The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

Halloween Creations

It felt a bit odd carving a pumpkin this year without my son, Rogan, across the table doing one of his own. When I drove him back up to Edinburgh after his visit over my birthday weekend, in with the usual box of food any struggling student appreciates, we included a pumpkin in case he felt creative.

I think the one I've done is OK, but it doesn't quite match my masterpiece from 2 years ago. If I'm honest I think not feeling him trying to out do me meant perhaps I wasn't quite so ambitious.

However, I wasn't completely on my own as Meg decided this year she'd like a go. Feeling a certain parental sense of trepidation at the idea of her wielding a sharp knife, we agreed and I supervised her.

I lost count of the number of times I said, "gently now, gently with that knife, easy there, slowly, gently now..." while desperately trying to remove images of severed fingers from my mind.

Of course I gave her a wee bit of help here and there, but she did do most of it herself, and once I was past the relief at there being no accidents, I felt quite proud of her.

Here are our creations...


Meg's creation with the light on


Meg's creation with the light off


My creation with the light on


My creation with the light off


Back in the realms of photography rather than knives and vegetables, when I was doing the photo shoot with The Yahs a few weeks ago (see Photographing The Yahs), we tried a few shots of the 4 of them gathered together and one of them holding a flash unit, triggered remotely by my camera. It was tried at various angles and then abandoned as not working the way I wanted it to.

Looking back through the images afterwards, however, I was struck by one where the light had been held from below, giving that spooky look you get when you hold a torch under your face. So with a little bit of Photoshop editing, I was able to create a Yahs Halloween Special...



Perhaps next year I should try carving them on a pumpkin...

8 comments

Anonymous said...

Very good pumpkin! The one you did two years ago does reach the level of a masterpiece...better to keep your fingers though. The Yah's complete a perfect Halloween post!

savannah said...

these are marvelous, sweet pea! congrats to you and meg! xoxoxox

hope said...

Applauding Meg for her masterpiece (and Dad for surviving it).

You never cease to amaze me...in a good way, of course. Love the photo...and the effect from those glasses is spooky itself.

angryparsnip said...

I love your pumpkin post... just the best.
and I was going to try to carve a parsnip this year but ran out of time. There is always next year.

cheers, parsnip

maurcheen said...

:¬)

Kim Ayres said...

Allen - thank you :)

Savannah - thank you :)

Hope - the glasses shadow was a lucky coincidence - I didn't actually notice it until I was looking through the images afterwards on the computer!:)

Parsnip - I look forward to the year when you do finally carve that parsnip :)

Maurcheen - :)

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Oooh, Meg, that's one baaad, scary pumpkin! Good job :-D

Kim Ayres said...

GG - :)

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