I am
very glad I was experienced enough to
dedicate the first few nights of shooting to getting the scenes and
characters documented. Once the 13th hit, Spookywoods was
packed! This was a very happening place both on the 13th
(Friday 13th) and this night. There would have been no time to set
up my shot, play with lighting, and take the final photograph of the
scene; the next group would have come through while I was still setting
up the shot.
So, tonight, I focused almost exclusively on getting
scares in a few key places. I didn't have pictures of inside the
prison scene, so that was top on my list. I spent an hour there
alone because the scares kept coming. Another priority was the
scene in the crypt (vampires). Sadly, there just was not enough
room to get good shots--and the flow of people through the scene was
unpredictable. Kane Hodder of the 13th horror films autographed
photos, so that was another place I needed to get. Finally, things
worked out well at the scene before the mine and after Jason, so I spent
an enjoyable time there as well (I even created
my favorite picture of the night there).
Some people might want to know how they can be assured of their scare
pictures showing here. I shall describe the process. First,
the picture must turn out: lighting, angle, and everyone important needs
to be in the frame. After that, it's more my opinion. I will
usually not post posed pictures and definitely not pictures of people
that I think are faking a scare. My preference is the
following: everything is in the frame, the light looks good, people are
scared, no one is making an odd gesture or looking towards the camera,
and the picture is of a key moment. For a night like this one, I
had a good batch of photos to work with and managed to whittle it down
to less than a hundred.
This album is part of
Christopher Hall's
Haunted Pictures collection.