Thank you to Tiffany Tran of NerdBot Media for inviting me to the FIRST EVER NERDBOT CON. This was an all things NERDY convention that took place in the Pasadena Convention Center on Saturday September 24th 2016. The convention had a unique vibe and was possibly one of my favorite events of the year. You had two floors with the upper floor holding the majority of panel events along with two photography booths for cosplayer photographs. I liked the photography studio ideas but I think if they would have done a nerdy photobooth complete with props and a print station so fans could have taken home a memento it would have been great too. The lower floor has the different halls including the expo, artists alley, and cosplayer hideout. They also had a main stage going with a live DJ throughout the event. I think the fact that the main stage was positioned so perfectly in the center of the action that it really worked. Now the one thing this convention had that so many conventions lack is this show had an after party. In this case everyone headed over to a nearby Dave and Busters for some gaming and grub. I skipped the after party and instead put on my father hat and watched my son play some baseball.
Now some comments on the Pasadena Convention Center. First off the buildings in the area are all the same making it difficult to change up the backgrounds. There was also limited times that the light worked in a lot of the areas but being that I arrived early I scouted and walked around the entire venue to see what I could find. I did find some spots to make some great photos as you will see below. I heard some of the cosplay photography community complaining on the lack of backgrounds etc but I think this is just because we didn’t know the area well. Much like the arena side of the Long Beach Convention Center it has less places to shoot but this year at LBCC we all worked and found more areas to shoot at. I think next year if the convention is in the same place we will find more spots to shoot and as photographers we should take this as a challenge to step up our game. Thanks again to the NerdBot Convention team for putting on a fun fantastic event. My only real complaint is that I didn’t get to use this background I photographed above as I was leaving.
