UltraCon - 2014

UltraCon of South Florida was my fourth and last comic convention for the year. Parking was steep at $12.00 and the price at the door was $25.00. That said,  this was by far my favorite event. Not too small. Not so overwhelming large I suffocated in a pool of my own anxiety. (Breathe....) This event was perfect - for me at least. I had a few favorites among the hundreds of cosplayers I met these last few months and it seemed they all showed up for this event.

I had only planned to go one day but my friends from the Florida Ren Fest decided to beam in and time travel on two separate days. Kristal and her Star Trek crew on Saturday.

The Andorian Kristal and her crew

The South Florida Pirates in full Steam Punk finery on Sunday.

South Florida Pirates and Freya

With my friend and guide Scarlett Rose Cosplay out of town, I had to make some new friends while I waited for my old ones to show up - or wind up sitting in a corner. I was at this event 17 hours non stop over two days. That is a lot of posing, snapping, and talking. My annual limit I think all in one weekend. I did not realize how many new connections I had made in the cosplay world over these many months.

My original goal for attending events such as this was to fill my Flickr account with brightly colored and hopefully popular photos as well as follow my favorite rennies to the other events they attend after Ren Fest season. I have never played video games, read a comic book, role played, cosplayed, or even knew what a Pokemon was. Rather than being treated like a complete noob, everyone - and I do mean everyone - put out the effort to make me feel welcome, explain their costumes, talk about their books, toys, art, and invite me to future events. Absolutely everyone was kind enough to suffer through the constant flash of my camera and silly questions. That included the owner of the show Irving Santiago who was always available both days. Safe to say he had the most fun of anyone there.

Irving Santiago with R2D2

One of the things that most caught me off guard was not one but two well known cosplayers asked me to do a special photo shoot for them. I met both T.C. Dangerous and Aquaman at other shows and they know my work. So that was part of the surprise, but I think I did pretty well.

To see the results [click here] and [click here].

For the full set of photos from the event [click here]


I never really intended to be so caught up with the people at these events but it's impossible not to be. I heard a lot of opinions on this show from the vendors and attendees both positive and negative. After experiencing all the others, if I go to one again, it will be UltraCon. This event I'm sure will be bigger and better next year but with the same vibe that I enjoyed so much.

T. C. Dangerous

Rick Strafford - Aquaman