A Very Successful Halloween

[dreamshark]

The Candy Census that we use to estimate the number of trick-r-treaters reports that we had about 270! Here's a few outside pictures from the festivities. If you want to see any detail at all in the first few pictures, you'll have to click the picture to enlarge, then click again to see the fullsize one (1024x768). I really like the first picture, taken from a tripod at 1600 ISO.

	Trick-r-treaters coming down the street towards our house Here's just a small sample of the neighborhood Halloween crowd. The maple trees in front of our house dropped all those leaves overnight, making a beautiful golden carpet on our sidewalk and lawn.
	View of Dream Park from westbound 40th Street It's been suggested that this has something to do with the fact that we get 5-10 times as many trick-r-treaters as our neighbors a few blocks away. Richard's been building up his display gradually year by year. The main innovation this year is the glowing green lights in the hanging pumpking ghosts on the right side.
	Vampire House on Van Nest That's the wee street that runs for just one block between 40th and 41st just this side of Nicollet.
	Zombie House This one's in the middle of the 4xxxx block of Blaisdell, two blocks east of Pillsbury. The big draw at this house is the performance art - mist machines, spooky noises, and a cast of 4 or 5 residents who amble around shaking hands with passersby. I'm told that they weren't actually zombies this year, but I don't know what else to call the place. That guy at the top of the stairs might be the Phantom of the Opera. Others reported seeing a werewolf and a scary pirate.
	Big metafun at the Halloween festivities Johanna keeps Marie Laveau (Voodoo Queen of Old New Orleans) company as she sets up her massive camera equipment to take pictures of her own house. [Picture by Dave Romm]

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

The "coming down the street" and "zombie house" photos are particularly nice!

Incidentally, for static subjects, you'll probably get better results using base ISO and a much longer exposure (since you're using a tripod anyway).

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if i can change the exposure time. It's just a point-and-shoot camera, really.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

More likely, you can turn off auto ISO and set the base ISO, and the camera will then choose a longer exposure time.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"More likely, you can turn off auto ISO and set the base ISO, and the camera will then choose a longer exposure time."

I believe that is the theory. However it doesn't work very well at extreme low light conditions. Setting the ISO manually works much better. And I kind of like the way it makes my snapshots look like Impressionist paintings.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I don't know about your camera, but mine has the option of setting either the exposure time OR the ISO. There may be a way to adjust the base numbers of both, but I couldn't find it in the manual. (Which isn't to say it wasn't there...) When trying to take low light images (eg when attempting to capture lightening), I set the exposure time and let the rest stay on auto.

BTW: Johanna, the 'h' is silent.