Halloween House, Cross Plains, WI

I drove out to Cross Plains a couple nights before Halloween with a friend, to see an amazing Halloween house she’d discovered. The house is on a corner plot, and they go all out to decorate for the holidays, in an annual tradition, filling up their entire yard, patio, and lot. Well over a hundred pumpkins, all kinds of ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night; a gigantic spider on the roof of the garage, one of my favorites; animated statues that go off when you pass by and make noise, sometimes making you jump; spooky lighting effects; cobwebs and demons and lanterns; and even more pumpkins, carved in a wide array of patterns, everything from something traditional to intricate and delicate designs. A lot the things they make themselves, very creatively. Mary, the mother of the house, who does most of the artistic creation, is very modest about it; but I think she's a gifted decorator and designer, and a heck of a talented artist.





We arrived at the Halloween house at dusk, and I spent over an hour photographing things, using a tripod as the light was failing. It was full dark before I had made it around the house and yard twice. Many of the exposures were up to 13 seconds long. Then we went off to dinner, at the Hilltop Inn just outside Cross Plains. We went back to the Halloween house after dinner and I shot some video and more photos. This was a very fun shoot. I also recorded some of the spooky sounds. When we were there the second time, it was quieter, and if you stood and took it all in, it actually was creepy and spooky, the further it got on into the night.