Totoro and the Four Elements

This year’s trick or treat adventure was a little different than past years. My almost 13 year old went off with her friends instead of hanging out with us, so my mama heart broke just a bit as I had to accept the fact that my children are inevitably growing up, and my yearly trick or treating photoshoot will sadly come to an end in the next year or 2. But hopefully they’ll still want to dress up and create these super fun themed pictures for many years to come. It was fun making these with my children as I teach them how to use all the creative tools in photoshop.

Adelaide went as one of her favourite childhood characters, Totoro. We created this scene above by taking a picture in a beautifully lit area. We took a picture of a cute leaf from our vine plant in the living room that we enlarged to make an umbrella and then we added other characters from the movie.

In celebration of the four natural elements, Audrey went as water, and her friends went as fire, earth, and air. We made the above photo by simply photographing her in the gorgeous golden light and then adding a few AI elements for the magic! Then later, we met up with her friends and snapped a photo in an area that wasn’t the most ideal, but sometimes you just gotta take what you can get. So to create this incredible scene below, we used an old photo from my visit to Ushuaia, Argentina as the background. Then we used AI prompts for the tornado and fire.

Their other bud went as an angel and they wanted a photo that could include all of them. So they thought all the elements could come together to create the almighty powerful light! Using the sun as our big light burst we added some colourful light brushes to create orb-like magic powers and thick fog. A little AI to clean up the parked cars in the background, and ta-da!

When the sun went down the elements were in the element! They trick or treated together around the neighbourhood firmly correcting everyone who mistook them for princesses. We were hoping to find Totoro along the way, but alas, Totoro was having too much fun with their friends. Scroll down to see their fun adventure.

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Catwoman + Mustard (and Ketchup and Fries).

Most years my kids have done a joint costume and I create a pretty epic picture for them. But this year they decided to do their own thing. My youngest and her best buds thought it would be hilarious to go together as mustard, ketchup, and french fries. And they were right! So we headed to our favourite local burger joint, The Tuck Shop for their adorable Halloween picture!

Meanwhile my oldest wanted to go as a ninja or something similar. After a lot of back and forth, she landed on Catwoman! We have a pretty awesome view of the city from our balcony which made the perfect scene for her picture.

On Halloween night just as the sun was setting Catwoman and Mustard headed out in search of Mustard’s missing pieces (and to collect candy of course). They knocked on doors as they headed down the street.

It wasn’t long before they ran in to Hotdog!! That was a very exciting moment for Mustard…and Hotdog! They asked if they had seen Ketchup and Fries, but they had only seen Spicy Mustard and Burger (who was sitting on the porch).

After saying goodbye to Hotdog, Catwoman heard her friends calling. She wished Mustard goodluck as she slipped in to the night off on a new mission to collect as much candy as possible with Cat, Cousin It, Cruella, and Hermes.

As Mustard continued on, it wasn’t long before she saw that big red bottle of Ketchup! Mustard and Ketchup were together again! They skipped down the street feeling almost whole! There was one more missing piece. Fries.

After a whole block, French Fries were nowhere to be found. But they did run in to another Hotdog who said they had not seen Fries but would relay any messages if they ran in to them. After relaying the message, the hunt for Fries continued. This time they had to go through the spookier parts.

After the Candy Take-Out Window they turned the corner, and just around the bend they spotted FRIES!!! Their mission was accomplished. They were reunited and felt complete!

They ate candy while reminiscing about the evening. When it was time to for everyone to pack it in for the night, Mustard called out for Catwoman. Once she arrived they headed home to fall asleep in their pile of candy.

The end.

I was reeeeaaaaally looking forward to this years trick or treating adventure because I jumped on the mirrorless bandwagon and got my hands on the Canon R6!! I also updated my lenses! It has been an absolute dream shooting with this camera. It handles low light much better than I expected.

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