During my vacation in LA the LA Weekly hired me to shoot both the Erotica LA porn convention and the THC Expo marijuana convention that were both going on at the same time at the LA Convention center.  Now, I tend to hate shooting conventions, even porn ones.  They are good work and you get to meet a lot of interesting people, but being around people so obsessed with something is a bit much to deal with, and even the press is treated by a lot of people as fan boys.  That being said, amazingly I had a ton of fun covering these two events.  I think a lot of it had to do with me switching back and forth every hour or so between the two worlds.  There was a lot of crossover with half naked girls running around the THC and guys wearing marijuana camouflage in line to get porn star autographs, but it was really interesting to see these two groups of people who’s lives completely revolve around their specific passion.

The THC Expo actually had the most star power.  I saw Tommy Chong there getting swarmed by fans.  Less swarmed were Woody Harrelson and Bill Maher who, while much bigger stars, were not celebrated like Tommy.  They were also trying to hide from photographers a bit.  Woody was just crafty about it while Maher told me straight up not to take his photo.  That is why the only one I have of him is horrible.  Still, it was funny to see how much more excited people were about one half of Cheech and Chong rather than one of the biggest movie stars on earth and one of the few people on TV who is more left wing than I am.  Also there were the world famous Kottonmouth Kings who had that one song in 1999 and then were forgotten about by everyone but white dudes with dreadlocks.  Still, I own one of their records on vinyl so I can’t really talk shit.

I think the main difference between the two conventions was who I shot.  At Erotica I took photos of the people working the booths, because porn stars and strippers are way more interesting then your every day porn geek.  But vice versa is true at the weed convention.  Many of the people working the booths were just normal guys, while the fans ranged from hot stoner chicks, to crazy old guys with beards.  It made for some great shots.

You can see all the photos from the THC Expo 2009 by clicking here.  And the Erotica LA shot should be up later this evening assuming the line at the post office is under 2 hours.

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