We’ve been visiting fall festivals all month, and even attended a few in September. Unfortunately, I’ve found that the term fall festival often refers more to the time of year than the actual content of the event.
Most turned out to be vendor markets. Some featured handmade items, while others had more of a drop-shipping vibe. We did find one actual fall festival, but it came with a rather steep admission price and a corn maze that was somehow less than a foot tall.
Not quite what I had in mind.
Finally, during the last weekend before Halloween, we decided to return to an old standby.
Halloween is my favorite holiday, and fall is my favorite season. Unfortunately, I live in Florida, where the leaves don’t generally change into the beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows I associate with autumn. If I want to experience those familiar signs of the season, I have to seek them out.
I want pumpkins, dying cornfields, hay bales, and whatever other fall-themed foliage and decorations I can find. I want to be surrounded by the sights, sounds, and smells of autumn.
And, of course, I want to take at least a few cute photographs of otherwise creepy action figures enjoying the scenery.
Otherwise, was it even October?
On Friday, I purchased four tickets for our Sunday excursion. James’s mom didn’t seem particularly interested in going, but he assured me she’d come around and encouraged me to purchase tickets for all of us.
She loves vendor markets. I love fall scenery and photographic opportunities. Who would have thought it would be so difficult to find an event that offered both?
And she did come around! Or perhaps she simply realized we’d already paid for her ticket and felt obligated to attend. Either way, James, his parents, and I were off to Sykes Family Farms in Elkton, Florida.
Returning to Sykes Family Farms
James helped me pose Sam among the pumpkins and other fall decorations, and I came away with quite a few photographs I was happy with.
This year, I decided it was time for the Pumpkin King from The Nightmare Before Christmas to have his own photoshoot.
Of course, I brought Sam along as well. And several miniature pumpkins. You never know when a tiny pumpkin might come in handy, even when you’re visiting a place full of actual pumpkins.
Before getting too caught up in photographing my figures, however, I wanted to enjoy the farm itself.
We wandered around the property, stopping to look at the animals, seasonal decorations, and various displays. There were cows in the fields, chickens, scarecrows, pumpkins, and plenty of opportunities for photographs.
I took pictures of James and his parents, along with the scenery and decorations that caught my attention.
The sunflowers were particularly lovely. Some were fully opened, their bright yellow petals surrounding dark centers, while others were still tightly closed. I spent some time photographing them at different stages of development. I particularly enjoyed the contrast between the bright flowers and the otherwise increasingly dry vegetation.
And then there was the corn.
Finally, a cornfield that actually looked like a cornfield!
The stalks were tall, dry, and rustling in the wind. I took quite a few photographs, as well as a short video, because the sound of the wind moving through the drying stalks was as much a part of the experience as their appearance.
This was precisely the kind of autumn atmosphere I’d been hoping to find.
Naturally, I also saw an opportunity to photograph my Halloween figures.
The Pumpkin King Loses His Limbs
The Pumpkin King looked right at home among the orange and white pumpkins, hay bales, and dying vegetation. His enormous jack-o’-lantern head and long, skeletal limbs made him a particularly appropriate subject for the occasion.
Unfortunately, he was also quite literally falling apart.
His legs had detached from his body almost immediately after I opened the package, before we ever made it to the farm. I’d managed to reattach them using wire, which at least allowed him to stand and be posed.
I thought I’d resolved the problem.
Apparently, his legs were only the beginning.
While photographing him at the festival, his hands began falling off. One after the other.
This presented an additional challenge to an already somewhat difficult photoshoot.
I found myself trying to conceal his handless arms behind pumpkins and vegetation, positioning them where the missing pieces wouldn’t be obvious, or tentatively balancing one of his hands against his wrist just long enough to take a photograph.
His long legs weren’t particularly cooperative either, although the wire repairs at least gave me something to work with.
I experimented with seating him among pumpkins and hay, posing him among dried vegetation, and making use of the various decorations around the farm.
One of the more challenging photographs involved having him hang from a bent corn stalk.
With his repaired legs and increasingly unreliable hands, this wasn’t exactly straightforward.
Thankfully, James was willing to help. While I worked on the composition, he helped hold the Pumpkin King’s arm in position so I could get the photograph.
I’ve included a behind-the-scenes image showing his hand assisting with the pose. It’s a good illustration of how much manipulation can go into making a tiny plastic character appear to be doing something independently.
And considering the Pumpkin King’s tendency to lose body parts throughout the afternoon, I was grateful for the extra pair of hands.
Especially since the figure couldn’t seem to keep his own!
Some of my photographic decisions that afternoon were intentional, while others were creative solutions to the problem of photographing a figure that seemed determined to disassemble itself.
At least he looked appropriately spooky.
Sam, meanwhile, was much better suited to exploring the overgrown areas of the farm. His orange pajamas stood out against the greenery and reddish branches, while his burlap head blended surprisingly well with the dried vegetation.
I photographed him among the plants, hanging from branches, and exploring the fall scenery.
I took far more photographs than I needed, as usual, experimenting with different compositions, perspectives, and poses.
Of course, getting those photographs involved a fair amount of physical effort.
Toy Photography Is Not for the Faint of Heart
One thing that doesn’t always come across in the final photographs is what goes into making them.
When you’re photographing small figures in an environment designed for full-sized humans, getting the right perspective often means getting yourself down to their level.
Sometimes that means crouching. Sometimes it means kneeling. And sometimes it means practically crawling around in the dirt in the middle of a dying cornfield.
James managed to photograph me doing just that.
I’m sure I looked perfectly reasonable to anyone passing by.
The ground was muddy in places, and by the time I’d finished photographing the figures, my pants had acquired some rather noticeable stains.
I’d spent a fair amount of the afternoon working around plants and dried stalks, trying to find interesting compositions while keeping my figures upright, intact, and reasonably free of dirt.
Well, as intact as possible, anyway.
It’s rather amusing to compare the photographs of the Pumpkin King hanging from the corn stalk with the behind-the-scenes photographs of what it took to make that happen.
In the finished photograph, he’s a little pumpkin-headed skeleton enjoying an autumn afternoon in the cornfield.
Just outside the frame, however, there’s a grown woman crouching in the dirt and her boyfriend carefully helping to hold an action figure together long enough to take a photograph.
Such is the glamorous life of a toy photographer.
A Little Bit of Fall in Florida
Despite the difficulties posed by my increasingly disassembled Pumpkin King, I enjoyed the opportunity to photograph my figures in surroundings I don’t ordinarily have access to.
The cornfield, pumpkins, and other decorations provided plenty of opportunities to experiment, and I came away with a collection of images I’m looking forward to editing and sharing.
But the toy photography was only part of the afternoon.
I also enjoyed wandering around the farm with James and his parents, photographing the animals and plants, and finally finding the kind of autumn atmosphere I’d been searching for all month.
Living in Florida means I don’t get to experience the changing seasons quite the way I’d like. Our autumns don’t generally come with colorful falling leaves, crisp temperatures, and the unmistakable feeling that winter is on its way.
But I can visit a pumpkin patch. I can walk through a field of drying corn and listen to the stalks rustling in the wind. I can photograph sunflowers, scarecrows, and whatever other bits of the season I can find.
And apparently, I can also crawl around in the dirt photographing a pumpkin-headed skeleton that’s held together with wire and wishful thinking.
I’d call that a successful October afternoon.
Even if my pants and the Pumpkin King might disagree.
Have you found any good fall festivals this year?
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