I went to the Sci-Fi World event in Malmö, Sweden this weekend with my 12 year old nephew, who is a “nerd-in-training” with a preference for Star Wars, the world of Tolkien and LEGO of all kinds. Of course I brought my camera with the hopes of capturing a few cosplayers there.
When we drove past the event space on the way to the parking garage our jaws pretty much dropped. The line went around the block and almost into the lobby of a nearby hotel! I’ve been at this event before, but that time it was nothing like this, and I had my concerns about how crowded it’d be inside if the line was this long still, almost two hours after the doors opened.
Once we made it inside my concerns sadly proved true. It was almost impossible to move around without bumping into other people, and photographing any of the cosplayers proved very difficult for me. I should have had a much wider lens on the camera than my 18 - 200 mm lens, that’s for sure. Whenever I had a cool looking costume in my viewfinder someone just “had to” stick their arm, their head, a hand or any other appendage available into the frame. Not out of malice or spite though, it was just so crowded that it was pretty much a fruitless effort to take any photos.
So after a few snaps I decided to do what I’ve done quite a bit of lately, to experience it “live” rather than from behind the camera, and then it felt much better. Also, I had my nephew to keep an eye on, so I focused on that instead. Now he’s a very well behaved boy, but I would NOT want to lose track of him in THAT big a crowd! So we stuck together as we explored the different booths.
In the end it was an enjoyable experience, especially for my nephew who picked up some Star Wars LEGO he hadn’t seen before and promptly began to build once I’d delivered him back to his home. He said he was happy with the event, so then I was too...even though I had my concerns about the very tight crowds (something I am NOT very fond of).