Show off your pumpkin pics and tells us about the experience.
User avatar
By Raven
#94972
BrookR1 wrote:I've got serious pumpkin envy. :thumbsup:
Sadly, Groot is missing and poor Baby Groot was laying on his side with his face chewed off. I'm really guessing it was a raccoon, or raccoons, which is kinda funny since one was suppose to be Groot's BFF. :P
User avatar
By BrookR1
#94978
Raven wrote:
BrookR1 wrote:I've got serious pumpkin envy. :thumbsup:
Sadly, Groot is missing and poor Baby Groot was laying on his side with his face chewed off. I'm really guessing it was a raccoon, or raccoons, which is kinda funny since one was suppose to be Groot's BFF. :P
I almost started carving in my backyard, which has a ton of squirrels. Luckily, I came to my senses and carved in the garage.
User avatar
By Raven
#94995
Great Scott! According to my calculations Halloween is 5 days away! Well, ok, 4 days 4 hours so many minutes (from where I am), but you get the idea.

The whole "hey someone make real flaming tire tracks" might work for someone else, but it frustrated me to no end. I have something like 50 - 60 pictures trying to get the fire just right. I'm not completely happy with this one, wanted the tracks to be longer, but it was the best of the bunch. Either the fire was too bright, camera focused only on it and not the 'kins, wind blew the fire together, flames were too high, not bright enough, one side went out before the pic was taken or it went out all together. I started with laying down paper tape, like what you would put a gauze bandage on with, but you could see the tape far too much and I didn't like that, so I just squirted rubbing alcohol on the cement in a line and lit it on fire. It burns a LOT longer with the tape, but didn't look very good. Oh, and it was also raining which didn't help the flames.. and of course I needed lightning to get 1.21 gigawatts..

Image
#95002
Raven wrote:Great Scott! According to my calculations Halloween is 5 days away! Well, ok, 4 days 4 hours so many minutes (from where I am), but you get the idea.

The whole "hey someone make real flaming tire tracks" might work for someone else, but it frustrated me to no end. I have something like 50 - 60 pictures trying to get the fire just right. I'm not completely happy with this one, wanted the tracks to be longer, but it was the best of the bunch. Either the fire was too bright, camera focused only on it and not the 'kins, wind blew the fire together, flames were too high, not bright enough, one side went out before the pic was taken or it went out all together. I started with laying down paper tape, like what you would put a gauze bandage on with, but you could see the tape far too much and I didn't like that, so I just squirted rubbing alcohol on the cement in a line and lit it on fire. It burns a LOT longer with the tape, but didn't look very good. Oh, and it was also raining which didn't help the flames.. and of course I needed lightning to get 1.21 gigawatts..

Image
Are you kidding me??? This is incredible!!! I'm blown away by your staging, I really am. If there's a contest for 2015 carves, I gotta believe that this one is the leader in the clubhouse. :shock:
#95034
Man in the Moon - a good warmup. I think it's an effective design, with only a few pieces to cut out really. The star background was a great idea!
S.A.M wrote:You said you had difficulty photographing it and I know what you mean, LEDs can be super bright and will flood a long exposure when you're trying to capture the glow of a pumpkin. A little trick that I use it to make a composite of two pictures of the same subject but with different lighting.
Great photography tip, I've done this myself before. Raven, if you're just using a basic point-and-shoot and getting these photos, you're going to be a serious danger if you upgrade your camera gear too. You'll be unstoppable.

Winnie Sanderson - in a cabin with her spell book!? Amazing. You go all out with these props and locations. Just look at that. :o

T. rex - With Marleysaurus. Haha. What a patient doggy. I know what you mean about not being able to find a more sceen-accurate can of Barnosol. The Jurassic branded cans are a pretty genius piece of marketing, but not when we want to use the can as a movie style prop. A little too... on the nose.

Vulture Shock - wow, you went thin on that pumpkin. Bet it was super easy to cut through. But probably didn't last long. That's what the photos are for. Another fitting prop, with them bones!

Witch with moon and bats - I'll forgive you for carving a non-ZP pattern. You have some art skills! I'll confess that I did think that lower bat was her leg at first, but that's not a bad thing. When you look at it that way, she's on the ground, getting a running start before taking flight on that broom! That's part of the flying process for every witch, but rarely depicted on pumpkin carvings. :)

White mushroom is sorta gross but impressive!

Mortem the Moon - Nice addition of the house and bats. Makes this moon even spookier than the first. Looks good. A really popular pattern this year.

Pumpkin Masters 360° - Ok, you carved a PM? Get out. :thumbsdown: Just kidding! :lol: That actually looks really cool. Like a lantern-bowl. And the face part is a pattern I actually carved many years ago, before I started ZP. I want to say... it's called Shriek or something?

Yorick - It's funny how I named the skull pattern "Yorick" as an afterthought, and yet so many are running with the Hamlet connection. You fittingly fitted him with his jester hat, showing off your knowledge of Shakespeare. And he's in a grave digging scene. Well done.

Meg Mucklebones - I love how this pattern turned out, so I'm thrilled every time I see it carved. Gold shield would have been good, but understandably hard to photograph. Unicorn horn connection is good though. How'd you do the smoke behind her? Looks awesome.

Groot - Aww yeah, baby Groot in a real flower pot. I have thoughts to do this myself. I was hoping others would too. It's a natural choice for displaying it. Big Groot looks good too! In the woodlands. Hilarious irony if a raccoon ate him.

Back to the Future - :shock: Whoa, this is heavy. You did it, you actually did it. I applaud you for the efforts, which sound frustrating. But nobody would know looking at the photo. The fact that you actually photographed flame trails on the ground is beyond epic.
User avatar
By Raven
#95051
Zombie Pumpkins! wrote:
Pumpkin Masters 360° - Ok, you carved a PM? Get out. :thumbsdown: Just kidding! :lol: That actually looks really cool. Like a lantern-bowl. And the face part is a pattern I actually carved many years ago, before I started ZP. I want to say... it's called Shriek or something?
HA! I admit, I felt dirty and ashamed carving this, and then to admit to everyone, especially you, that I strayed? It was the hardest decision of my life.. I actually had carved that face pattern before as well, back in the day before the glorious ZP! patterns could be found.
Zombie Pumpkins! wrote:
Meg Mucklebones - How'd you do the smoke behind her? Looks awesome.
I found some rather large glow sticks at the dollar store (Dollar Tree) and set up 3 behind her then just pointed my fog machine in that direction and let it go. The stupid unicorn horn actually lights up and turns colors, but again I had the problem of some colors were too bright and looked nuclear in the pics. By the time I was done trying to get just the right picture my whole house was filled with fog juice and the smoke alarm was going off. :roll: Of course, the same thing happened last year with the aliens carve I did so at least I expected it. :P
Killed by Death wrote:All of these pictures are wonderful but the Back to the Future staging is outrageous! You have unbelievable patience! Awesome job!
Thanks! Patience.. yeah, not my strong point. I was pretty over the whole fire thing and really wanted to pour some of the rubbing alcohol over the pumpkins themselves and just set it all on fire. :lol:


Thank you everyone for all the wonderful comments you leave me here and on Facebook. I do this all for you guys. You are my Trick-or-Treaters and my inspiration to keep coming up with something to stage a picture with. I have 2 'kins left which I think one will be the free Minecraft pattern and will go to my nephews on Halloween. I don't really have anything to stage with that one and don't really know anything about Minecraft myself, but the nephews love it. The other 'kin I'm not sure what will happen with it yet although I think it may have to go to Christopher Lee. We'll see. :D
By Ajax
#95072
You did it and it looks great, congrats on that. :thumbsup: Think I'll pass on doing that after hearing some of your horror stories and my limited time in the upcoming days, probably just blow myself up. Really great job, it ranks up there with your alien one from last season. I was driving in the summer and I actually saw a delorean driving past me, kind of blew my mind because I live in a small town and I don't think there's many of them left.
User avatar
By Raven
#95218
I'll probably update once more since I have one more pumpkin left, but it probably wont be staged. I carve a 'kin every year for my niece and nephews and this year I think I will do the Minecraft pattern for them. They have a ton of Minecraft props, but it's going to be crazy over there on Halloween so I doubt I will be able to set up a good picture. So, here is my last (probably) staged carve. This pumpkin was one of those hard to carve ones that are stringy and tough and each time I stabbed my carving tool in it just wanted to go wherever it wanted and not follow the lines. :x It was hard to transfer the pattern as well since this 'kin had so many deep ridges. I try not to buy them like that, but oh well. Special thanks to my husband for making me a stake last night. :love:

Image
  • 1
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7