Best of Fright Night 2012

Throughout the entire month of October Community Church is taken over by Fright Night. This year we had our biggest crowd ever come out with around 10,000 people over the four weekends, and it took a HUGE group of incredible volunteers to make it happen. This year I had a team of people designated to photography who helped run a photo booth and take tons of photos of everyone in the tent, and I spent the month out on the trail taking pictures all night of people gettin’ the mess scared out of them! Last year I focused mostly on photos of the actors out on the trail, but this year there was one good hiding spot in one of the scariest rooms on the trail, so I ended up there every night getting photos of everyone coming through the trail. Over those four weeks I got some hilarious photos, so I thought I’d do a “best of” post to show some of my favorites!

Make sure you go back and check out last years post on Fright Night to get a much more complete idea of how the whole thing works :)

First up, a few of the oh so friendly faces you could expect to see out on the trail… you want him driving your school bus? nope, me neither. this was a new scene this year, with a map of Ashburn and a few familiar faces that seemed to have gone missing: ah yes, and my group of friends for the month… with how much clowns scare me, of COURSE this would be the room with the best spot for photos… the vortex was definitely a great addition this year! Basically it is spinning around you, but the effect is that YOU are spinning with the room. I got to hang out with Slender Man in the vortex and take video footage of a few groups and it was always hilarious (for me, anyway) to see how turned around and dizzy people got in there. I feel like I can say that, since I walked back and forth in the vortex many MANY times and still bumped into the railing every time. I never could get totally used to it like a certain someone promised i would… :)
here’s a little video clip of my favorite vortex moment.. the guy in the white sweatshirt has been making me laugh for WEEKS now every time I watch this clip! his comments throughout these 30 seconds are SO funny to me! “guys I can’t get up! I can’t get up!! … is he real?! GUYS, HE’S REAL!! HE’S REAL!!! stop, i’ll give you money! i’ll give you money!!”

a little disclaimer about the rest of the photos… since the trail is 99.9% pitch black, there are very few rooms that have a light source at all for me to get a decent exposure. Add to that the fact that I need a place to hide and not be obtrusive, so that I don’t ruin the experience for everyone walking the trail, and my options for a good hiding spot for photos were pretty limited. In the clown room they had built in two hiding spots blocked off by a black tarp with slits cut through it so that Joseph (who you will remember from being the worlds scariest clown last year too, as well as our KGB director, and 2nd shooter extraordinaire) could jump out at people from behind it. So i had a great place to hide, and he was always able to get a pretty terrified reaction out of everyone who came through… which means great photos for me :) Even my brother walked the trail and when asked what the scariest spot was replied “well, when that clown jumped out at you.. yeah that was pretty bad…” I think I can speak for all of the people in the rest of these photos when I say that this was definitely one of the scariest parts of the Fright Night experience…

… now onto the good stuff :)and this would be his sister…
which would be why he is standing over her laughing, while she is huddled in fetal position on the ground. brothers can be so cruel sometimes ;) this was one of the best groups that came through.. they screamed the WHOLE way through! their expressions are amazing:if i had to walk the trail, this is how i would do it too: this is one of my favorite photos from the month.. i think she was the only person that came through the trail that looked like she wanted to HUG him! even Pastor Charlie is brave enough to walk the FN trail… and gets scared just as badly :) mostly people would literally just RUN through the rest of the scene.. I think they knew what was coming if they didn’t book it outta there… all I can think of when I see this picture is how my own grandparents would look walking the trail… somehow I don’t think my grandma and grandpa would appear quite this calm…this was one of the very last photos I took on the last night, and incase you were wondering that look on Joseph’s face is him totally judging this guy for his VERY loud little girl scream and freak out about .2 seconds prior. ;) 
you all have a full year to build up your courage, and come out next year and find out why we scare better :) Happy Monday!