First off, I got the shorter of my two videos for Megaplex done. It's about 3 and a half minutes long (A truncated 2 min 55 second version may be aired on Pawpets next Sun...) but this is the full video and at 720p for those who want to take a look :) Link to full video here

I very much enjoyed the convention, and it was a needed break from real life since that has been going in a lot of different directions (some good, some bad, some stagnant like my Work situation) and it was nice getting out for a few days to refresh myself.

I concentrated on Video this con vs Photography. It was the first convention that my big video camera has made it to and it did draw a lot of attention. I got a lot of people who made comments about liking the camera, got to talk shop with a few other hobby level videographers, and the most common comment I got was "Wow that's a big camera. I bet it gets (as good as or better) quality then BBF!"

Well no... not exactly. Its a large form factor video camera because I wanted the stability that comes with a shoulder mount camera. It's in the Prosumer/ Hobbiest line of video equipment which puts it well above those little "soda can" type camcorders that you can get at Best Buy, but below the Professional level gear for sure. It crosses the line where it can operate in full manual mode and has a lot of different ways to change settings. In truth- I am still getting used to the camera and videography in general. I am still a newcomer to the game, I just spent some money to have a decent, but hardly "pro" level camera to learn on :)

I had a handful of personal business cards on me. I ended up handing most of them out- which at past conventions I've never had the chance to hand out any. Outside of BBF and his crew I was the only other person toting around a shoulder mount video camera at Megaplex this year. A few people (none of them staff; most were non-convention attendees who made this comment) Thought I was Press XD

In the end, I shot 4 32gb sdhc cards full of video plus the footage shot from my waterproof action camera. In all I have about 105 gb worth of 1080p video which comes out to about 5-7 hours or so worth of raw video in the native recording factor of both cameras. O.o

Granted, about half of that is recorded shows. I have the Pawpets live/closing cermonies recorded in full as well as Fox Amore's show (got permission to record that) and part/most of the Fursuit dance competition. I was sitting on the floor with the other videographers for that and my legs killed me afterwards.

I have another journal to do later with my thoughts on Videography within the fandom. I'm still fairly green when it comes to doing video work... but I've allready found some interesting observations which really should be its own Journal or I'll get stuck on a 3 page long Tangent D:

I need to go through my still photography from the con yet, but I did far far less of it. All I had with is my Olympus PEN which has become my standard con photography camera at this point because of its size. The exception will be  furrymigration where I'll be going back to the Canon because well, I'm the lead Staff Photographer for that con....

Anyways... other then the Videography the con went well. When I wasn't roaming around taking video I was staying pretty close to the locals I was rooming with, but this tends to be how it is first year at any con for me unless I have people I specifically intend on meeting at the con itself. I had a few which I was going to meet at the con, but they bailed at the last minute. I also had another friend in the Orlando area that I did get to meet up with on Thursday after I got the rental car (Which was a ClusterF* - but since the rest of the trip was a blast I am not going to dwell on it...).

I didn't sleep well on Thursday night due to not having closed the valve tight enough on the airmatress, being cold, and general anxiety for the upcoming con; and I still had the rental car. So I took an hour road trip East to Cape Caneveral and spent the first half of the day on a beach on the Atlantic ocean and then visiting the Kennedy Space Center museum and taking photos.

I got to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis in the museum, so I can knock that off my bucket list. If I am able to go back to this con next year, I hope to and intend on taking an extra day or two before the con to do some touristy stuff again.

TLDR: I had a blast, took a lot of video (I'll be working on a longer 10-30 min Full Con memories video), got a little bit or reckonition and notice, got to see the Ocean and the Space Shuttle and otherwise had a blast! By all means if I can go next year, I will return!

And now I return to my regularly scheduled RL here in Minnesota...