VanCon 2015: Photo Ops - Jensen

The thing to know about the photo ops is that they move REALLY fast. For the big three (Jensen, Jared, and Misha) you wait in the auditorium for your range of ticket numbers to flash up on the screens, because if you go to the photo line too early, you will be turned away. But even if the line is dismayingly long when you get there, don't worry--it goes fast. You wait with your fellow primpers outside the photo room (the VanCon room was a largish conference room). Once you get inside the room, there's a table for your stuff and a smaller line of maybe twenty people. Chris the photographer is in the center with his equipment, including some of those light reflectors you might remember from school pictures if you are my age. The star or stars are, of course, on the other side of Chris and the lights. Yep, there they are, just that close, and getting closer as you join the little line snaking around the corner of the room. Rock music is playing, but it's hard to concentrate long enough to figure out what the song is.

When you are second in line, a Creation person takes your ticket and has you stand behind a taped mark on the floor. Then you are next in line, and you stand in a different mark, this one at a bit of an angle to the others. The previous person steps out, and after they leave, the star looks at you and it's your turn.

Now, in my job I meet a wide variety of people, and I sometimes introduce guest speakers and so on. So I thought, "I'll just go in and say hello, as if Jensen had walked up to my desk." Uh-huh. I did manage to look him in the eye and say hello--after that, things get a little fuzzy. With each fan Jensen was doing something a little different, a combination of hugs, one-arm-over-the-shoulder stances, and the occasional pose. I couldn't see how any of these pose decisions were being made, except of course for the requests from fans.

When I walked up and said hello, he gave a small smile, said "Hi" back, and started to do the one-armed shoulder hug. At that point, I honestly don't think I had a conscious thought in my head, but my five year old self somewhere inside must have said--Nope.

All I know is that, without asking him, I turned towards him. All I could see was a button on his shirt and my own hand, feeling heavy and in slow motion, tentatively going in for a full on hug. It felt like I was afraid I might break him. Don't ask me how it felt to be that close, or even what the fabric of his shirt felt like, because I couldn't tell you. Thank God he went with it and hugged, rather gently, back. The lights flashed with the camera, and I looked back up at him and did manage to say "Thank you". He said it back, again looking me in the eye, serious and unsmiling, and then it was over.

For the rest of the day, I was feeling mortified that I had hugged Jensen without asking for permission--I do hug my family and friends, and my kids sometimes complain about mom-hugs. But you know, it's not like I actually know him. I worried how the photo would turn out, and what his expression would be like. Something like--"get this crazy plaid-wearing soccer mom away from me!"--is pretty much what I imagined. But when we went into the vendors room later and saw the pictures laid out, my husband spotted it before me and said, "Ah, it's a pretty picture!"

Jensen has a real smile on his face. As for my expression, one of my friends said I look embarrassed and another said smug. I think I look a little dazed, but that might be residual from my 15-second brush with someone I admire from afar. I guess the most accurate description of my semi-smile in the photo op is that it's somewhere between, "Made it, Ma! Top of the World!" and "I cannot believe I just did that."

2018: I still can't look at this picture without blushing! It looks like "awkward prom photo deluxe" to me now. One person I showed it to said "It looks like Jensen didn't really want to hug you," which kinda ruined my day--
I don't know--what do you think?

VanCon 2015 Photo Ops - Jared

Where Jensen seemed to be making split-second decisions about how he was going to interact with each person as they arrived for their photo op, Jared had the exact same response for everyone who walked up to him. He hugged everyone. It was a hugging assembly line--the fan walked up, Jared enveloped her in a hug, the camera flashed, and NEXT! It was actually a beautiful thing to see.

This was my last photo op of the day, but I was feeling far from an old hand. Oddly enough, though, I really had no nervousness about hugging Jared, perhaps because my feelings towards Sam tend to be more--maternal?--than my reactions to Dean. Of course, everyone in the room was setting a warm and fuzzy example, too. So I walked up for my hug, and after the camera snap, I started to unwrap, but Chris the photographer said, "Wait". We were still kinda hugging at that point, and we stopped moving. Chris said, "your glasses glared up. Look down, not up."

I glanced up at Jared's chin and said to no one in particular, "don't look up?" While I was trying to figure out exactly how to look down so as to not cause another flare, Chris moved towards us, saying, "once second." I think even Jared was a little confused by this point, but he laughed when Chris reached up and pushed a strand of hair out of Jared's face.

"Oh, the hair?" And I was treated to a close up of his patented head-toss-hair-flip. At this point I was almost laughing, too, and somehow remembered to put my chin down for the picture. Chris said, "much better," with a smile, and I was done.

I practically broke into a skip after I got out of the room. But I contained myself.

2018: Still love this shot, and this memory!