It’s the third year of my October Whimsical/Magical/Spooky photo challenge.  The goal is one new image a day for the month of October leading up to Halloween.  I didn’t quite get 31 images this year, BUT, I feel like my photoshopping skills have taken a big jump forward- and I’m really happy with the semi-illustrated style that has started to creep into my work.  I tried to focus a lot on light and shadow and creative use of colour to set a scene.  I also incorporated more stock image elements, which is something I have shied away from in the past because it felt like cheating.  But, I don’t have photos of tentacles, or a haunted house or a really fantastic witches house/apothecary type background or super intense lightning, so, I gave myself permission to grab stock images of anything I couldn’t get or do myself.  Most of the photography is still mine, but I had a lot of fun manipulating the stock elements as well as blending them into my images.   I also had access to the most adorable baby this year, and so you’ll see that she was a big part of several of the images.  We made the little mini shoot with her as fun as possible and she had a great time!