We’ve been having fun shooting Halloween photos at Dixon Reservoir in Fort Collins, CO, recently (October 2024). Two people answered my call for willing subjects to participate in a fun Halloween-themed photo shoot. Dixon Reservoir is across County Road 42C from the Maxwell Natural Area parking lot. There’s a small forest there with an opening that’s perfect for fun photo shoots. I regularly ride by this forest while on my mountain bike and always thought it’d be a great spot in Fort Collins for Halloween photos.
One Halloween photo shoot was with Klaudia and Tyler. They brought their own pumpkins to wear. They found pumpkins large enough to fit over the head. Great idea! They carved great faces in them. Klaudia’s pumpkin face is a classic scary face, while Tyler’s is a more fun face winking! Nice combination of scary and fun.
They had fun wearing them and posing with them. Wearing them and walking with them on was a challenge, as it was difficult to see where they were going. 😆 We got some great shots of Klaudia running away from scary Tyler, some individual poses, some shots of them together with their pumpkins in their laps or holding them. A lot of fun.
Other Halloween photos at Dixon Reservoir in Fort Collins, CO, was with Jessica. For this dark and creepy shoot, I wanted to make her float or levitate. I had seen this photo done on-line, but wanted to try it for myself. To pull it off, I brought a stool and kneeling pad from home. The pad went on top of the stool so the stool was more comfortable for her to lay backwards on. I brought my 200 watt Godox strobe and heavy duty light standing. It was a cloudy overcast afternoon, so I didn’t need anything stronger than 200 watts.
I took one photo of her laying backwards on the stool lit-up, and another photo of the area without her, the stool, or the light. My plan was to merge these photos in Photoshop and remove the stool. However, today’s Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic, which is what I used to edit my photos, does such as great job removing objects, I didn’t need the second photos. I added fake ground fog in Photoshop back in my office.
If you’re interested in high-quality Halloween photos at Dixon Reservoir or anywhere else in Fort Collins, CO, let’s talk! It’s often nice to have a second person there to bounce ideas off of, watch for hand placement and backgrounds, watch for wardrobe malfunctions 😆, not to mention have high-end photography equipment to capture great photos, and have pro software for editing those photos, making changes, etc.