Recently in Holidays Category

I received these in an email and had to share them...

I received these in an email and had to share them...

My favorite holiday! I share it with everyone.

Ever year I give, as a holiday gift, a calendar of select photos I shot that year. Last year, instead, I gave a book of photos, all from one vacation destination, to family members who I knew loved that place.

This year, back in sync with my traditional holiday gift-giving, I'm selecting photos for the 2010 Calendar. But now I have 2 years of photos from which to choose!

The task of selecting only 12 photos from 2 years of astounding travel has been all but unbearable! I narrowed the selection down to 60 and then had to begin sawing off my appendages to get it down to 12.

Here are a few that I love, but, for various reasons, these didn't make the final cut. Click any image to see the larger photo.

The devil's mask was just too frightening for the younger children. It had to go, and it was much too hot. Then my standing on the balcony over the front door shooting silly string terrified a few unsuspecting parents. (I didn't shoot the young children. Middle-aged children begged to be shot.)

The entrance to the house was also just a little too frightening for some of the younger children--that, I didn't anticipate. Perhaps they found it scary because of the loud sound effects from the DVD playing in the lower main front window, or maybe it was just so busy with scary things: pots of fire, large hanging bats, a hanging mummy, tombstones, a spider skeleton (I didn't know they had them either), a jar of eyeballs, chains, a giant rat, etc.

Unexpectedly, about half way through the evening, the fog machine set off the smoke alarms, adding even more drama to the scene. I then moved the fog machine to spray the fog out the front door.

But many parents said the house won the award for best haunted house in the hood. In the beginning there was a large caldron full of candy--24 bags of candy. It was all gone by 8:30pm. Hundreds of children came by.

Favorite quotation from the night:
"What do you say honey." after the child took candy from the caldron.
"May I have a fourth?" answered the child.

Clicking on any of the pictures will enlarge the shot. And, presented below, is a short video I shot of the DVD that was playing in the lower main front window of the house along the street where many children and adults stopped to watch. Showing the DVD, Hallowindow, while the haunted house was "open for business" was my favorite part of the evening. You can click on the movie to watch a brief excerpt, but to see the movie, visit Mark Gervais' site. He really did an awesome job with these animations!

Halloween will be a little out of control around here. The iron front door already lends itself to something of a haunted house. Here's a little preview.

At the front door (Click to enlarge)

And a wonderful Halloween animation will be playing in the lower front window of the house. Here is a shot of what it looks like "behind the scenes."