as he loved her cosplay then, as well as the local news and other entities.

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  18. All of these pics are amazing, but I especially love Peter Pan, (cute red-heads ftw) and the Ponies of the Apocalypse. Those costumes are epic. Thanks for sharing. :D

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  19. I'm dying over the House Founders!! Totally jaw dropping! Thanks for sharing all your faves...so much inspiration!!

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  20. Flexing Gaston almost mede me pee with glee. THE WORLD OF COSPLAY NEEDS MORE GASTON, DANG IT!For there's no man in town half as manly.

    Spy vs Spy was incredibly cool as well.

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  21. The guy dressed up as Snape usually shows up in a kilt at the Yule Ball. It's one of my favorite pictures and memories at D*Con!! So great to see that he's still there!!

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  22. True story about the Harry Potter look-alikes. My friend and I were in the Marriott bar on Thursday night, celebrity fishing. While she had her glasses off and was chatting with someone, I spotted John Rhys-Davis walking to the restaurant. I couldn't get her to spot him in time. So a little while later, we're still sitting there chatting with people when I spot the ginger guy in your photo. Now, keep in mind that I'm on uber-celebrity-alert AND I've never actually seen a single Harry Potter movie. So when I saw that dude, I thought it was the real actor and I tapped my friend on the knee and nodded towards the group he was in. When she didn't react and asked me who I'd seen I figured out that he was just a look-alike. I was too embarrassed to explain my mistake, so I just said, "Oh, nevermind, I thought I saw someone." Seriously, that dude was standing 10 feet away from us. There's no way I should have mis-identified him if I had really known what the actor looks like.

    Also, I saw those Spaceballs guys. Though I didn't stop to shoot them, they got a chuckle out of me.

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  23. I made that pink umbrella for Hagrid! :-D

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