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raloriaIt's been many months since VanCon, so perhaps writing about it all now is more than a little crazy. However, it was my first convention experience and I can easily say one of the best weekends of my life. I still look back on those 6 days with great fondness and hopefully I'll be able to remember the important stuff. ;)
All photos in these post reports were taken by me (except for the top/header image of the city). Feel free to take, re-post & use for fanart, icons, etc., but please give me credit for the photos. Thanks!
If you saw my first posts after the con of my photos & downloaded/saved them, please note - the pics in these report posts have been fixed and re-sized larger than the ones offered before. There are also more, unseen photos here (generally). Yes, they are all watermarked. I did this so I can identify which photos are mine if they're used elsewhere online.
Day One (Thursday) - Arrival
Where to begin? The beginning, naturally.
Living some 150 miles south of Vancouver, in Washington state has it's privileges. It's an easy 3 hour drive by car and we (my mom & I) lucked out with perfect sunny weather. We arrived in downtown Vancouver, at the Best Western Downtown hotel, around 4 in the afternoon. Wonderful hotel, btw. I highly recommend it, not only for it's location (less than a mile - 5 blocks from the convention hotel), but for it's wonderful staff, clean rooms, and wonderful White Spot restaurant. We settled into our room, with a lovely view from the 7th floor of the Granville Bridge. I even went up to the hotel's observation deck on the top floor and took some great pics of the city, including the top of the convention hotel, the Sheraton Wall Centre. :)
All photos are 1920x1280 or 1024x1536.
Download of all 23 photos will be available in a later post.
Such a beautiful city. I quickly fell in love. :)
I could have gone to the early registration, but after a long day of driving I was tired, so mom & I ate our first dinner at the White Spot (turkey with all the fixings! Mmmmm). We went back up to the observation deck to see the lights of the city in the darkness and I wish now I'd taken the time to snap a few photos. Ah, well...next time. The rest of the evening was spent catching up online and watching the rerun of SPN on the TV. Woot! :D
Day Two (Friday) - Gabe & The Ladies
Friday had the later starting time of the 3 days, but I still had to go and register, so I wanted to allow enough time for that. We had a wonderful breakfast at the White Spot (mom & I still salivate when we talk about it). I packed my backpack with my Canon DSLR camera and various necessities (btw, I'm really going to try and pack lighter next time - oof!) and headed out of the hotel for my walk/hike to the convention hotel. It was around 5 blocks and even though I'd been walking for months to lose some weight and get myself ready for this, I still didn't quite know what to expect. The trek across on Drake was a little uphill, but once I got over to Burrard it was easier. Again, beautiful weather for a walk in the city.
I got to the Sheraton Wall Centre (OMG huge!) and could see St. Andrews church (seen in numerous TV shows & in SPN's "Houses Of The Holy") across the street. I knew I'd have plenty of time to get photos of it later, so I hurried inside the hotel. I recall getting on the elevator to get to the floor where registration was. That was the first/last time I'd use that blasted thing! Talk about slow! I think most people learned quickly to use the escalators instead. ;) Registration was on the next floor above the main one. Long lines had already formed, one on each side of the big tables they had set up. I took the line on the left, by the floor to ceiling windows. You could see the church from there, so it was a nice spot to stand and wait. I can't say how long I waited, but it was a while even though the line did keep moving for the most part. Once up at the table, I got my Gold Ticket, my Gold bracelet, my lanyard (everyone was putting their photo-ops & autograph tickets in there and I quickly followed suit), and my free gift (a little Sam & Dean "Wall" Shooter/glass). I was putting it in my backpack when I met![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sinnerforhire and her friend. It was great to meet someone on my flist for the first time! The two of them quickly showed me the way to the theater aka The Grand Ballroom, down 2 floors. Oh, my the trips I would end up making on those escalators!
Just to layout where everything was:
* Registration, ticket sellers, Vendor's Room, the Sunday Breakfast room, & the Photo-Ops room were all on the 3rd floor, one level up from the main hotel lobby.
* The theater/Grand Ballroom was on the basement level, two floors down from the main hotel lobby.
We all gathered outside the doors of the theater, waiting to be let in. You could feel all the anxious anticipation in the lobby area. After a little while, Valerie, Creation's sort of coordinator of the con, let us inside, checking our bracelets for Gold or Silver ticket holders. I found my seat, H33, and felt lucky that it was not only in the right/center section where I had guessed it would be, but also on the aisle. Nice! There wasn't anyone around me for a while, as I sat and people watched as folks came in. The place did fill up fast, as I believe there wasn't much time before the first panel with Gabriel Tigerman at 1:20. I was soon joined by my "seat buddies", Kyla and Michelle, cousins from Ottawa, Canada. Talk about being blessed! These two gals made my weekend. I couldn't have asked for better people to share in this experience (it was Michelle's first con, too). Btw, the other gals seated next to and in front of us were pretty darned awesome, too!
Gabriel Tigerman
I wish there were more videos and accounts of his panel because it's really hard for me to remember what all he talked about. And that's not just because it's so many months afterwards. Honestly, with this being my first con ever, I was like a sponge simply trying to soak everything in. Half the time I didn't know what would happen next or what the situation would be like (though I'd done some research about it online). It's tough to remember everything because it's one fabulous moment after another. My other reason is because I was seeing most of the panels through the viewfinder of my camera. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to be able to document through photos, but I had to keep reminding myself to put down the camera every once in a while and actually listen to what the guests were saying. It's very easy to get caught up in taking photos. It was especially tough the first and second days because I was still figuring out what settings were best for the lighting on the stage.
Gabe was delightful, of course. I recall him pointing out his red shoes that he got in London and how sappy he and his wife get when they're busy writing. Loved him showing a picture of his dog on his phone, too, and acting out how his wife tries to drive and admire her wedding ring at the same time! Oh, and he talked about being on the SPN set and most often hearing a "Dammit Jared!" coming from one of the trailers. Ah, the boys and their pranks. Hee! I also seem to recall him talking about working with some puppets (or maybe it was The Muppets?) and of something happening offstage and all the puppet heads turning in reaction to it and of it being a little weird and creepy. Anyway, it was hilarious!
All photos are 2560x1707. Ten samples below.
Download of all 38 photos: VanCon09 Gabriel Tigerman LG Photos by Raloria.zip (38mb) @ MediaFire
After Gabe's panel I bought a photo-op ticket with Alona, Julie, & Traci aka The Ladies Of Supernatural. I wish now I had bought one for Gabe, but his photo-ops were right after his panel and I was trying to conserve on spending. That lessened as the weekend went on. ;) I went back downstairs to the theater to watch the first SPN/Sci-Fi Collectible auction. Don't really know what the purpose was of selling non-SPN items, but people bought them anyway. There were also fan-made music videos that were shown throughout the weekend. Most of them were really very good.
The Ladies Of Supernatural: Alona Tal, Julie McNiven, and Traci Dinwiddie
These gals! Such classy and funny ladies. It was fun seeing how much they played off each other and joked around. All of them were beautiful, but Traci with her purple eye shadow and black outfit was simply stunning.
Okay, what do I remember? Again, I wish there were more accounts and videos online to help me with this. One part that does stand out (maybe because there is a video of it) was Julie talking about the sex scene in "Heaven And Hell". Yes, it was great because it was with Jensen....and he's hot! LOL But also because he made sure she felt safe and comfortable which is important for any actor. Loved her and Alona re-enacting the hand on the window moment, too! Turns out that was filmed the day before the sex scene and she was fully clothed. The other big stand-out would probably be the infamous life raft question which was given to Alona. I think her choices for a companion were Jared (too big she said), Sam Ferris, or Misha (who would be great because he builds houses, as Julie pointed out). Alona picked Sam, because she's a tough gal...and her mother. Awww. Traci talked about having to wear the special contact lenses to play Pamela when she was blind. She really couldn't see anything and the other actors would have to grab and swivel her hips to point her in the right direction as she walked.
All photos are 2560x1707 or 1584x2376. Ten samples below.
Download of all 108 photos:
VanCon09 SPN Ladies LG Photos by Raloria - Set A.zip (56mb) @ MediaFire
VanCon09 SPN Ladies LG Photos by Raloria - Set B.zip (61mb) @ MediaFire
Next was the photo-op with the three ladies and I'm so glad I had this as my first one ever. It's always a little nerve-wracking when you walk into that room and before you know it, it's your turn! Gah! The pic turned out great though. You can read all about it and see the pic here.
By this time it was late afternoon/early evening and it was time for autographs. One thing I learned that first day was how long it can take for the autograph sessions. We're talking hours if you're anywhere besides the first few rows. Valerie, the coordinator, would call out half rows and you'd go to the left wall of the theater and wait in line. Seeing as I was in row H, it took at least 2 to 3 hours before it was called. The good part is, you could use this time to go eat, have a bathroom break, or in my case, chat with my seat buddies or go around the room and search out some of my LJ pals. One person who was seated nearby (across the aisle and up a couple of rows) waserinrua. I was so happy to finally meet her and we continually ran into each other over the weekend as well as chatting a bit between events. I also met supernaturallvr that first day. I swear, half the fun that weekend was finally meeting these gals that I only knew through comments & posts on LJ.
This autograph session was with Aldis Hodge (who was doing his the first day despite his panel being on Day 2), Alona Tal, and Gabriel Tigerman. They were all in a curtained off area to the left side of the stage. Meanwhile, Julie McNiven and Traci Dinwiddie did their autographing from a table set up out front and to the right side of the stage. There were strict orders to not photograph them except from a discrete distance and with no flash. I only had tickets for Aldis, Alona, and Gabe and you can see and read about those autographs here.
I don't recall when things finished up for the night, but I do know there was some concern over finishing up the autographs in time for Steve Carlson's concert at 10. Even though I could've attended with my Gold Ticket, it was late and I wanted to get back to my hotel in time to have supper. The White Spot closed at 10 nightly. So I said goodnight to my new found friends and hiked back. Mom & I ate, I shared as much of the day's events as possible, spent some time online (yay for free WiFi!), and tried to rest up for Day 2.
Hope you enjoyed this look back at the first 2 days of my VanCon weekend!
For all my VanCon 09 posts use my VanCon 09 Tag
All photos in these post reports were taken by me (except for the top/header image of the city). Feel free to take, re-post & use for fanart, icons, etc., but please give me credit for the photos. Thanks!
If you saw my first posts after the con of my photos & downloaded/saved them, please note - the pics in these report posts have been fixed and re-sized larger than the ones offered before. There are also more, unseen photos here (generally). Yes, they are all watermarked. I did this so I can identify which photos are mine if they're used elsewhere online.
Day One (Thursday) - Arrival
Where to begin? The beginning, naturally.
Living some 150 miles south of Vancouver, in Washington state has it's privileges. It's an easy 3 hour drive by car and we (my mom & I) lucked out with perfect sunny weather. We arrived in downtown Vancouver, at the Best Western Downtown hotel, around 4 in the afternoon. Wonderful hotel, btw. I highly recommend it, not only for it's location (less than a mile - 5 blocks from the convention hotel), but for it's wonderful staff, clean rooms, and wonderful White Spot restaurant. We settled into our room, with a lovely view from the 7th floor of the Granville Bridge. I even went up to the hotel's observation deck on the top floor and took some great pics of the city, including the top of the convention hotel, the Sheraton Wall Centre. :)
All photos are 1920x1280 or 1024x1536.
Download of all 23 photos will be available in a later post.
Such a beautiful city. I quickly fell in love. :)
I could have gone to the early registration, but after a long day of driving I was tired, so mom & I ate our first dinner at the White Spot (turkey with all the fixings! Mmmmm). We went back up to the observation deck to see the lights of the city in the darkness and I wish now I'd taken the time to snap a few photos. Ah, well...next time. The rest of the evening was spent catching up online and watching the rerun of SPN on the TV. Woot! :D
Day Two (Friday) - Gabe & The Ladies
Friday had the later starting time of the 3 days, but I still had to go and register, so I wanted to allow enough time for that. We had a wonderful breakfast at the White Spot (mom & I still salivate when we talk about it). I packed my backpack with my Canon DSLR camera and various necessities (btw, I'm really going to try and pack lighter next time - oof!) and headed out of the hotel for my walk/hike to the convention hotel. It was around 5 blocks and even though I'd been walking for months to lose some weight and get myself ready for this, I still didn't quite know what to expect. The trek across on Drake was a little uphill, but once I got over to Burrard it was easier. Again, beautiful weather for a walk in the city.
I got to the Sheraton Wall Centre (OMG huge!) and could see St. Andrews church (seen in numerous TV shows & in SPN's "Houses Of The Holy") across the street. I knew I'd have plenty of time to get photos of it later, so I hurried inside the hotel. I recall getting on the elevator to get to the floor where registration was. That was the first/last time I'd use that blasted thing! Talk about slow! I think most people learned quickly to use the escalators instead. ;) Registration was on the next floor above the main one. Long lines had already formed, one on each side of the big tables they had set up. I took the line on the left, by the floor to ceiling windows. You could see the church from there, so it was a nice spot to stand and wait. I can't say how long I waited, but it was a while even though the line did keep moving for the most part. Once up at the table, I got my Gold Ticket, my Gold bracelet, my lanyard (everyone was putting their photo-ops & autograph tickets in there and I quickly followed suit), and my free gift (a little Sam & Dean "Wall" Shooter/glass). I was putting it in my backpack when I met
sinnerforhire and her friend. It was great to meet someone on my flist for the first time! The two of them quickly showed me the way to the theater aka The Grand Ballroom, down 2 floors. Oh, my the trips I would end up making on those escalators!Just to layout where everything was:
* Registration, ticket sellers, Vendor's Room, the Sunday Breakfast room, & the Photo-Ops room were all on the 3rd floor, one level up from the main hotel lobby.
* The theater/Grand Ballroom was on the basement level, two floors down from the main hotel lobby.
We all gathered outside the doors of the theater, waiting to be let in. You could feel all the anxious anticipation in the lobby area. After a little while, Valerie, Creation's sort of coordinator of the con, let us inside, checking our bracelets for Gold or Silver ticket holders. I found my seat, H33, and felt lucky that it was not only in the right/center section where I had guessed it would be, but also on the aisle. Nice! There wasn't anyone around me for a while, as I sat and people watched as folks came in. The place did fill up fast, as I believe there wasn't much time before the first panel with Gabriel Tigerman at 1:20. I was soon joined by my "seat buddies", Kyla and Michelle, cousins from Ottawa, Canada. Talk about being blessed! These two gals made my weekend. I couldn't have asked for better people to share in this experience (it was Michelle's first con, too). Btw, the other gals seated next to and in front of us were pretty darned awesome, too!
Gabriel Tigerman
I wish there were more videos and accounts of his panel because it's really hard for me to remember what all he talked about. And that's not just because it's so many months afterwards. Honestly, with this being my first con ever, I was like a sponge simply trying to soak everything in. Half the time I didn't know what would happen next or what the situation would be like (though I'd done some research about it online). It's tough to remember everything because it's one fabulous moment after another. My other reason is because I was seeing most of the panels through the viewfinder of my camera. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to be able to document through photos, but I had to keep reminding myself to put down the camera every once in a while and actually listen to what the guests were saying. It's very easy to get caught up in taking photos. It was especially tough the first and second days because I was still figuring out what settings were best for the lighting on the stage.
Gabe was delightful, of course. I recall him pointing out his red shoes that he got in London and how sappy he and his wife get when they're busy writing. Loved him showing a picture of his dog on his phone, too, and acting out how his wife tries to drive and admire her wedding ring at the same time! Oh, and he talked about being on the SPN set and most often hearing a "Dammit Jared!" coming from one of the trailers. Ah, the boys and their pranks. Hee! I also seem to recall him talking about working with some puppets (or maybe it was The Muppets?) and of something happening offstage and all the puppet heads turning in reaction to it and of it being a little weird and creepy. Anyway, it was hilarious!
All photos are 2560x1707. Ten samples below.
Download of all 38 photos: VanCon09 Gabriel Tigerman LG Photos by Raloria.zip (38mb) @ MediaFire
After Gabe's panel I bought a photo-op ticket with Alona, Julie, & Traci aka The Ladies Of Supernatural. I wish now I had bought one for Gabe, but his photo-ops were right after his panel and I was trying to conserve on spending. That lessened as the weekend went on. ;) I went back downstairs to the theater to watch the first SPN/Sci-Fi Collectible auction. Don't really know what the purpose was of selling non-SPN items, but people bought them anyway. There were also fan-made music videos that were shown throughout the weekend. Most of them were really very good.
The Ladies Of Supernatural: Alona Tal, Julie McNiven, and Traci Dinwiddie
These gals! Such classy and funny ladies. It was fun seeing how much they played off each other and joked around. All of them were beautiful, but Traci with her purple eye shadow and black outfit was simply stunning.
Okay, what do I remember? Again, I wish there were more accounts and videos online to help me with this. One part that does stand out (maybe because there is a video of it) was Julie talking about the sex scene in "Heaven And Hell". Yes, it was great because it was with Jensen....and he's hot! LOL But also because he made sure she felt safe and comfortable which is important for any actor. Loved her and Alona re-enacting the hand on the window moment, too! Turns out that was filmed the day before the sex scene and she was fully clothed. The other big stand-out would probably be the infamous life raft question which was given to Alona. I think her choices for a companion were Jared (too big she said), Sam Ferris, or Misha (who would be great because he builds houses, as Julie pointed out). Alona picked Sam, because she's a tough gal...and her mother. Awww. Traci talked about having to wear the special contact lenses to play Pamela when she was blind. She really couldn't see anything and the other actors would have to grab and swivel her hips to point her in the right direction as she walked.
All photos are 2560x1707 or 1584x2376. Ten samples below.
Download of all 108 photos:
VanCon09 SPN Ladies LG Photos by Raloria - Set A.zip (56mb) @ MediaFire
VanCon09 SPN Ladies LG Photos by Raloria - Set B.zip (61mb) @ MediaFire
Next was the photo-op with the three ladies and I'm so glad I had this as my first one ever. It's always a little nerve-wracking when you walk into that room and before you know it, it's your turn! Gah! The pic turned out great though. You can read all about it and see the pic here.
By this time it was late afternoon/early evening and it was time for autographs. One thing I learned that first day was how long it can take for the autograph sessions. We're talking hours if you're anywhere besides the first few rows. Valerie, the coordinator, would call out half rows and you'd go to the left wall of the theater and wait in line. Seeing as I was in row H, it took at least 2 to 3 hours before it was called. The good part is, you could use this time to go eat, have a bathroom break, or in my case, chat with my seat buddies or go around the room and search out some of my LJ pals. One person who was seated nearby (across the aisle and up a couple of rows) was
erinrua. I was so happy to finally meet her and we continually ran into each other over the weekend as well as chatting a bit between events. I also met supernaturallvr that first day. I swear, half the fun that weekend was finally meeting these gals that I only knew through comments & posts on LJ.This autograph session was with Aldis Hodge (who was doing his the first day despite his panel being on Day 2), Alona Tal, and Gabriel Tigerman. They were all in a curtained off area to the left side of the stage. Meanwhile, Julie McNiven and Traci Dinwiddie did their autographing from a table set up out front and to the right side of the stage. There were strict orders to not photograph them except from a discrete distance and with no flash. I only had tickets for Aldis, Alona, and Gabe and you can see and read about those autographs here.
I don't recall when things finished up for the night, but I do know there was some concern over finishing up the autographs in time for Steve Carlson's concert at 10. Even though I could've attended with my Gold Ticket, it was late and I wanted to get back to my hotel in time to have supper. The White Spot closed at 10 nightly. So I said goodnight to my new found friends and hiked back. Mom & I ate, I shared as much of the day's events as possible, spent some time online (yay for free WiFi!), and tried to rest up for Day 2.
Hope you enjoyed this look back at the first 2 days of my VanCon weekend!
For all my VanCon 09 posts use my VanCon 09 Tag
