PAX East 2011: Cosplay

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Mar 15, 2011

Filed under: Nerd Culture 64 comments

I spent the better part of an hour going through our PAX East pictures. I rounded up the cosplay pictures, grouped them, gave them titles, tagged them, and put a funny caption on each. Then I created a slideshow and discovered that Flickr doesn’t display any of that. It just shows pictures. At a fixed rate, moving from one image to the next whether the viewer is done or not.

There is no way to share or embed these pictures in a way that preserves the captions. I can’t even point you to a link off-site that will accomplish this. And I’m not going back into that clunky interface so I can copy & paste all my captions here.

Now I remember why I don’t use Flickr. It’s a pain to share photos (it requires at least four clicks to get the URL for a picture to share, so alt-tabbing back and forth can get to be very tedious.) Any site dedicated to sharing photos ought to be at least able to share photos as easily as YouTube share videos.

Shameful, really.

 


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64 thoughts on “PAX East 2011: Cosplay

  1. krellen says:

    I never cease to be amazed at the poor implementation and design of so many programs and websites out there.

    Try buying a keyboard from Dell sometime.

  2. (LK) says:

    The flickr slideshow viewer does let you see that stuff, actually!

    Viewers just mouse up to the top right corner and click “show info”.

    It will summon a box with the title and description that will change for each picture selected until the person viewing dismisses it by clicking the X in the corner.

    They can also push pause if they want to peruse at their own pace with the arrow keys.

    You have to view it on the flickr slideshow page for these features, though. The embedded one doesn’t seem to work that way.

    1. Henebry says:

      thanks for the tip!

    2. Amstrad says:

      Those options show up in full screen mode, but I wouldn’t have known they existed if you didn’t mention them.

      My first instinct was to skip the slideshow all together and click through to the photoset on flicker itself, which includes the captions /and/ the comments.

      1. Andrew B says:

        Likewise.

  3. Nathon says:

    I saw that security/engineering officer at the just dance stage. It was pretty awesome.

    1. ehlijen says:

      Yay star trek lives, and the good star trek too :)

  4. Strangeite says:

    I heard someone describe Cosplay as a form of exhibitionism. Basically they thought it was a form of bedroom themed foreplay done in public.

    While I am sure that is not the case universally, from the conventions I have attended, I would say that there is a measure of truth in the statement.

    I know it was true for the couple dressed as Mario and Peach that were in the hotel room next to mine at the last convention.

    -shudder-

    1. ccesarano says:

      Now I’m just imagining someone wide-eyed in a dark room laying in bed, and through the wall is the creaking of furniture and exclamation of “WEE HEE! WAHOO!” accompanied by the classic “SPROING! SPROING!”

      Ok I keep going back to edit this to include stuff like the 1-UP sound effect and “time’s almost up” jingle. I think it’s just something that needs to be conveyed in video format.

      1. HAHAHAHAHH! Snort. Erm. Than kyou both so very much for that, um, interesting visual/sound thing.

      2. K says:

        My brain just melted :(

      3. Irridium says:

        And that is exactly how I pictured it.

      4. Falcon says:

        I was gonna put what popped in my head involving warp pipes and piranha plants, but that’s an image nobody else needs. ;)

  5. Gil says:

    Awesome pics, Shamus! Thanks for sharing. Looks and sounds like you had a great time!

  6. ccesarano says:

    I just want the world to know that whoever that female Assassin is, I want to have her babies.

    1. Jake Albano says:

      I’m afraid that’s impossible, since she would be the one with the babies. :/ Shame.

      1. Josh R says:

        Unless ccesarano is a girl, and wants to be the surrogate mother for her children.

      2. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Didnt you ever watch junior?Science!

      3. Desgardes says:

        Missing the joke. Sorry.

        Also!!!
        D: that professor layton one was quite amazing. Really captured an alternate interpretation of the relationship though

      4. ccesarano says:

        Haven’t you ever seen Jurassic Park? Life finds a way, dammit!

        1. Jordan says:

          You’ve not been splicing your DNA with that of a tree frog again have you? Shame on you!

    2. DaveMc says:

      I was going to add a comment along the lines of “Hubba, hubba” with regard to that very same female assassin. Glad to see you took care of it already.

  7. Specktre says:

    These are great. Loved the assassin pics. The TF2 ones were great, especially the Spy and Blue Scout’s Mom. The Minecraft dude (XD). Samus and the Asari were decent as well. Plants vs. Zombie band is funny.

  8. WILL says:

    Ooh, is that League of Legends cosplay with the pirate and the Morgana with the cookies?

    Didn’t know they were that huge.

    *PSSST YOU GUYS YOU SHOULD TRY IT IT’S REALLY FUN*

    1. THANK YOU!!!! We spent all weekend trying to figure out WHO ON EARTH those people were dressed as.

      1. ccesarano says:

        I didn’t find out until my friend, an employee at Riot Games, posted his own pictures up on Facebook.

        By the way, the guy in the Blue space marine armor you took a picture of? He’s a character called Carmine from Gears of War. Accurate cosplay, too, since he’s the only character in the series with the proper proportions (which explains why he dies each time).

  9. rayen says:

    get a facebook page. It’s photos system is the most optimal but it’s better than flicker. Also can link to albums… just sayin…

    1. Zombie Pete says:

      YES!! I second the use of Facebook (especially since you already have a page).

      1. Problem is UPLOADING to Facebook. Facebook HATES my computers and refuses to upload large groups of photos.

        1. DanMan says:

          It’s probably your use of Linux. Everything mass marketed is too directed at Windows OS.

          Or are you using your non-Linux box for this?

    2. X2-Eliah says:

      What of the non-facebooked people?

      1. krellen says:

        We don’t exist.

        1. Sekundaari says:

          We are no more.

          1. Irridium says:

            We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weakness. You cannot even grasp the nature of our existence.

      2. Galad says:

        I used to be one of those, until I overcame my prejudice towards it. Granted, I DO have a LOT of friends/people I know abroad with whom the only means of communicating would be facebook, still..it’s not a bad idea.

        Join usssssssss..

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  11. Daemian Lucifer says:

    Did you try photobucket?Its an old one,but still a good one.Here,a sample.

    1. Kavonde says:

      Yeah, I use Photobucket for my image needs, myself. Much more straightforward than Flickr, though some of the recent “improvements” have annoyed me.

      1. Lisa says:

        Has it improved in speed, by any chance? I’ve been with Photobucket since almost the beginning. However, it got to a point where I just couldn’t use it as it was so slow to do any kind of gallery or photo management.

        1. Raygereio says:

          I’ve been using Photobucket for years and I’ve never noticed any major connectivity issues. They have there occasional moments where their server hickups, but that’s it.

  12. NeoSonic says:

    You may want to try imgur (imgur.com). I’ve really enjoyed it after using photobucket for a long time.

    1. Viktor says:

      After Imgur breaking recently, I wouldn’t trust it. Even if it’s working again, you can no longer count on it.

  13. Zak McKracken says:

    Actually, I didn’t find the slideshow so bad.
    Click on “pause” if you don’t like the speed (first thing I do … should be on pause by default), klick on the title to open the photos in flickr, click on the first photo, then on the magnifying class (upper right) to get a proper full-screen slideshow, including titles.
    I think it should be made to work with two clicks less, and it should be possible to directly link to the slideshow (not possible right now).
    So, yeah, not really well done, but entirely usable, even by someone like me with a non-standard browser on a non-standard operating system who has no big love for standard video and photo hosting services.
    I think smugmug is a better photo hosting service than flickr, but I think they cost money … and I like vimeo better than youtube (e.g. most of the commenters can actually write!), but if you want lots of people to notice your stuff, there’s a clear choice :(

  14. Jarenth says:

    Wow. Interesting pictures all, thanks for sharing. I will always be amazed by the amount of ingenuity and creativity these people can put on display, though I do wonder OH SHIT CREEPER

    1. Josh says:

      Quick! Hide the everything!

      1. The Unforgiven says:

        It won’t fit! It won’t fit!

        1. Will says:

          SSSSSSSSSSSSSS

  15. John Magnum says:

    Did you see anyone dressed as Jacob Taylor?
    Did he salute?

  16. Nick says:

    What’s up with the cursor disappearing in my browser whenever your page is loaded?

    Edit: Looks like it’s a messed up Flicker plugin, if I disable plugins on the page, my cursor stays visible.

    1. X2-Eliah says:

      It shows up when you move it, though. But yes, annoying.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        I thought thats just me.Good to know its just one of the annoying web thingies I almost never use.

        1. blue_painted says:

          Me three!

          I’ll blame Flickr, on the basis of no evidence at all.

          1. Daemian Lucifer says:

            Ok,this started as merely annoying,but now its pissing me off.Shamus,can you please remove the flickr part from the main page?My cursor flickering every time I access the blog is really frustrating.

            1. Shamus says:

              Put it behind the fold. Should be good if you don’t visit the post directly.

              1. Daemian Lucifer says:

                Thanks.Works like a charm.

                I do wonder why it is like that though.At least now I know why it is called flickr.

                1. blue_painted says:

                  @Daemian Lucifer
                  You beat me to it by several hours … but good one all the same!

  17. Nighty says:

    The one marked as “Ninja” is Akali from League of Legends.

  18. Jansolo says:

    Why don’t try picasa?

    The only con is that you are providing Google more and more power to finally rule the entire world, but it should worth if they show your pictures as you wish.

    Furthermore, you can install the software on your PC, in order to synchronize some folder with the site. This provides you a facility for manage your photos and it gives Google even more power.

    Actually, I don’t like photography, so I barely use this program.

  19. Ravens Cry says:

    Thanks for sharing this with us, lots of excellent cosplay. If I ever cosplayed, it would be as a Kyoshi Warrior, Manny Calavera, a Ghostbuster, or a member of Starfleet officer in a TNG, DS9, or Post ST1 Uniform.

  20. I liked the AOE photography line.

    Comments were interesting as well. Flicker really needs to add a [next] button under the picture as well as on top so you don’t have to scroll back up after reading comments.

  21. Chris says:

    “Shameful, really.”

    If you aren’t using it, doesn’t that make it shameless? Lols! See what I did there.

  22. Tommy says:

    PAX East was definitely great fun this year. My favorite cosplay duo of the weekend was the Big Daddy / Little Sister combo that was around the Dance Central stage on Sunday afternoon. The costume they wore was the actual Bioware constructed replica!

    http://gallery.team9000.net/.845

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