Dressing the part

Everything else aside, and whether we like the commercialism of Halloween as little as we might like the ultra commercialism of Christmas, going fancy dress, whether trick or treating with the kids, heading for a full-on Halloween party or just hanging out at home with friends, we have to admit, most of us just love dressing up.  

Putting the paint on....getting ready for Halloween party

And getting into the mood for fun and mischief.........

And time for everyone to party!

Perhaps it's the hiding behind a tenuous mask from which we can take on aspects of human nature we would normally conceal.  Perhaps it's that even as adults we love the appeal of Halloween to our child-like natures, the part of us that never grew up and never wants to grow up.  Either way, dressing up is a huge part of modern Halloween traditions.

Time to drink up and go trick or treating!!!!

Which is precisely what Little Lenses Photography has found this year.  A specialist in natural light photography and working mainly with kids and families, Jessica Richardson of Little Lenses Photography decided to open up some Halloween Mini Photo shoot sessions.  A bit of tweeting and letting everyone on Facebook know, and the sessions are already booking up.  But to prepare the promotional material, she needed pictures.  So off to Alameda Gardens in Gib on a humid August day to get the images she needed.  A Mediterranean botanic gardens in the height of summer is not necessarily conducive to creating the mood for the dark, cold, ghost-infested atmosphere of the traditional Northern European based Halloween.  But once the costumes were on and the make up painted onto faces, the mood suddenly changed.  

Especially when it came to taking pictures of the pre-teens.  Carmen and Gianna were a little nervous at first, like, what self-respecting pre-teen girl is going to wander about dishevelled and wearing all black bar neon stripy socks and sporting black lippy?  But it was  not long before they hit the mood of the moment and then they were diva models all the way, suggesting shots, draping themselves in near-death poses over fences, "haunting" old-style phone boxes and generally looking gloomy.  

The girls were brilliant.  But we can all change a little when we dress up. That's the way we flirt a little with the danger, the risk of it all - how much, do we ask ourselves from the depths of our subconscious, do we become the monster that we depict?  Or do we find ourselves easily depicting that which lies buried deep within us.  Well, this year I am heading for dressing up as a hag, the third witch, the representation of age and death.  Shouldn't be hard.