DMJ Photography

Transition to WordPress

March 5, 2025

After many years of running my blog on Squarespace I finally decided to move away from that platform and transitioned over to WordPress. This hobby blog that I do on the side doesn’t really get that much traffic anyways so it just didn’t make sense to continue paying Squarespace’s high fees for something that I’ve found less and less time to update. Most of the old content has been imported to WordPress although the formatting will be kind of janky for the old posts unless I actually get around to re-visiting them and fixing them to conform to WordPress’s structure.
Otakon 2024 30th Anniversary Convention Report – Final Fantasy Edition!

August 11, 2024

Final Fantasy Con, I mean, Otakon 2024 took place over the weekend of August 2-4 in its now usual spot in Washington, DC. For it’s 30th Anniversary Special, there was a clear focus on inviting guests from various Final Fantasy games as there were many voice actors and industry guests from the likes of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI, and Final Fantasy XIV such that this year’s Otakon might as well have been called “Final Fantasy Fest”. Fans of the FF franchise were simply eating good this weekend. That’s not to say that Final Fantasy was the only attraction this year, there were other industry guests featuring Delicious in Dungeon, The Seven Deadly Sins, Laid Back Camp, BLUE LOCK, and others as well so there was something for everyone.
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Katsucon 2024 Convention Report – New Leadership Needed?

February 21, 2024

I only recently realized that I still haven’t done a convention report for Katsucon in the post-COVID era. Maybe there’s a reason for that. People have different ways to enjoy themselves at a convention and at the end of the day a convention is what you make of it. However, there is definitely a feeling that Katsucon simply isn’t what it used to be.
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Anime USA 2023 Convention Report

September 27, 2023

The Anime USA convention returned for another year at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City (Arlington), VA from September 22-24, 2023 despite being waylaid by Tropical Storm/Depression Ophelia. This is the second year since returning to the Crystal City location after the previous venue in DC became a COVID casualty and closed down. As with previous outings, Anime USA definitely has its ups and downs.
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Otakon 2023 Convention Report

August 6, 2023

Going to be a fairly short write-up. The Otakon anime convention was back during the July 28-30, 2023 weekend in its now familiar location in Washington, DC. Despite it feeling as though there were less attendees this year due to less congested hallways, Otakon actually surpassed last year’s record 40K attendance numbers with an estimated 42K this year. This speaks volumes to their improvement in managing the crowd and lines versus the near-catastrophe that was 2022.
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AnimeNEXT 2023 Convention Report – NOT a Return to Greatness

June 19, 2023

After four long years the AnimeNEXT anime convention finally returns to great fanfare but not to great applause. Years 2020 and 2021 were lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic and 2022 was cancelled due to a spat with the Atlantic City Convention Center. For 2023 the organizers of AnimeNEXT decided to move the convention to the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison, NJ. However as attendees learned the hard way, things were not so rosy and fine with the new location.
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AnimeJapan 2023 – My First Japanese Con Experience!

April 10, 2023

Normally at this time of year I would have been attending the Zenkaikon anime convention in Lancaster, PA. However I missed out on that this year because I was taking a vacation in Japan instead! I went on the “Animated Spring 2023” tour group offered by PacSet Travels and one of the scheduled stops was AnimeJapan, one of the largest anime consumer shows in Japan. AnimeJapan was scheduled for the weekend of March 25-26, 2023 and I attended it on March 25th. Before actually going to the con I had been warned that Japanese anime cons are a different beast than American or western conventions. I was told not to expect much from it. Well, after having gone through it myself I can definitely see why there is the hesitation that results in such warnings, but for what it’s worth I actually quite enjoyed the experience.
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Super MAGFest 2023 Convention Report

January 15, 2023

The Super MAGFest music and gaming festival returned to kick off the year during the January 5-8, 2023 weekend in National Harbor, MD. After three years of COVID-19 madness this was probably the closest that MAGFest has been to returning to normalcy. Hopefully next year things will truly return to normal.
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Anime NYC 2022 Convention Report

December 12, 2022

The Anime NYC convention returned for its fifth show during the weekend of November 18-20, 2022 in New York City. After years of ups and downs in how things are run, ANYC once again made some big changes this year in attempts to address the issues from the previous year. Some worked well, some not so much. Overall the convention this year was run better than last year although there are still some question marks that blur the overall experience.
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Anime USA 2022 Convention Report – It Lives!

November 7, 2022

The Anime USA convention made its long-awaited return during the week of October 14-16, 2022 after weathering a few rough years. After closing its doors to the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020 and then missing out on 2021 due to the shutting down of their venue, AUSA makes its return to their previous location in Crystal City, VA.
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