Photos & Thoughts from Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando, Florida.

Unlike most people, I love going to conventions, especially when I get to bring a camera. Put a large group of people who share one specific passion in one room and the pictures make themselves. Star Wars Celebration VI in Orlando was no exception.

A few things I noticed, in the spirit of a very unqualified field study:

All ages show up, and it's clearly a family thing (more strollers than I expected). Costume complexity runs the full range, from a fully sewn Boba Fett to a cardboard Stormtrooper held together with duct tape and confidence. Anyone in a great costume ends up posing in the atrium for hours, whether they planned to or not. Ask someone about an obscure Star Wars detail and you'll get a full, enthusiastic answer. Budget the time. Do not, under any circumstances, mention Star Trek.

Below are the portraits from the day — shot the way I shoot most of my personal work: fast, unposed, looking for the character underneath the costume. It's the same instinct behind the Comic Con and Megacon photos and the Civil War reenactor portraits elsewhere on this site.