With Halloween right around the corner, the little ones (and the not so little ones) are getting all excited to get dressed up and go get some candy!  What is a good scrapper to do?  Take a LOT great photos of course!  It can be really hard, though to get good shots because of time restraints as the kids are excited to get out the door and night time is really not the best time to get pretty photos.  Staging can be a real help…  I like to take costume photos a few days in advance, for example.  The kids are excited to get dressed up an extra time and not anxious to get going (even though they don’t do trick-or-treating here in France we usually at least go to families’ houses).  Here are a few photos of my kids from last year.  They older ones tended to be very cooperative and posed for the camera, but my youngest was barely a year, so I dressed him up and just let him play and I just kept taking pictures until I got the photos I wanted.

 

Other shots to take in advance would be the jack-o-lantern, before it gets all blackened and mushy… use a tripod or set the camera on the table and use the timer.  This is ours from a couple of years ago.  

Set up an arrangement with a friend or neighbour that has a nice Halloween display in front of their house.  One evening, as Halloween gets closer so you can stage your kids trick-or-treating at their house.  They can stand there the time it takes to get a good shot under the porch lights.  A tripod would be a good idea here too.  You can even switch and have their kids pretend to trick-or-treat at your place.

Don’t forget the night of Halloween to get shots of groups of kids in the street and friends and family at the door and one shot for after Halloween is the loot, spread it out on the floor and take a picture in the natural light of the day… and don’t steal too much of it while you’re at it

Cara