Last October, I shared a really simple Halloween photo idea with my Photo Bestie email list, and of all the things I’ve shared here over the years, this is the one people STILL talk to me about.
Seriously. People have stopped me to tell me they loved this idea. People have told me they started doing it with their own kids. I’ve even had people tell me they wish they’d started one year ago.
And the funny thing is, it might be the simplest photo project I’ve ever shared.
One photo. Once a year.
That’s it.
Every Halloween, I take one photograph of each of my kids in their costume. I print it as a 4×6 and put it into a small photo album that belongs just to them. Then, when Halloween is over, we pack the albums away with the rest of our Halloween decorations.
The next October, out come the pumpkins and skeletons and bins of decorations, and out come those little albums too.
And every year, we add one more picture.
I think that’s what I love most about this project. It doesn’t require me to make a giant photo book every year or organize thousands of pictures or promise myself that someday I’m going to sit down and finally do something with my camera roll.
I just have to print one picture.
But after a few years, one picture becomes something.
You start flipping through and see the year they were completely obsessed with a character you had almost forgotten about. The missing teeth. The homemade costume. The costume they wore approximately 900 times before Halloween even arrived. The year they suddenly looked so much older than they did the Halloween before.
And eventually you realize you’re not really looking at an album of Halloween costumes at all.
You’re watching your kid grow up.
One Halloween at a time.
So here’s your Photo Bestie assignment this Halloween.
Before trick-or-treating starts, take the picture.
I say before because if you’ve ever tried to get a decent photograph five minutes before everyone is supposed to head out the door, you already know where this is going.
Someone can’t find part of their costume. Someone else has already gotten into the candy. It’s getting dark. The neighbors are outside. The kids can hear other kids trick-or-treating, and suddenly you are the only thing standing between them and a pillowcase full of Reese’s Cups.
This is not the time for your artistic vision.
So do it earlier.
Find some pretty light, take them outside or stand them near a window, and spend two minutes getting that one picture you know you’ll want later.
And while you’ve got the camera out, get a few more.
Get close to the little details. The face paint, the cape, the wand, the homemade accessory they are ridiculously proud of. Let them BE the character for you. Run, twirl, roar, fly, cast spells, whatever we’re working with this year.
Get yourself in one too. It can be a selfie. It counts.
And then, at the end of the night, take one more.
The costume is half off. Candy is dumped all over the floor. Someone has chocolate on their face. Everyone is exhausted. That’s part of the story too.
But of all those pictures, I want you to choose one. Print it as a 4×6. Put it in a little album. Pack it away with the Halloween decorations.
Next year, do it again.
That’s it. Because one photograph doesn’t feel like very much right now. But one photograph this year, and one next year, and one the year after that? Someday you’re going to pull that little album out of the Halloween bin, sit on the floor and flip through years of missing teeth, questionable costumes, favorite characters and faces that somehow changed when you weren’t looking.
And you’re going to be really freaking glad you printed the picture.
They say don’t blink. Good news for you: a photograph never grows up.
Your Photo Bestie,
Tiff
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