Halloween is fun!   I’m not a horror fan at all (if I’m watching a horror movie I’m likely half under a blanket with my face covered by my hands and screaming constantly) but I do love the fantastical side of Halloween.  So, I challenged myself to create and post (on instagram) a new spooky/whimsical/magical image every day for the month of October, leading up to Halloween.  This was a fantastic challenge for a lot of reasons;

- my photoshop compositing skills took a huge leap forward this month as I had the opportunity to try out tons of new techniques.  While I’ve been using photoshop for years to edit my photography, I’m newer to the world of composite art.  The best way to learn really is to do!    

- It was a great way to force creativity.  I had to keep coming up with ideas and figure out how to execute them, every day!  After a large chunk of time without much structure (thanks pandemic) it was nice to have a challenging schedule to adhere to!  And it WAS challenging, a new creative and often heavily edited shot every day was a lot of work!

- I’m becoming more comfortable with self portraiture.  Taking photos of yourself is tricky.  Taking photos of yourself as a ghost reading a book in the middle of the woods is trickier.  

- I got to have some fun with my family members!  My siblings and their spouses were back visiting for Thanksgiving and we took an afternoon to take a bunch of photos for this challenge that I could edit as the month went on.  So my sister and sister in law are again featured in these photos (they’re my favourite models), as is my brother, who grabbed a broom, put on a hat and had his own little witch moment.  One of my favourite shots from the whole month is the one I posted on Halloween, my Nana has been living with us for a few months and she has occasionally helped me behind the scenes with some of my self portraits, but this time I got her in front of the camera as the head of our family coven.  

- It’s a lot of fun to dress up like a fantasy witch and pretend to have magical powers.  Seriously.  It’s fun.  I think we were playing “I put a spell on you” from Hocus Pocus in the background at some point.  Fun. 

All in all I’m really pleased with how the challenge went.  While I’m not in love with every image, they all make me smile.  I learned a lot and now have a bunch of photos of me with magical powers, so I’d call it a success. 

I put this image together the day after the challenge was finished as a representation of what had been going on in my head for the last month.  I think a spurt of concentrated creativity is a good thing but I’m looking forward to a rest from that wild pace.  However, I have a feeling this challenge might be back next October!