Graveyard smash

Halloween is clearly a favorite of my neighbors who enhance the sidewalk with art. In years past, they’ve had a spiderweb that stretches from the ground to their roof, with a couple of creepy-crawlies on it.

They upped their game this year with this addition:

(I’ve been using one of the eyeballs as my O365 avatar at work all month.)

Here it is at night:

And here’s a close-up of its maw. I considered using this shot for my avatar, but decided nah. My colleagues got upset when I had a close-up of a cicada.

Anyway, this brings me to today’s earworm. Which is, of course, “The Monster Mash.” Crank up the volume. 

 

Oooer

Okay, we’ve had our vegetables on the previous two days; time for the scary stuff. Here’s a sampler of how the folks in the 'hood are ushering in Halloween.

 

That's the fact, Jack

More on pumpkins today—more specifically, on jack-o’-lanterns. Here’s a crop of carved beauties from around the ‘hood.

The first one I’m calling Janus, because he has faces carved front and back (I couldn’t get round to the back to shoot the second one):

These were pretty artful:

This one went the extra mile:

These were imaginative:

And I noticed that some of the artists put out the scooped-out guts for the critters:

Win-win all around.

 

Pumpkinmania

As you know, we’re creeping stealthily up to Halloween. While I haven’t noticed quite the seasonal front-yard extravaganzas I used to see in the Valley They Call Silicon, residents of the People’s Republic are starting to step up.

Today, let’s talk pumpkins. Pumpkins seem to be the table stakes of Halloween; possibly because they port over to harvest and Thanksgiving pretty well, unless you convert them to Jack O’Lanterns.

Here are some examples:

It would appear that some night critter stopped by for a little supper at this arrangement:

One of these looks like it has Plans for Sunday:

But my primary interest today is this collection, because yesterday morning I met the artist, who’s possibly about four years old. Pretty impressive, no?

I especially liked the stickers on this one:

 

 

Gratitude Monday: new and old

I’m working on a personal project for the next few months. Part of it involves taking better photos than I’ve been doing. I mean—my mobile is fine for those what-did-I-just-see shots, but I want to do better.

So I asked my friends who are professionals to spec me out a camera and lens that will give me the tools and power to achieve that. Not only did they do that—Nikon D780 with a 24-120mm lens (although, in the end, I opted for a 28-300mm lens because of the better (for me) f-stop range)—but TM called round to Ace Camera in Ashburn to reserve them and then spent an hour with me last Thursday, picking up the body and lens and adding on filter, twin memory cards, extra battery; the whole megillah.

Then he assembled everything for me and patiently walked me through the major food groups of its operation. Listen, folks: this camera’s bells have whistles and its whistles have bells; this is going to be a long learning curve. Also, it weighs 3.675 lbs (1.67 kg), so I need to work on my upper body strength.

Since then, I have progressed from being able to turn it on and turn it off to actually going around yesterday afternoon to take a few shots. I have it in your basic point-and-shoot mode, but I’m quiet pleased with the results.

That’s my gratitude for today, the new toy, the new goals, the old friends. Nothing better than that, IMO.