Photographing the Pumpkin House in low light

The Kenova, WV Pumpkin House is celebrating its 44th year! The best time to visit is after dark. Bring a tripod and embrace the challenges of photographing the Pumpkin House in low light!

The history of the Pumpkin House

The Pumpkin House is located at 748 Beech Street in Kenova, WV. The display began in 1978 with just four pumpkins, one for each family member. Each year after that, it became a personal goal to add more pumpkins to the display. This year the pumpkins total 3,000! There is an estimated 30,000 people (about 1,000 per day) who visit the display each year. The history of the Pumpkin House is interesting and spans decades!

Many of the pumpkins on display are carved by local schools and art programs. Hundreds of volunteers gather the pumpkins and deliver them to the schools for the students to carve. The volunteers then pickup the pumpkins and deliver them to the house to be displayed. What a great way for the community and the students to be involved with the pumpkin house!

Challenges of photographing the Pumpkin House

Photographing the display is challenging because of the sheer number of people milling around at any given time. Another challenge is the low light given off by the pumpkins. Arriving later in the evening will provide for more opportunities to get more photographs without so many people. Plan to arrive around 8–8:30 p.m. You will still have to park a few blocks away and walk to the street.

Be prepared to stand in line and move through the display with the rest of the crowd. You will have opportunities to do close-up photos of the pumpkins during this time. The crowd moves slow enough that you can isolate images, but chances are you will not be able to use your tripod at this point.

Entertainment

It is not just pumpkins, there is entertainment! One of the highlights of the Pumpkin House display is the synchronized musical pumpkin wall. Depending on the song, the pumpkins will flash on and off to the beat of the music. One of the crowd favorites was “Dueling Banjos” performed by the inflatable Minion on top of the wall!

Photographing the pumpkins in a crowd

While in the crowd, it is difficult to use your tripod. Increasing your ISO will help to capture those close-up images. I set my Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III to ISO 1000 for the majority of the close-ups. I was using a Lensbaby Sweet 50, which has a sweet spot of focus.

As the evening progresses, around 11 p.m. to Midnight, the crowds will thin out. Ultimately it will be easier to use your tripod and move around to other vantage points to capture images without so many people in them.

Food vendors

If a snack attack occurs while you are walking around, there are food vendors available to meet your late night munchie needs!

Additional photographic challenges

Obviously one of the main challenges is all of the people. If you have a long enough shutter speed on a low ISO, the people should fade away. On the other hand, if they stand still too long they become ghosts.

In the example on the left, the individuals moved and stopped, multiple times, creating “ghosts” in the image. In the image on the right, you can still see the faint image of shoes and legs.

Another challenge is the electric line that runs in front of the house. It is possible to remove this in Photoshop, but I left it in for reference. Additionally, low light is challenging and the decision has to be made whether to use a tripod or increase the ISO.

Experiment with different angles

It is important to photograph the Pumpkin House from different angles will provide the viewer with a sense of vastness of the display. It is difficult to appreciate the display with one single view. Walk around and take photographs from other perspectives. You might have to wait on a few people to take a selfie or groups to move on out of your way. It is all worth the time involved.

Childhood favorites

Be on the lookout for those characters that bring back memories from your or your kids childhood. How could you not appreciate Linus and the Great Pumpkin or how about Wile E. Coyote?

Just one more

The Pumpkin House is a lot like photography — when you think you are finished, you always have to have just one more! If you find yourself in the Tristate region of Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky in the fall, plan to visit the Kenova Pumpkin House. You will not be disappointed!