Today, I carved my first-ever pumpkin. Granted, my parents bought us pumpkins when I was probably six or seven, and I remember we scooped out pumpkin guts in our patio, but I’m pretty sure my mom handled the knife work. Which means, I’ve never carved a pumpkin. Until today.
Normally, I wouldn’t blog these sorts of shenanigans, except…
- I’m really proud of my pumpkin,
- I used all three of my prime lenses in documenting my pumpkin and
- Jeff and I went to some ridiculous measures to light up my pumpkin for the final shot.
So, here we go!
Taken with my 28/2.8. First, I had Jeff print out the “Jurassic Park” logo. Then, using my light table and a Sharpie, I traced it onto another sheet of paper and simplified some of the details, like the teeth. Jeff helped me tape and tack the pattern onto my beautiful pumpkin, which we picked at Barefoot Farm in Dover.
Using a weird pick tool (not sure why we have it), I punched small holes along the outlines. Then, once I removed the pattern, I used the same pick to create the lines via the holes. The hardest part was not the teeth, but actually the letters.
And voila!
Taken with my 100/2 lens on our deck. Because the pattern is so intricate, I figured it’d be easier to do a relief carving, rather than actually carving through the flesh and meat.
But as we all know, the only thing that matters is how good your pumpkin looks when it’s lit up. So… voila!
Taken with my 50/1.4. This is on our kitchen floor. A couple of tea lights are inside the pumpkin. My Boy Scout headlamp is on the floor behind the pumpkin, and Jeff held up his iPad (on a lower brightness setting) and used the iPad fold-over case as a gobo. Yeah. That happened.
So, uh, yeah.
I promise I’ll have some more, uh, professional photos up soon. And some film, once I pick it up tomorrow and get it scanned over the next few days.
Words and Light 
Sweet!