Friday | SPN VanCon 2013

Supernatural conventions in Vancouver are always a big deal. The show is filmed there, and during filming the actors and most of the crew live in beautiful British Columbia. Everywhere you turn there are locations used on the show. People who live in Vancouver will automatically understand when you say that’s the reason you are there. It’s like the Mecca of Supernatural.

Richard Speight Jr, the host of VanCon 2013, dubbed this particular con Porncouver Con. I’m not quite sure why – maybe it was to justify his “pornstache”. But, for the weekend, everyone was to be known by their porno names ( first pet + street you grew up on ) so for the purposes of this post, I am Mindy Subiaco.

I’ll divide the posts up to the the respective days, beginning with Friday.

Porncouver Con kicked off with a panel featuring Emily Perkins (Becky) and Rob Benedict (Chuck). I should have written everyone’s porn names down!

Emily Perkins and Rob Benedict

Emily and Rob were very very sweet and played off well against one another. I love photographing panels with more than one person, because you find so many opportunities for expression coming through – the warmth and depth of a person’s interaction with someone else says a lot about them. It’s no secret that Rob is absolutely one of my favourite people, so I really enjoyed their panel!

Rob Benedict demonstrating why it was called “Porncouver Con”

The next event I photographed on the Friday was the Karaoke Kings “Class of 2013” Party. It’s a tradition every Friday night of a Supernatural Creation Convention. Richard Speight Jr and Matt Cohen are the karaoke kings, and they host the party. It’s free for everyone, and you don’t even have to be attending the convention. People are encouraged to dress up to a theme that Richard and Matt decide on at the beginning of the year – this year it was high-school themed (apart from ChiCon in October, which is always a Halloween party).  Richard Speight Jr came dressed in gym teacher wardrobe worn by Jensen Ackles in an episode of Supernatural, while Matt Cohen came in a skirt. Naturally.

Richard Speight Jr as “Coach”

Cheerleader Matt Cohen

I’ve never really taken photos at the karaoke parties before. I usually just like to watch and sing along. But this year I decided I was going to, which meant fighting my way close to the stage. Which was difficult, and made for a couple of instances where my camera was knocked back into my face! But it was a lot of fun – everyone was getting really into it. These parties get bigger every year, with more and more guests stopping by to see what all the fuss is about.

Emily Perkins, Richard Speight Jr, Ty Olsson and Rob Benedict

And no, I didn’t sing :( One day though! One day I will be confident enough!

When I was editing the photos, I decided to go for quite a muted, almost matte black and white for the panels, while the karaoke is a grittier black and white. It’s subtle and hard to tell unless you’re looking at them side by side. I know I’m probably leaning too heavily on black and white lately but I can’t help it. I think it really lets the subjects shine through.

Matt Cohen and Rob Benedict

Next up: Saturday!

If you would like to see more of Friday’s pictures from VanCon, head over to the galleries here