Hacking Pumpkins
Hacking Pumpkins Gallery
While I am not so hot on Halloween as holiday,1 I admire the demonstration of an acutely tuned artistic sensibility and fine craftsmanship in any context.
Consequently, it is not surprising that my favorite pumpkin carving site2 is again this year Extreme Pumpkins, the home to the exquisite jack-o-lanterns pictured above. This excerpt from the introduction effectively conveys the aesthetic of the site.
At what point did the carving of pumpkins turn into a “cute” event? When did boys stop carving pumpkins and moms start? Where did we lose touch with one of the years coolest events?
Today we will seize back this ritual. Today is the day we throw away those safe, cute carving tools. Today. We will buy a big, ugly, pumpkin so large one man cannot lift or move it. Today. We will carve that sumbitch into something ugly and plop it on the front porch. October 31st we will light it brightly enough to give visiting children suntans.
Pumpkin carving is reborn.
Similarly, no prose from my pen keyboard could provide a sense of the site’s contents as effectively and succinctly as the following fragment of Extreme Pumpkin’s index, which deserves more than a cursory glance.
Although my primary pumpkin-slicing loyalty remains devoutly attached to Extreme Pumpkins, I am duly impressed by the Villafane Studios 3-D Pumpkin Carving Tutorial, which was featured this past week at Lifehacker.
Pictured on the right is an outstanding example of the high quality product this process can produce.
It requires, however, no more than a quick review of the list of tools to convince me that this project is not a good fit with my set of sub-rudimentary artistic skills:
One large clay ribbon loop – peels the rind off the pumpkin beautifully as well as does 90% of the carving, minus the small details. One medium clay ribbon loop – more blocking in of the face. Two mini clay ribbon loops -smaller details, especially around the eyes. One Xacto knife and paring knife for sharp defined lines and cuts.
These excellent pumpkin carving sites are found at
Villafane Studios 3-D Pumpkin Carving Tutorial
See updates:
2007: All Saints Day Eve – AKA Halloween
2008: Extreme Pumpkins #1 Heck Of A Guy Pumpkin Carving Site For 3rd Year
Pix Tips
I’ve found the New York Institute of Photography Website a reliable source of both technical and practical recommendations for photographing events taking place in special circumstances, including holidays.
Halloween is no exception. I’ve pulled a couple of paragraphs from the piece that include examples of useful suggestions from both categories:
The Technical: If you’re shooting a child or a group of children, bend down low to kid’s-eye level. Don’t shoot from adult level down on these little ghouls – you’ll trivialize them. Or if you’re limber enough, bend down to below kid’s-eye level or even lie down for the shot. Nothing makes a monster more imposing than looking up at the scary countenance. If you’re shooting two monsters, get them as close together as possible and, again, get close enough to fill the frame with the best parts of their costumes. People tend to drift apart when there’s a camera pointed at them. You want just the opposite – no space between those monsters – like this:
The Practical: If you can, make sure to take a photo of your favorite creature with and without the mask. That way in future years everyone will be able to identify the little devil behind the mask
These helpful ideas and many more can be found at NY Institute of Photography Halloween Photography Tips
All Saint’s Day
Halloween, of course, is actually All Saint’s Day Eve.3
All Saint’s Day, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia is the
Solemnity celebrated on the first of November. It is instituted to honour all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the faithful’s celebration of saints’ feasts during the year.4
While I’m not an impassioned proponent of Halloween, I do see its value as a warm-up of sorts for All Saint’s Day and, more importantly, as a reminder to those purchasing lavish gifts for a favored acquaintance whose birthday falls on – and it’s OK to pretend that this is coincidental – All Saints Day.
- I’m not anti-Halloween either; I just find it difficult to generate much enthusiasm for wearing a costume or for the quasi-legitimation of vandalism [↩]
- Doesn’t everyone has a favorite pumpkin carving site? [↩]
- Halloween was historically known as Hallomas [↩]
- Urbi-4 may have also figured out that, since there are over 10,000 recognized saints, some consolidation was necessary. [↩]
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