Fantasyland – Picture Fall, day 30

If I’ve learned anything at all during this month long photo experiment, it is that our instructor for this class will always make us think before taking a picture.  That’s a good thing for me.  My husband would always make the comment that I’m so anxious to take the picture that I would often forget to consider the surroundings and then end up with something messing up an otherwise nice picture.  Stop and think about it – good advice.  This photo class has really made me think before I take a picture.  Today’s prompt wanted us to:  shoot a little bit of fantasy—you or your childs—to commemorate the tricks and treats of the season.  It then went on to explain, however, that we shouldn’t just take the typical shot of someone wearing a Halloween costume, but to try to translate something more into the photo.  It stumped me at first.  How is a picture of someone in costume any more than that?  Then, I came up with this shot:

When I was first setting up the shot, I considered where to place Sarah to end up with the best light, not to have a distracting background, etc.  I figured I’d open the shot in Photoshop and crop and brighten and maybe find a fantastic-looking blur.  Then I looked at it, several times, cropped and not.  The picture you see here is SOOC.  I thought it said exactly what I wanted it to, just the way it is.  I like the dark hat against the slightly out-of-focus background.  I like the hint of Sarah’s nose.  I like the look of a 13-year-old girl innocently wondering what it might be like to live the fantasy life of a wizard,  unretouched in our little corner of suburbia.

Coming tomorrow: In addition to tomorrow’s photo prompt, the last of the Picture Fall photography class, I’m hoping to feature “Ghosts of Halloweens Past.”  Be sure to come have a look for some laughs!

Sweet Relief – Picture Fall, day 29

Well, I’ve broken the streak again this month.  My creative juices felt tapped out yesterday afternoon by the time I got around to considering my photo prompt:  Capture a little something sweet today; whatever it is that tickles your taste buds.  It isn’t really an excuse, but this past week had me helping my girls figure out and do make-up  for their Halloween parties at the dance studio.  That doesn’t sound like much, but each of my girls goes to the studio on three different days each week, and would either of my girls be content to wear the same costume all three days?  Of course not!  This is the one time of the year that I am thankful for the piles of old dance costumes that reside in this house.  But I digress.  I had no ideas whatsoever for how to make a picture of candy or cookies or the like something out of the ordinary and worthy of photographing last night.  Meghan suggested, “How about you carve the pumpkin and have it barfing up piles of candy?”  I chuckled at the idea, but after dinner had been cleaned up last night I wanted nothing more than to crash on the couch and relax.  Today, however, was a different story!

Because of this photo prompt, I’ve had this little diddy playing in my head for the last 24 hours: