Thoughts on your region?

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  • What do you think of your region and other regions when it comes to cosplay photography and conventions?

    I'm in the Midwest (within 200 miles of Chicago region). Most of the convention/cosplay photography scene I've been a part of is with the states Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

    It's a pretty large geographic area, but still tightly knit. There is a decent sized group of convention/cosplay regulars that participate and know (of) each other. There are also some sub-sets such as the anime convention crowd and the American comic/super hero crowd. It's not too difficult to attend a convention and run into someone you know after a few years of being a regular attendee. People are overall pretty friendly I think and with the larger anime group in the northern Illinois region we do a lot of things outside of the conventions together. It's not too difficult for me to find people to take photos of outside of conventions, which I prefer doing more lately due to it being a better situation to improve myself.

    The main convention in this region being ACEN, c2e2, and then Youmacon. Though some like Colossalcon are becoming more well known.

    The only out of region conventions I've been to so far are 2011 Otakon in Maryland, 2013 Katsucon in Maryland, and a smaller one called Taiyoucon in Arizona (2013) because I was able to stay with family in the area. I'd like to see more in the west, though haven't made any plans for that. Katsucon was probably my favorite just for the hotel they use, which is amazing, though I don't like the time of year it is because of the cold. Overall, they seemed pretty similar on the surface to ones in my region. The funny thing is that I saw people from the Midwest at both Katsucon and Otakon when I went there.

  • Central and south Florida are pretty densely packed with cosplayers, conventions, and related stuff. During the busy season, it seems like there's something every weekend- Megacon, Metrocon, Tampa Bay Comic Con, Florida Supercon, Spooky Empire (and May-Hem), CONjure, Ocala Comic-Con, and then dozens upon dozens of smaller cons, and plenty of stuff I'm forgetting. There's also a very busy Steampunk scene, with plenty of cons and meetups of their own... I'm not as active in that as I could be.

    Like you, there are lots of regulars, and lots of overlap between genres.

    The only downside is that it's HOT - from March through about October, you can expect daytime temperatures in the 80's to 100's, and crushing humidity.

  • [QUOTE=nathancarter;4908920]The only downside is that it's HOT - from March through about October, you can expect daytime temperatures in the 80's to 100's, and crushing humidity.[/QUOTE]

    Yeah, that sounds like bad weather for cosplay photography.

    That's interesting to hear Florida is pretty packed with events. I don't hear much about that area in general.

    With us, the winters can be harsh, so being able to travel is sometimes hit or miss. We also have some high-ish summer temperatures with humidity, but not like that. Probably the best thing would be to travel to different regions to chase the best weather. heh