To honor Mitch's request for portraits, I'm going to post this one before the shot I had planned for today. This is from Saturday and definitely one of my favorites from the whole event.

Her name is Alina, if I heard it correctly. I saw her a couple of times at the convention and finally decided to approach her for a picture, even though she clearly wasn't in cosplay. At first I thought it might be a little weird, but then I thought fuggit, threw on my macro lens, and tapped her on the shoulder.

And you know what? It turned out to be not so hard. I did a couple of other straight portraits later on, but none of them turned out quite as well.

By day two I was already noticeably less fazed by my surroundings, despite practically everyone at the convention being in some sort of outfit. There were considerably more photographers out too, many of whom were probably press. I was pleased to observe, however, that I was one of the few who didn't have a gut. Sweet.

As a final note let me direct your attention to Del's site. This is the girl from yesterday's shot, a charming soul from the brief corresponence I've had, and I must say that her artwork deserves what little publicity this humble photojournal can provide.

Updated: Otakon 2005 gallery