Halloween Visitors

Here are 8 of the some 600 shots I did over 3 different days of shooting. All outdoor shots, three different locations.

Lighting was a BD centered powered by a WL x1600 turned all the way down. Then two x1600s L & R to the sides and slightly behind one with a 30 degree and one with a 40 degree grid. Then on 580EX on the backdrop.

Four PWs used. One on Camera. One on BD light, one on one of the x1600 side lights and one on the 580EX which was positioned such that the 580ex would optically trigger the other x1600 (since I did not have enough PWs.

Most were shot 1/125, f/9.0, ISO200 - 250.

Backdrop was a blank black Muslin, hand painted in the garage.


1.

Does anyone else do this? Set up, and take pictures in their front yard as the kids come around for candy? Just curious.

The Minie is so cute. Great idea and effort

Never actually seen/known anyone to do this....great idea! What fun shots too

Our neighborhood gets a LOT of Halloween traffic (200+ kids) so I set up in the front yard and started shooting, handing out papers with web site where the pictures will be posted (and for sale). It got VERY positive responses. This way parents get decent shots of the kids in costume.

glxtrix wrote in post #11210001
Never actually seen/known anyone to do this....great idea! What fun shots too

Lee Check out the book Halloween in Bucktown by Marc Hauser. Its over 20 years old but some great photos of kids in their costumes.

I've been wanting to do something like this for years... great work. Get any angry moms, or weirdos?

I live in Los Angeles and am reluctant to do something like this, there's always next year.

I've been thinking of doing something like this for a while, but haven't been able to get it together. I'm thinking of doing this next year in conjunction with a haunted house that a neighbor does every year. Need to start planning early this time.

The ChangoMan wrote in post #11218212
I've been wanting to do something like this for years... great work. Get any angry moms, or weirdos?

I live in Los Angeles and am reluctant to do something like this, there's always next year.

99.9% of the people love it! (and tell me so)

I got one angry mom one time last year. She read me the riot act about posting an image of her 13 year old daughter and told me I was in violation of the internet child protection act... which only covers the restriction of publicizing information about a minor, not photographs. But I didn't argue or tell her she was wrong I just agreed to remove the image. And when I pressed her for more information it turned out that her daughter was just visiting our neighborhood that night. Our neighborhood signs petitions to close the streets to traffic and is basically one huge block party. I knew the three other girls her daughter was posing with, as I know most the kids in the neighborhood. We've lived here 13 years.

What I don't get is why is this mother has no problem letting her 13 year old walk the streets in a strange neighborhood full of people she does not know with her three friends in less than modest costumes. But she has a huge problem when her picture is in a gallery on my web site with no information about even where the picture was taken.

But I just bit my tongue, apologized to her and removed the image.

moeronn wrote in post #11218340
I've been thinking of doing something like this for a while, but haven't been able to get it together. I'm thinking of doing this next year in conjunction with a haunted house that a neighbor does every year. Need to start planning early this time.

Don't expect a lot of sales. About half the people who got their picture done thanks me over and over and loved the idea and told me they would definitely be buying prints. So far I have sold two. I told them I would only have the gallery up a week, shutting it down this Sunday night. So we will see if I get any last minute orders just before shutting it down.

Last year did about $350 worth of print orders and the quality was much lower. I did not have the gear I have now.

But it is a blast to shoot! I think I would do this even if there were no sales. It's fun and I learn everytime I shoot.

Some people are just touched in the head dude... lol. I've had my share of run in's.. which is why I still haven't done something like this.

The ChangoMan wrote in post #11218534
Some people are just touched in the head dude... lol. I've had my share of run in's.. which is why I still haven't done something like this.

Well I have not consulted a lawyer, but everything I've read indicates that you can take pictures of people who do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy and post them online and as long as you are not using it for promotional or commercial purposes you do not need a release. And all regardless of age.

But, that being said I would never hesitate to respect anyone's wishes to have an image removed.

....and in the 26 years I've been shooting, the last 7 with digital and with posting images online for sale the ONLY time I got hassled was the one lady last year.

Oh, and by the way, I think I threw her for a loop because I am sure she expected me to argue, and when I didn't she calmed down and admitted that what I was doing was not so far fetched and evil, but that she would still like her daughter's image removed just the same. Just goes to show, it takes two... if you don't fight back they don't have a fight.

Dermit wrote in post #11218504
Don't expect a lot of sales. About half the people who got their picture done thanks me over and over and loved the idea and told me they would definitely be buying prints. So far I have sold two. I told them I would only have the gallery up a week, shutting it down this Sunday night. So we will see if I get any last minute orders just before shutting it down.

Last year did about $350 worth of print orders and the quality was much lower. I did not have the gear I have now.

But it is a blast to shoot! I think I would do this even if there were no sales. It's fun and I learn everytime I shoot.

Thanks for the info. I wouldn't really do it for sales of those photos. It would mostly be a promotional event for the neighbor (a local realtor) and me. I would most likely e-mail medium res files to people and maybe get some bookings from that.

As for the mother/daughter issue you had, that was definitely the "right" thing to do, even if you had the right to keep the photo up. Not sure how I'd handle gaining rights if doing something like this.

Another thing I almost did this year, and probably should have, is to also have the gallery password protected. This would put some of the paranoids at ease, though probably not all.

I had my wife handing out slips of paper with my web address to the gallery where the images can be found. I could have also added the password onto that slip of paper. Last year I just handed out my business cards, but then people had to find the gallery, which was not a problem, but I also wanted this to come off more casual and less like I was just trying to drum up business.