Honestly, I didn’t think that I was going to be upgrading my website so soon given that it’s only been a year since I last tinkered with it but I guess it’s always sort been in my mind that all my previous websites could have been coded by high school students and that I think it’s about time I opted for something that looked more professional. And here we are!

At the moment all that I’ve really done so far is migrated some of the recent things I’ve written and released but what I’m expecting to show here will be some of the more interesting projects I’ve done. Hopefully my folio will be a lot more interesting to all the visitors. But for now I guess I want to start by doing a quick rundown of my trip to Perth for Wai-Con 2013 a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve always wanted to visit Wai-Con since its first year in 2004. It was the first time I’ve ever submitted my anime music video (AMV) to any convention’s competition and obviously I was quite anxious about this one. It never occurred to me that I was going to win back then with my video “Talk To Me”. So you can say that because of that, Wai-Con has always had a special place in my heart despite never having visited it before. Without it, I’m sure I would never have gathered the confidence to push on and be where I am now.

We arrived in Perth on an almost 4 hour flight but given the timezone, it was still somewhat early in the evening there when we landed. Mel and I first drove off to her hotel right beside the convention centre. First thing I thought about was just how quiet the city was for a Friday night, having come from Melbourne however as we drove deeper into its heart, it actually got quite a bit lively.

The convention started the next day and despite the badges not arriving in time for the convention, the lines outside were probably no more than what you’d expect in any other convention in the country. Through the day I met with Janey, Ash, Cate, Min, Jill, Wilson and of course Mel and as usual, the cosplay gang has always been a big highlight of the whole con experience. Just hanging out with them was awesome enough on its own.

Probably one of my most thrilling experience on the Saturday however was finally meeting Vincent. I’ve known him pretty much for as long as I’ve known Wai-Con because we’ve been part of the same AMV studio all this time. It took us 8 years to finally meet in person and we did so while hosting the AMV panel. Ever since retiring from competitions in 2011, I haven’t been all that active in the AMV scenes anymore but it was a very nostalgic moment being up there on the stage again explaining the nuances of AMVs and reminded me just how much I still love this hobby.

We hung out for a while longer after that but inevitably my focus turned towards photos hoots as the day neared its end. We conducted a rather quick shoot back in the hotel room with Mel and Jill dressed in attires from Uta no Prince-sama. The next day we also did a shoot for their Macross Frontier attires and as usual it was a lot of fun. I’ve worked with Jill in the past but this is the first time I’ve really done a more personal shoot with her. It’s always fantastic to get to know people just a little bit better and this certainly is why I’ve become so engrossed in this art more than ever.

In between all of that we just lots of laughs over food and lounging around in the hotel room. Given how hot it was that weekend, you’ll forgive us for wanting to stay indoors as much as possible. I was also very thankful that Jon and Leah had been such great people for letting me stay on their couch during the con. If there’s a next time, I really ought to take a bit more time out because I definitely needed to catch up with them more than I did. It was also a bit saddening to see John Robertson’s last performance in a convention in Australia but definitely happy for him moving on with his career.

The Perth people have often come to us in the eastern states because the conventions here were always bigger (and arguably better) but I was definitely not disappointed that I opted to try things the other way around. Again I made new friends and caught up with the old and from this experience, there’s certainly a high chance that I’ll be coming back next time!