Collab - Halloween at Verbeke Foundation

- oktober 29, 2023

Have I ever told you the story about a shooting day during which I survived all day on 1 glass of white wine? Well, that day was yesterday.

Now, knowing myself, this could easily become a long & boring story so I'll stick to the famous 6-points synopsys:
▷ Drove from the South-East of Limburg to the Verbeke Foundation, a unique and quirky museum for modern art in East-Flanders and got there really early,
▷ Started shooting cosplayers in full Halloween mode near a derelict train-crane,
▷ Drank 1 glass of white wine,
▷ Shot even more Halloween cosplayers till 15minutes after the museum had closed,
▷ Suddenly realized I had completely forgotten to eat, drink, be polite & socialize.. again.
▷ The end?

Probably not because you're here for some stills & video..

Let us start by explaining HOW to get to those images and then continue my exciting story.

▷ Updates on the post-processing progress will go to THE Facebook.
▷ 2 videos will go to Instagram , but 1st to Clapper.
▷ Video 1 on Clapper: Somebody's waiting for you
▷ Video 2 on Clapper: Let me cut you ( = a longer version than on Instagram)
▷ NEW: Buy Red Cathedral a whisky on Ko-Fi
▷ All photos can be found on/downloaded from my Flickr once processed & uploaded
(UPDATE: 100% finished)

This is HOW to download them:

Here's a sample photo to test your newly acquired downloading skills upon:

As with the previous shoots at Verbeke, Geert is to blame.. I mean: to thank for getting it organized and for guiding everyone around. However this time the event suddenly exploded with somewhere between 120-130 inscriptions.
Honestly this is literally the stuff introvert nightmares are made off.. or was it the thought of getting ripped apart by zombies, vampires, werewolves, succubi and other gentle creatures?

Again Geert came to the rescue & got me a spot far away from the masses so I could do my thing.. whatever my thing is. And then steered people towards my super-ultra-secret hiding place.. so I made them climb a derelict crane-locomotive and bathed them in strange lights.

There were some questions I didn't have the time to dive deeply into:

▶ Why all those different lights and what's their task?
    ▷ Keylight (main light),
   ▷ Kicker lights (used as rim light / gives a separation from the background),
   ▷ Accent lights (to avoid black emptyness/give depth/highlight stuff/colour the world),
   ▷ Practicals (in-frame objects which give light)

▶Why those weird poses?
▷ There are 2 major kinds of cosplay pix (3, if you count the OnlyFans kind)

1. Showcase the costume (What most cosplayers desire & makes them happy)
2. Tell a story ( "conceptual", in my case: weird, creepy, dramatic, dehumanized, action- or athmosphere-driven, for which not everyone is open and that's perfectly understandable. Check out these shoots I did for Resident Evil, or these shots in a slaughterhouse, or this video from a Melanie Martinez cosplay if you want samples how far I enjoy going. There's this gory couple's photo for Valentine's Day I've been wanting to make for a while but when I explain it, people just make strange faces and run away.. so yes: not everyone is into that batshit crazy stuff)

▷ When I have an idea for a photo it's most often for the 2nd kind.. that's why I'm always glad when I manage to turn at least 1 of those 3 to 5 ideas into reality.

▷ During fairs/conventions photos are 99% of the 1st kind. During shooting events 95%. There's a bigger chance it'll satisfy the people (and the viewers, strangely enough). The remaining percentage I try to stubbornly do MY own thing.. what might result in questions like "Why those weird poses?" However, if the shot works out the way it's festering in my mind's eye: I'm happy.. and everyone, even I, deserves such small fragments of happyness!

▷ No, I don't mind shooting the 3rd kind. It can be just as valid, creative & well-executed as the other 2. Especially when it's in a Dark Fantasy-style. I'm always surprised why some people, even photographers, look down on such shoots. Humans are strange.

Below this line are some SAMPLES: