I spent this past Halloween doing something I had wanted to do for a long time. I'd been wanting to visit an older area of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan to see how the houses there look for Halloween. Some of them are probably over 100 years old. Part of what I like so much about this area is that the houses are all so different from one another. Photographing these houses on actual Halloween day was even more fun than expected!
These houses looked beautiful, especially with the colors of the fall leaves around them. Many of them are painted in blue and purple tones, which look great next to the orange leaves and pumpkins. You guys know I like those color combinations. So it was hard in a way to do what I had planned. But... I really wanted to change these photos from color to variations of black and white or sepia tone. I left just the tiniest bit of color in some of these.
Now, the reasons I wanted to do this were:
#1 The bare bones of these old houses look so sharp when you take the color away. The details really show up.
#2 The houses look downright haunted in black and white or sepia
#3 I wanted to imagine what earlier photos of these places looked like. Someone was bound to have taken a photo of their home back before color photography.
#4 I wanted to do a combination of black and white and sepia for that antique store feel. If you've paged through a box of old photos in an antique store, you know what I mean. I wanted this blog post to feel like you found a box of old haunted house photos in an antique store and are paging through them.
Many of these places don't look super haunted in color, although a few do. I'm sure a few of the home owners would look at these photos and say "When did my house get so spooky?"
This one turned out more antique looking than most of the others. In part, because of all those white sun spots, dust particles, etc.
There will be some little Halloween details in some of these. Check out the front porch. I'd thought that was an actual woman at first.
I really like the wood gingerbread details on some of these houses. The more I look at this house, the more I'm seeing different shapes that I didn't see before.
This may be one of my favorite houses out of the bunch.
To add to the vintage feel, some of those large paper/cardstock cut-out monster heads are in the windows. You know, the ones that are variations on the Universal type monsters. They're probably from the 1980s. Those decorations are really new next to the houses, but they're still technically "vintage".
After I took these next two photos, I was thinking how the houses were somewhat similar. But the more I look, the more I see a lot of differences. The first one reminds me of a stacked layer-cake.
This one has more rounded features.
Here's a close view of the porch on the house above. I liked that little bit of orange left in the pumpkins. I've never learned how to leave one element of a photo in color while the rest is in black and white. So the subtle orange is just a bit of luck as I was slowly desaturating this one of color.
How cool is this skull in black and white?
Love, love, love this one. Those long pieces of drift wood (?) at the bottom are almost reaching up on the house like a hand.
This is a closer view of the house above, but it looks different since I left a bit of blue.
This is one of a few photos that actually gave me the creeps. There's something funny about being scared by a photo you took yourself. Some of these gave me the chills as I watched the color slip away. Maybe it's the tree? I feel like this house has a personality and is looking back at me. Does this feel like a confrontational house to you too?
This looks like a pretty nice-sized balcony to hang out on!
I was so concentrating on getting some extreme angles with the hill leading up to this house, that I didn't even observe much of the house itself. Now that I'm looking at it, this place is pretty much all windows along the front. I bet the light inside is outstanding! Imagine all the plants you could be growing by those windows. Neat shaped windows too. I like this house. What do you think? 1920s or 30s?
A toothy doorway and a bunch of rambunctious skeletons playing on the railing.
Great sunroom on the second story, hey? I bet that's a warm, welcoming place to hang out on a winter day.
I like the super subtle blend of color on this one. I think that gargoyle is cute, at least at first. The more I'm staring at it, the more he's looking alive.
This house was already pretty much black and gray, so I barely had to take the color away. Because of that, the few colorful details show up. How about that fake political sign? "There is no Dana, only Zuul"
This is another one of those houses that feels like it's giving eye connection, especially from that middle room on the second story.
I have a feeling this place used to be a corner store, or maybe even a restaurant or tavern. It definitely wasn't all living space, as it appears to be now. It might seem strange after seeing the others, but this is one of the few that gives me the creeps. I'm going to have to look up the address and see if I can find the original history of this building. I'd like to see some early photos of it, because I can see a number of recent updates have been made, like the windows and trim.
Here's a friendly house, and another lucky photo where the pumpkins stayed a little orange.
You can't beat this. It practically comes with a face!
I was really happy with a lot of the angles I captured. Some of these places look pretty imposing with the tilt of my camera.
This reminds me of an old schoolhouse, but maybe that little free library in front is influencing me.
This is one of my favorite photos. Just add a few pumpkins to the fence post tops and it's perfect. :)
Do you think a dentist lives here? We have the teeth, one skeleton holding a toothbrush, and the other holding a dental pick. I get a kick out of the eyes in the window.
I like the way the reflections of the trees showed up in the windows. Those reflections weren't even that noticeable before I shifted this to black and white. As I slowly moved the color out of this, the windows began to pop.
Nice fade from black to curtains in those bottom windows!
I'll end with another gingerbread feature. This scrolled detail was actually bright orange, the house was purple, and the trim/roof was black. It was a beautiful Halloween house year-round.
So what do you guys think? Do you have any favorite houses here or do any of them look particularly haunted to you? The more I stared at some of these photos, the more I decided I didn't need to be staring that long. If you know what I mean! 👀 I was freaking myself out.
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