Bring Back the Photo Station...

Urahara Taichou · Post by **Urahara Taichou** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:57 am

This was the first year that AB did without the photo station since 05 I believe, and in my opinion, it was somewhat of a disaster.

Smaller groups, did indeed have no problem setting up shoots. But the severe lack of space in the Hynes for the larger shoots (Bleach and Naruto particularly) only served to further congest traffic. There was a definite problem with "safe space" and photographers, bystanders, and those waiting in lines.

At one point, the Bleach shoot had to invade the Naruto shoot due to them encroaching into their time in a specified spot. This essentially brought traffic to a dead stop in front of Main Events, and made for a rather stressful experience for passersby, security, and many cosplayers. This is the sort of thing that's only going to get worse as AB grows, and further fills the Hynes.

Adara · Post by **Adara** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:32 pm

Seconded. I think it should be brought back, and find a nice place for it--the location it was at in 2006 had HORRIBLE lighting. It was all greenish and yucky. Somewhere on the upper levels near all of those windows would be really nice.

Linker83 · Post by **Linker83** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:36 pm

The old artists alley hallway was abandonded this year. Thats an awesome place for photo shoots if lighting were set up.

Just my two cents

H. Guderian · Post by **H. Guderian** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:45 pm

True, I never did understand why we didn't have anything on the 1st floor this time.

Urahara Taichou · Post by **Urahara Taichou** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:50 pm

As I understood it, AB didn't have rights to hold anything on the first floor, hence the focus on the 2nd and 3rd floor.

Gollum · Post by **Gollum** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:20 pm

They announced a couple times before the con that something else was going on in the spaces AB used to occupy on the first floor. I didn't see anything down there but I see no reason not to believe that.

LadyHawke · Post by **LadyHawke** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:29 pm

[quote=H. Guderian]True, I never did understand why we didn't have anything on the 1st floor this time.[/quote]

We did not pay to rent out the First Floor, so we were not allowed to utilize the space.

With the convention growing in size, and Anime Boston using more space in the Hynes for scheduled events (even if they are concentrated to the upper two floors) finding a location to dedicate to this is becoming more and more difficult.

I went through a special effort to compile a list of all fan organized photoshoots from Anime Boston's forums AND Cosplay.com and be sure that the list was posted at the Info Desk and Masquerade HQ. One of the large problems with this was the closing of the fountain area, which no one knew about until the convention. A lot of shoots were scheduled to take place here, leaving groups to scramble for last minute locations.

It did take me time out of my already busy schedule (you know-- planning the Masquerade and whatnot) to even get this scheduled printed and aligned, and I apologize if it was not appreciated, or did not meet your needs in the best way possible.

However, with the shifting demographic of the con (I am expeting 12-14k in attendence next year...) designating open space in the Hynes for this is becoming logistically difficult.

Urahara Taichou · Post by **Urahara Taichou** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:55 pm

Oh, I fully understand the problem logistically.

The other problem however, is without a designated area, we just have people plopping down in high traffic areas or fighting over spots. Said spots might not exactly be conducive to the convention since they weren't planned for logistically.

Given that next year's con is even earlier than this years, there's the possibility that even fewer shoots will be willing to leave the Hynes. Designating space for any sort of photoshoot, official or not, is becoming very tough logistically.