The Carolands Mansion hosts a neighborhood haunted "estate" every Halloween. While the interior is off limits to all but staff, the main entrance is decorated with spooky animated tableaus, while the estate's driveway is lined with audio-animatronic witches, zombies, and other denizens of the dark. In addition, a light show is projected onto the exterior of the mansion itself, while ghostly images projected on the windows from within.Jeremy The Juggler: Jeremy Shafer was there on his unicycle, juggling balls and clubs while entertaining children and adults alike. He remembered me from last year, and agreed to work with me on a photo I've wanted to make since I first visited the mansion in 2019.
The Flying Witch: One of the animated decorations was a witch that shrieked overhead of regular intervals. It traveled on a wired stretched between a tree in the courtyard and a convenient third floor window. I know that I needed to photograph it when it passed across the sky so it could be seen in the final photo. I found a position where the mansion occupied the left half of the frame. The witch could now be seen on the right side of the frame, if I could get some light on it.
Lighting Phase 1: I started to experiment with a speedlight mounted on a 10' light stand aimed at where I wanted the with to be. I believed that if I mounted the light high enough and confined the light beam with a grid, I could prevent light from influencing the my foreground subjects, which would be lit separately. Flash output was determined through trial and error using the camera based radio controller. You can see from the photo that the exposure was very close to what I wanted.
This photo was taken with the shutter set at the top sync speed, so there was little ambient light hitting the witch, if any. One down, two to go.
Lighting Phase 2: To light the foreground subjects, I mounted a speedlight on a short monopod (think selfie stick) and aimed it directly at the subjects. This proved to be tricky because I needed to take a very low shooting angle to include all of Jeremy and Maleficent. You can see that the 16-55 lens at its widest setting wasn't quite wide enough. Curses.
Saved By A Cheap Lens: I knew that I wouldn't need a telephoto lens, so my T-1 and its heavy 50-140 lens would sit this assignment out. I still needed a backup camera in case my prime camera malfunctioned, so I added a lightweight E1 body which happened to have a 10mm Peargear fisheye lens already mounted. I already had a backup 27mm Fuji lens in my bag. I thought the fisheye might be fun to play with if I had time. I never thought I would need it as badly as I did.
The lens has produced some passible images on my morning walks, so using it to produce a Page 2 image for the paper wouldn't need to be that sharp. Then too, any photo taken under these low-light conditions was bound to display some subject motion anyway, I needed to capture the spirit of the moment that was reasonably sharp. When you look at the image I made with the Pergear, you will see that it doesn't compare with Fujinon lenses in terms of resolution and contrast. But an image is an image, so I simply transferred the exposure settings from my primary T2 to the little E-1, I was back in the fight.
For those who believe I should have done more to re-arrange my subject's foreground placement, I would reply that you can't always direct your subjects too aggressively, especially when they have other duties to perform. I constantly remind myself that their time is a gift, and that I am grateful for what they can give. In hindsight, I may have been able to get a better angle if my left hand wasn't holding the flash-on-a-stick I was using to light my foreground, It didn't occur to me that I could have attached this light to same light stand I was using for the "flying witch" light, since its position was critical to the outcome of the photo. Having two hands to steady the camera may have enabled me to take a lower shooting angle option. Darn.
Lighting Phase 3: The last lighting adjustment would be governed by how bright the light display on the mansion would be. If you think about it, the sky keeps getting darker and darker, and that's the one thing you totally can't control. A blue sky in the background is the a "time of day" thing, and beyond anyone's control when the sun finally goes down. Final exposure would be determined by the light show on the mansion itself, and controlled with the shutter speed dial.
Cast Photo: Early in the evening a made a Cast Photo of the volunteers that made the event possible. I am pleased with, but not wild about, the final shot. It is "pro forma" that non-photographers believe that photography is a "step up and take it" affair, which it isn't. No matter what you do, there is always somebody who is late to the party, and somebody who has to leave before the final is taken. I had only enough time to raise extend the light stand to the proper height, and one or two sample shots to position it properly. Even then, the left side was a bit "hot", and required some judicious burning to return the focus the subjects in the middle.
My takeaways for the night? First, find that miner's headlamp that once lived in the lighting bag. And more important, find a sturdy and clamp to hold that second flash. Those two observations were certainly worth the two hours I spent on the set.
For what it's worth, I found this clamp on Amazon. It's big enough to grab any light stand section between 5/8" to 1/3/8" in diameter. It can also grab a flat surface (like a handy shelf) if it's less than 1 3/8" It has both 1/4 and 3/8 threaded holes to accept a variety of flash-holding options. If I add a standard threaded spigot, I could easily mount a small to medium sized flash so long as it's mounted close It appears to compact, and weighs only 4 ounces. It should fit in my flash bag easily.
When it arrives, I post more details. I'm hopeful it will solve this problem.
