Spring Gardens

We're well into Spring, and Summer is even beginning to encroach Seattle.  The days are at long-last, long and mostly nice.  My family recently came up to visit from AZ and I met up with them for a couple days near Birch Bay.  Strangely enough much of the time was spent around various types of flowers, vegetation, and nature.  Tulip season was at its end but we visited the tulip farms anyway, specifically, the RoozenGaarde--which pays homage to the Netherlands (known for tulips among other things).

We also spent a day trip going to Canada, specifically Victoria, B.C. and saw some nice sights while driving around.  We stopped at a small lavender farm full of a wide range of random animals; bees, ducks, geese, peacocks, dogs, chickens, rabbits, and a pony.  A lot of these small farms appear to be fairly self-sufficient, producing all sorts of food-stocks and natural products.

A million bees

Goslings

Lavender farms

However, the primary purpose of the trip to Victoria was to visit the world renown Butchart Gardens.  I didn't really know what to expect from the gardens or really what they were exactly.  Were they some kind of national park or what?  I don't know.  Nevertheless, after visiting the gardens I discovered that the gardens were something of a life-long "project" created by the Butchart family following their success and prosperity within the cement industry in the early 1900s.  The whole story reminds me of the projects built by the great magnates and barons of the same era; such as the Vanderbilt's mansions, and William Randolph Hearst's amazing castle in California.  Butchart Gardens are essentially the remaining vestige of the family name, having become a national historic site in Canada and floral gallery to the general public.  

The gardens were pretty amazing and meticulously maintained--almost to the point of wastefulness.  The floral displays are constantly uprooted, rotated, and replaced as they begin to decay, such that fresh blossoms are eternally on display.  It's seemingly unnatural for such a perfect display to be in existence but the gardens are for show in a manner similar to the façade created by Disneyland in which a spotless and perfect impression is generated with the help of major hidden 'behind-the-scenes' undertaking.  The experience is worth it though, having never seen anything like the Butchart Gardens before--the grounds are something like a paradise.  It's just a shame that at the end of the day you have to return to your car and go home.  

Butchart gardens has both a Spring and Summer display.  It would be nice to go back and visit another time to see the difference in the Summer display.  

Sakuracon 2013

Evening dance party

The month began with one convention, with a few days in the middle, and concluded with another convention--that being Sakuracon.  This marks a one year anniversary since the last cosplay montage video I posted prior to everything in my life undergoing a huge change (moving to Germany, etc.).  A return to normality hasn't quite yet been achieved, but it's getting close.  This year, being without any video stabilization equipment, I decided to make an attempt at being "Mr. Photographer."  However, I don't really consider myself to be a photographer but instead just a GWC (guy with camera--minus the negative connotation).  This year I just wanted to relax and leisurely take-in the Sakuracon experience, without any obligations, snapping pictures here and there, while letting spontaneity take over.

Haruna Luna X Eir Aoi

Sakuracon is a pretty unique convention in that many Japanese artists, singers, and industry members attend every year.  Sakuracon seems to have the most non-English speaking attendees I've ever encountered at an Anime convention.  I actually found the Japanese performers Eir Aoi and Haruna Luna just nonchalantly walking around the convention site with translators in tow.  At the time I didn't know who they were but it was interesting to see them being treated as "normal" people (amid having some level of niche fame) in that they're weren't recognizable or really known by anyone on this side of the pond.

"Japonese" Hot dogs

The weather during the convention was perfect for another year in a row.  I ate a "Japanese" hot dog, which I half-expected to be a normal hot dog slathered in corn and mayonnaise but in reality came in a variety of Asian-themed varieties.  I ordered a "Matsuri," it was pretty good.

Lux

Lux X Garen

Lux X Garen

Asuna

I bumped into a few more "up-and-coming" local cosplayers and did a couple impromptu "mini-shoots."  The first is RikkuGrape from Portland, Oregon.

Ahri

Ahri

And the second is Caitastrophic Cosplay, also from Portland.

D3

K'

Ganondorf X Zelda

Much of my time at Sakuracon was spent just casually taking in the sights.  I've been experimenting with some interesting photo editing style--incorporating atmospheric surreal complementary color grading and different unique ways to frame images.  I believe in a minimalist's philosophy of "less-is-more" when it comes to design.  The surreal color blended photos make me a bit conflicted as they pretty much go against that philosophy.  However, by comparison, the unedited photos lack a certain level of desirable "punchiness" which is my justification for making these edits.  Regardless, it's all done to learn and tryout new design techniques and ideas.

All-in-all, this year's Sakuracon was good as usual.  I noticed a marked decrease in the number of Hatsune Miku cosplays (is her legacy finally beginning to fade?) that were in attendance.  This year by comparison, the convention could be described as SAOkuraCon (Sword Art Online being the dominant IP).  Here's to another year in the interim!  And the rest of my photos:

Garen

Tira

MikuDonalds

Slenderman on stilts

Sejuani, there's a guy in that fur suit oven.

Gundam

Yoko

Vanquish

Mokujin

Zant

Gettin' My Nerd On

This weekend a friend invited me to attend Emerald City Comic Con or ECCC, here in Seattle (the Emerald City), and while I'm not sure if I would've attended this event without an invitation, it was an enjoyable experience.  I only attended a portion of one day but I managed to stroll around the maze that is the Washington state convention center taking a couple photos and just hanging out.  A lot of pretty well-known TV / movie celebrities were in attendance like Patrick Stewart and Christopher Lloyd--however, taking pictures in the room where the celebrities were situated was strictly forbidden.  To clarify, you have to pay on average $30-40 up to $85 just to get either an autograph or your picture taken with a celeb--which in my opinion is insane, but I guess that's pretty much the main incentive for these individuals in taking the time to attend these events (time is money).

Asian gandalf

Samurai Boba Fett

League of Legends X Link [Zelda] (I think)

Sentinel

I guess these kinds of things are also what separate fans from regular enthusiasts.  However, I think the term fan has lost some of its meaning in English, being that there's been an introduction of the dichotomy of whether one is actually a fan or a true fan...  Fan stems from the Americanized shortening of the word fanatic [a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal, as in religion or politics.], people usually associate a "religious fanatic" as having pretty negative connotations however, somehow being a religious fan or perhaps a fan of religion is somehow more acceptably tame.  English is becoming more complicated than it should be and evolving too quickly.  I guess I don't really like using the term fan when describing myself or perhaps I'm just over-thinking things again.  Regardless, it's interesting to see people exhibit such passion for their preferred entertainment choices at comic con.  

Pawnstars spinoff (?)

There was a TV film crew present at ECCC, filming a pilot for something related to cosplay for the SyFy channel from what I understand.  I don't know too many details but it looked kind of like a cheesy reality TV style show format.  

Other notable events included getting to meet the "cosplay famous" Jessica Nigri, also hailing from Arizona, who is also apparently making a solid living as a promotional model--not a bad gig.

Finally, I managed to squeeze in a small "photo-shoot" with an up-and-coming local PNW cosplayer, Meepy-Gal.  Having lost pretty much all my filming equipment in my move back to the US from Germany, I made an attempt in trying out cosplay photography--it's something I'm really not used to doing as I feel I have a decent eye for motion but haven't really put much thought into suggesting aesthetically pleasing static poses.  Thankfully Meepy-Gal is a natural at posing so there's less needed from my end.  It's all done for fun though.