After 3 days of Comic-Con and one day grueling photo-shoot assisting, I’m ready to stop the wagon train and set up camp here. Too bad we only made it as far as Nevada. Wait, what?

Friday Comic Con: Extended Watchmen trailer, lots of walking around, a modest amount of pictures, met Dave for a bit, tried to see the Mystery Science Theater panel – missed it. Crazy amounts of people to the point of claustrophobia. Spent about 10 hours at the con. Got back to our hotel, slept.

Saturday Comic-Con: AJB and JCS pissed me off early enough that I let them leave without me. Took a cab to the Con around 11:30pm, missed the Heroes panel. Sad about that. Walked about by myself, had lunch, let lots of cool people, took lots of pictures. Met the Steampunk Ghostbusters, bought two Death Note DVD’s – one might not work at home. Met up with AJB for dinner. Was cranky and tired, went home by myself and watched “The Other Boleyn Girl” (which wasn’t that bad) and knocked out.

Sunday Comic-Con: We all took our time getting ready, had a late breakfast at the hotel, and got to the Con around 2:30pm. Went our separate ways, I walked around, took more pictures. Stopped by for some candids of Frakes, Sirtis, and Burton. Frakes looked up at me and smiled. I was overcome with school girl delight and said to him, “God, you’re adorable“. He grinned and thanked me. LOL. I love him. The Con ended and we, along with the thousands of remaining geeks, went home. The drive home from San Diego was long. Took about 4 hours. Ate gross Panda Express food in Irvine, came home, caught up on some work, went to sleep.

And that’s about the gist of it. I would have liked to blog more when I was there, but seeing as each day ranged from 5-12 hours, by the time we got back to our dingy hotel, there was no way. There was a general consensus that this year, Comic Con became less about comics and more about movies. There were panels about things non-comic book related and a whole slew of tourists and non-geeks. The convention center was packed to the gills; it was pretty bad. While many things were the same, there was still this overwhelming feeling that Comic-Con was no longer for the die-hards. I talked to random people and it seems I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Next year Comic-Con will be 40 years old. I guess it’s about time the rest of the world found it. You can’t hide something that awesome for too long. Still, it’s sad when something unique gets assimilated into the mainstream.

After all that, I’d taken a job with a local photographer to help assist on his photo-shoot. It’s good petty cash and nice to see how other photographers work. I knew the shoot was taking place at the beach, I just didn’t know how bad it would be. We got to Malibu around 4:00pm. I lugged a 25 pound battery pack down three stories of beach steps and a winding path. I spent most of the shoot knee deep in rotten sea water, the tide ebbing and flowing, some times coming out of no-where. I got wet, I got covered in sand. My Docs got soaked and were weighing me down, so I took them off. Barefoot in the sand and rocks, at one point, the tide came in and dragged big rocks up and down the shore, but also slamming into my ankles. At first I thought the big black marks on my ankles were dirt, but no, they’re bruises. I followed the photographer around carrying the battery pack in an awkward tote bag, saving it from certain death when the tide came in.

WHOA! 5.8 EARTHQUAKE IN CHINO HILLS!!! Felt like two big booms, as if the house was being lifted up by giant hands and moved. Scared the hell out of me. I was on the phone with mom at the time. The cats freaked out, ran about the house and are still missing in action. Luckily, nothing fell off the shelves or moved very much. This old house sure can take a beating. I figure, it’s stood up through the last 100 years of earthquakes and natural disasters…it must be made pretty well.

So anyways, the shoot yesterday was pretty grueling. I’ve got bruises on my ankles, my shoulders are sore, and I’m pretty tired. I can’t figure out if I’m just getting old or if yesterday was unusually difficult. I’ll go with the latter. I should also point out that one of the male models insinuated that I was fat. He made some comment that he and the girl model got cold faster because they didn’t have any body fat. What ev. How dare he. If I’m considered fat, there is something really wrong with the world. Anyway.

I did learn a few tricks, but mostly I learned that the major difference between me and the high ranking photographers is finances.