Yesterday Whirl and I attended C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. We met up with our friends Farmboy and Princess. The three-day convention covers comic books, movies, television, toys, anime and video games. The show floor plays hosts to hundreds of exhibitors if you’re looking to score some interesting loot. There are panel discussions and autograph sessions that allow fans access to artists, actors and writers. And the ever-popular sneak-peek film and television show screenings. This was the second year for C2E2. Last year was fairly lightly attended, but well-received.

I wasn’t particularly interested in spending three days at the convention, but I thought it would be a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. And besides, I’ve always wanted to pull out the camera and see what kinds of cosplay portraits I could make.

We attended two panel discussions. The first was “The Walking Dead Q&A” with Jon Bernthal (“Shane”) and Laurie Holden (“Andrea”). This was very funny, with Bernthal running away with the conversation on more than one occasion. Farmboy remarked a couple of times about Bernthal’s apparent southern California origins. While I have no idea whether that’s true or not, I can attest to the fact that his choices of slang and colloquial idioms stagnated somewhere around 1989. Everything was “rad” and he was “totally digging” working with Frank Darabont. The highlight of the panel came about two minutes after all the press photographers filed out and Bernthal found himself trapped in a nearly three-minute long string of unintentional double-entendres. Each more embarrassing than the last.

The second panel was the “True Blood Q&A” with Brit Morgan (“Debbie Pelt”), Kristin Bauer (“Pam”), and Sam Trammell (“Sam Merlotte”). While not quite as entertaining as the Walking Dead panel a few hours earlier, it did provide some moments of levity and one crucial insight into acting from Morgan. While answering a question about contending with the various supernatural stressors placed upon the characters they portrayed, Morgan talked about becoming a sort of legal advocate on the set, with their character as their client and the director as the judge. The two women also agreed that Alexander Skarsgård is even more beautiful in person than he is on-screen. Trammell was conspicuously — and humorously — mute with his opinion on that question.

We walked the floor between the panels and took in the environment. There was a lot to see and photography was not only permitted, but actively encouraged. Aside from the challenges of making a frame with a halfway acceptable background, it was an exceedingly target-rich environment. The skill and creativity that went into a number of the costumes impressed the hell out of me more than once. I’ve published the full set of photos, but a few of my favorites include:

• Na’vi
• Deadpool
• Kingpin
• Princess Zelda
• Scarecrow

The Chiditarod Urban Iditarod, a shopping cart race and mobile food drive, is an idea stolen from some folks in New York (who in turn stole it from some people in San Francisco).

Inspired in part by the Alaskan Iditarod dog sled race, an urban iditarod replaces dogs and sleds with shopping carts and costumed heroes.

2011 was the sixth annual running of the race in Chicago and this year the start of the race coincided with the start of the Alaskan Iditarod race. The weather in the morning was cool with some light snow flurries and continued to deteriorate over the next several hours. Winds kicked up. Snow turned heavier and icy. Whirl and I dressed for the weather, packed up the cameras and spent the afternoon running alongside the racers on the streets of East Village, Wicker Park and Ukranian Village shooting the race. Whirl reprised her standout role as photo shoot producer, providing operational support and keen insight into composition and dramatic moments worth capturing.

She also was our navigator, which was no easy task. There were a total of twelve checkpoints. Each team had to complete a circuit of five of these checkpoints. So two given teams would not necessarily follow the same route, in fact no specific route is prescribed. Teams must appear the the assigned checkpoints in the appropriate order. That made it somewhat challenging to capture the entire scope of the race with a single camera. We tried!

The race did not disappoint. There were over 170 teams and the mass start was truly something to behold as racers streamed down the street and out into the surrounding neighborhoods to their respective checkpoints. We ran into one of Whirl’s classmates who had worked on one of the most incredible entries of the race, the immense ten-man Titanic entry. Their entry actually comprised two teams of five racers each. One team was the bow of the doomed oceanliner, one team was the stern. Of course the ship was appropriatedly broken across the beam.

We saw two teams of Muppets, three teams of Black Swans, Angry Birds, Gnomes, an Oregon Trail team — complete with a boombox broadcasting the appropriate 8-bit MIDI soundtrack.

The Chiditarod is not just fun and games however. It is a food drive that collects thousands of pounds of food for the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation every year. Additionally, checkpoint hosts donate signification portions of their proceeds from the day’s events to charity. All of the teams, carts, costumes and creativity are donated — put together out of spare time, ingenuity and willingness to do something good for other people.

A week ago all the residents in Printer’s Row recieved notice of an extensive helicopter lift operation taking place in the neighborhood. Four new pieces of HVAC equipment were to be lifted to the roofs of the Printer’s Square towers on Federal Street and the old equipment lifted down and hauled away. While the rest of Chicago enjoyed an extra hour of sleep due to the end of daylight saving time, Printer’s Row had street closures and low-flying aircraft as our makeshift alarm clock.

I grabbed the camera and headed out into the chill morning to get some photographs. I’ve seen several helicopter lifts, but none ever this close. Some of the most memorable were the various lifts to place new antennas on the top of the Sears Tower several years back. As you might imagine, the lift attracted quite a bit of attention, and there were a number of amateur photographers out taking pictures — and then quite a few more people obliviously trying to make their way down Dearborn to get a cup of coffee. Chicago police were vigilant in keeping sleepy pedestrians out of harm’s way. The helicopter was flying as low as 100 feet above the street right next to the 22-story Transportation Building. Exciting stuff.

Unfortunately, the lift ended a little over halfway through the projected process. The final two pieces turned out to be too heavy for the helicopter and the task was cut short. Midwest Helicopter succeeded in raising two of the four HVAC pieces to the roof and lowering three of the old pieces down to the awaiting flatbed trucks.

Last year I had the opportunity to shoot the Windy City Rollers All-Star squad shortly before they headed to the Declaration of Derby, the WFTDA National tournament in Philadelphia. And as much as I wanted to make some frames that would make Strazz weep with envy, I didn’t quite manage that. But I’m not one to just give up with one minor setback. They knock you down, you get right back up and try again. (Just so that it is said, I didn’t get knocked down. The girls did; I didn’t.)

When I learned that the Windy City Rollers would be hosts for this year’s WFTDA National tournament, Uproar On The Lakeshore, I applied for photo credentials. And got them! Although not for the entire tournament, I received a full-day press pass for the main day of action, Saturday. It was also the day the Windy City Rollers were guaranteed to compete. Being a single elimination tournament, teams only get one shot at moving on.

So, handy press pass in hand, I headed over to the UIC Pavilion yesterday morning and set about finding my way to the “digital darkroom”. This was serious business, this time around, with dozens of photographers from all over the nation covering the event. Team photographers, press photographers. The Derby News Network streamed all the action live online.

And then there was me jumping around trying not to get run over and trying to make some good shots at the same time. The whole style of the game has changed since last year. Last month, the Chicago Reader published an extensive feature about the advent of “slow derby” and its corresponding challenges to more traditional leagues like the Windy City Rollers. The tournament was a great opportunity to see these new styles in action.

Bout after bout the teams who best incorporated the strategies of the Western style came out on top, so I set as a goal for myself to try and capture some of the technique: the strategy of trading penalties, the massive walls of stopped blockers. And the ensuing frustration that played across more speed-and-power oriented teams.

I covered three bouts and stayed to watch the fourth and final bout of the day while editing what I’d shot:

Rocky Mountain Rollergirls vs. Charm City Roller Girls
Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Recap

Kansas City Roller Warriors vs. Philly Roller Girls
Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Recap

Windy City Rollers vs. Oly Rollers
Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, Recap

Rocky Mountain Rollergirls vs. Gotham Girls Roller Derby
Recap

Whirl and Mary invited me to come along with them yesterday to my first chick banding at the South Wacker site in the Chicago Loop. I took an extended lunch break on a quiet Friday before a three-day holiday weekend to meet them and make a few photographs to record the process.

What struck me most about the whole thing was the dramatic shift in atmosphere once we got into the mechanical room accessing the nest ledge. In the lobby of the building and on the way up it was friendly, fun and conversational. When we stepped into room everything went quiet, serious. Everyone involved knew their roles and they got to it. Matt geared up with the harness, helmet and safety line to go out and fetch the chicks 40 stories above street. Mary, Stephanie and Gracen set about getting the banding gear, blood vials and specimen containers set up.

I don’t often get an opportunity to observe my child bride working with her team of fellow scientists. Today I did. It was really cool. Read her more complete report in her field journal.