Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long-Leggedy Beasties

"'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business, as the day
Would quake to look on."

- Hamlet, scene ii, William Shakespeare

Halloween saved me today, from blip ignominy. I had no photo, so wandered about before going into the train station - but got nothing worth anything.

As I was walking home after the train trip however, I saw ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties trouping around with buckets-full of gut-rot. There! - thought I - there'll be my blip. As I arrived home a group of young'uns were leaving our house, and took great interest in my camera, asking me to take their photo (I had to disabuse them of the notion I was a photographer for the local newspaper). So I obliged.

Another kid came along just after that with a most elaborate mask, and I took a photo of him/her as well.

Then along came another group, one of whom was calling out hello to my daughter - who was hanging back not really knowing what to make of the ghoulies and ghosties - nor the long-leggedy beasties, neither - and after giving out the obligatory ed, I asked for their photo as well. While the group pic did look good, I found that I preferred it zoomed in on this girl - who happened to be the one calling hello to my daughter.

As well as the crop, I sharpened it a bit, and played with the curves: red pulled up, luminance down ... then red pulled down (don't ask me; I just work here), then over to the hue/saturation section to pull out a touch of green which had crept in. I was quite happy with the end result. The original can be seen here.

Large version here.