Boo! The Horror!

Ellie is a kindergartner at Gateway Science Academy, a charter school in the city, even though we live a bit outside of the municipal limits. On Saturday evening they had a function for the kids I'd never heard of, Trunk Or Treat. Any family that cared to decorated their car trunk for Halloween and passed out treats to the moppets. Ellie had a blast.

I am not in touch with popular culture but I am told that her costume is one of the characters in The Incredibles animated movies. Above, she poses with a classmate who is dressed as, well, I don't actually know. There were games, like tossing a ping pong ball painted like an eye into popcorn bags. And they had a DJ! I didn't know Ellie could dance but she boogied out, even with music only the parents would know.            

Silly People

I'm running through some more Central West End Halloween pictures before I head to New York for the weekend tomorrow. You have to wonder whether these people are simply being creative or expressing something about themselves that doesn't have another outlet. Probably some of both.    

Don't We All Have Days Like This?

I do, or at least I feel like this looks. Checking at the picture more closely, I wonder if this man is supposed to be a stalk of broccoli. Don't much like that although people say it's good for you. Maybe if this person ate more of what he's dressed like he'd feel better. 

No mistaking the second costume. If I feel that nasty I usually cover it up.          

Serious Business

  

The American version of Halloween is supposed to be fun - dress up in silly clothing, whip up some mock fear, play some jokes. However, when I was shooting in Maryland Plaza Saturday night, I noticed how dead serious many of the participants were. Grim stares, few smiles. Maybe that was their spin on the scary themes of the day.

By the way, the pun three sentences back was intentional.

Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler

The title of this post is a Cajun French phrase most Americans know: let the good times roll. It is often associated with Mardi Gras in New Orleans. However, I'm told it is almost meaningless in France. The roll was amazing in Maryland Plaza Saturday night but it was tough to get all the motion in low light, not to mention understanding how it is done. Being poorly coordinated in general, I could only watch in awe.         

Boo In The Lou

There is a big outdoor party on the Saturday night before Halloween in Maryland Plaza, part of the Central West End neighborhood. I go shoot the monsters and wraiths if I'm in town and the weather is tolerable. Not as crowded last night as some years and everyone is happy to pose. We'll go with this for a while.                

Attitude

I bet that somebody, somewhere, wrote their psych Ph.D. dissertation on Halloween costumes and their relationship to the personality of the owner. You can venture your own guesses on these.

Seattle tonight. If I'm lucky, if the plane takes the usual approach to the airport and it's not too cloudy, I might get a shot of Mt. Rainier on the way in. 

Work got in the way of an out-of-focus theme day pic today. If you really need out-of-focus just call me.               

Boo

Happy Halloween to those of you who enjoy it. I got out for a while Saturday to shoot the massive street party in our Central West End district. Not the best year for images at the event. It gets more crowded every year and I had some kind of bug. Still, there were a few keepers.

This isn't a holiday that appeals to me. I don't like being scared, naturally or artificially. No slasher movies, no Trump websites.   As far as I'm concerned, you can save all these grisly memento mori references for an ascetic monk's hut. 

Goofy costumes are okay. The only time I've done that as an adult was at a party thrown by a colleague. I made a mitre out of cardboard, put MasterCard and Visa logos on it, bought a Los Angeles Angels baseball jersey and went as the pope.

           

Madeleine Monday: Halloween

We went to the home of our daughter, Emily, her husband, Brian, and Madeleine on Halloween night. There are lots of kids in their city neighborhood and few in ours in the suburbs. The weather had turned suddenly cold and there were not many callers. Father and daughter sat on the front steps, waiting to hand out the sugar.

Some people in this country go crazy at Halloween. I don't remember anything like this when I was growing up in New York. We put on some minimal disguise, then went from door to door in the local apartment buildings and demanded sweets. It's so elaborate now and so fixed on pretending terror is entertainment. I totally don't get it.                    

Vanishing Point

This it the kind of thing they tell you in all those photography tips emails you can subscribe to - draw the eye down a line toward a vanishing point. Works well with pumpkins on a wall in Citygarden. 

There were probably plenty of pumpkins carved, smashed or hurled around The Lou last night. Who knows, some people might have listened to Smashing Pumpkins tunes. We spent the evening at our daughter's house in the city where they usually get lots of trick-or-treaters. But it was cold and almost no one came by.                 

Madeleine Monday

We haven't had moppet Monday for a while, so let's take a break from armaments. My son-in-law is executive chef at a country club and the hours are long, even at this time of the year. Remarkably, he was off on Friday so we babysat, giving him and our daughter a chance for a night out.

Daddy got her this tee shirt and an electronic Halloween toy. She's a wild child.                   

Profile

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They say that in photography, luck favors the prepared. I got a glimpse of this face at the Halloween party last weekend and whipped my camera up to my eye. (BTW, STL DPB recommends the Black Rapid RS-7 camera strap, which allows you to flip up your camera from the hip like drawing a gun from a holster.) Well, uh, the battery was charged and the memory card wasn't full, the ISO and f stop were pre-set at 3200 and 1.8 on an 85 mm prime lens, and the flash was ready at -1 2/3 stops. The image has not been cropped. Just dumb luck. I think it's one of the best portraits I've made all year.

I've been terrible about comments on my colleagues' blogs this week. It feels like I just can't work enough hours and I'll still never get it all done. When you start law school in this country they fill your head with all sorts of hoary old English legal maxims, since that's the origin of our system. One of them holds that the law is a jealous mistress. So many inflexible deadlines, so many serious responsibilities. Next week looks better. I'll get back to it.

Please, Sir, I Want Some More

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Halloween is over, although Americans have another trick or treat event next Tuesday. I still have some good pix left from last weekend's street party so you, gentle reader (and Oliver Twist, if he checks in) will have some more.

Yeah, it was Halloween and people in this country dress in silly clothes pretending to be something they're not. But this, on a chilly autumn night? Maybe the young man is imitating a member of a heavy metal band, his biggest fan at his side. I wonder if Ozzie Osbourne would let me take his picture in the street.

The couple below are supposed to be Mitt and Ann Romney. Those of you outside the U.S. may not get the joke. If anyone cares, I'll explain.

   

Bride Of Frankenstein

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From deep in the dungeon, or actually the lower level of the public garage at Euclid and Laclede. These creatures crawled out of the car next to us when we parked. Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein appear in joyful anticipation of their wedding night.

The bottom pic is just as horrible, in its way. I had no idea what Honey Boo Boo is so I looked it up. See here.

Eye Exam

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Long-time readers of this blog know that I am fascinated by eyes. Focus on the eyes they would always tell us when shooting portraits at photography school in Maine.The Halloween party in the Central West End was a good place to practice. Bizarre contact lenses and eyeglasses were all around. No looking at the world with rose-colored anything. Turquoise irises  or reptile pupils were much more in fashion.  

Terror Lurks On Euclid Avenue

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But help is on the way! Captain America to the rescue! I wonder if Mitt Romney knows about this.

The Lou's annual Halloween street party is held the Saturday before the event around the intersection of Euclid and Maryland Avenues in the Central West End. It gets an amazingly good turnout for a chilly evening. People put a lot of effort into their costumes, although I just can't understand the fascination with violence and death. On Dia del los Muertos in a Mexican drug cartel, maybe, but in placid St. Louis? Some people think it's fun to be scared. I think it's just bloody terrifying. That's not fun.

The mayhem goes on in this space for the next few days.

Those Eyes

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What are they looking at? Why are they staring at me? Explanations will have to wait until tomorrow. It's late.

RIP

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A look back at the Halloween street party. Every year you see costumes based on recent events. Last year there was a Chilean miner encased in that little rescue capsule. This year it was a gentleman, rather less gaunt than Steve Jobs, demonstrating the latest in funerary technology. My son got an iPhone 4S and says the reception is way better than his 3. I wonder if it works from the Other Side? (And what would the roaming charges be?)

Boo 2: How Rude

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The usual social conventions about good taste are not enforced at St. Louis' Halloween street party. Maybe that's what the wilder costumes are about: for one night you have a license to be as outrageous as you want. You can go back to your job as an insurance clerk and no one will think differently of you. It was just Halloween.

Boo

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Halloween is so popular in this country anymore (all shaped by insidious corporate marketing, do doubt). People pretend to be everything from hobgoblins to hookers, parade about in public or at parties and, in the current version of the practice, drink rather a lot. It wasn't like this when I was a kid. We just slapped on whatever your mom bought at Woolworth's and went out in bands of little beggars. It was simply about the candy.

I go shoot the big Halloween street party in our Central West End neighborhood every year. The crush of bodies can become intolerable, unless you get a rise out of close physical contact with the Super Mario Brothers. Obviously we are in a substantial minority, but Mrs. C and I just don't get it. I'd have about as much fun spending a Saturday night dressed as a pirate than as a trial lawyer. The last time I went to a costume party about 25 years ago, I got a Los Angeles Angels baseball jersey and made a paperboard miter that said "We Accept Visa And MasterCard" on it and went as the pope.