Halloween
Saturday was Halloween and the Downtown Bellingham Association sponsored trick-or-treat at businesses throughout the central business district. I set up on Cornwall Avenue in front of the vacant old Penny’s building and photographed any kid whose adult partner wanted a photo. They’ll get a free 5×7 in the mail later this week. Some folks ordered additional prints, which is a good thing. Hopefully more people will order once they see how great their kids looked. The video shows most of the kids I photographed.
I basically took my studio outside, with a pair of big strobes for light. An umbrella by the camera provided fill and a slightly diffused key light was off to the right. Everything was connected by wire for reliability.
My set was three straw bales, a few pumpkins, and a dark muslin backdrop with a paper moon. I borrowed a tree from Bakerview Nursery to provide a little foliage and framing. It was pretty simple, but worked well and turned out to be flexible when I had much bigger groups than I had originally planned for.
Natalie ran the order table and directed traffic. In the course of the 3 hours we were in operation I photographed 148 kids or groups. That works out to about one a minute. The weather even cooperated — not too cold or windy. There was one short period toward the end when the sun cast strong shadows and I had to scramble to block it, but then it set behind a building and I was back to the shade I expected all afternoon.
There were a fair number of very nice homemade costumes which showed a lot of creativity. That’s what I was hoping for. Most of the kids were having a good time, the exceptions being a few under 2 years old who were just plain tired. That’s the way I felt when I got home, but it was a fun afternoon.