Halloween At the Office

On a quite Sunday, we went to Richmond's financial district with our model, Beauregard Marie. I worked in NYC for years and wanted to find a location that reminded me of the marble office plazas in mid-town Manhattan. I also wanted to replicate how the early morning/afternoon sun hits at such a strong angle this time of year.

I had Beau walk back an forth, and up and down those steps a lot. We tried various camera angles and lots of different hand positions with the jack-o-lantern. Getting the swing of the pumpkin and the briefcase with just the right stride took us a while to figure out. Beau did a great job, and was very patient.

For lighting, we supplemented the natural open shade of the office plaza with a battery powered off camera flash, creating a "kicker light" from the right side (notice how the main light reflecting onto the subject at a right angle--not what you'd naturally see at noontime in open shade). We added a few orange gels to warm the light to give it that early am glow. In all those years on Madison Avenue, I never actually saw anyone walking to work with a candy-filled pumpkin. But if I had, I'd have smiled like a jack-o-lantern.

Image Copyright 2007 Elaine Odell, Church Hill Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved.