Explore your own neighborhood or seek out an unfamiliar destination, keep your camera handy, and enjoy the journey
Decorating for fall is a fundamentally optimistic act. Whether you are celebrating a bountiful harvest, anticipating spooky Halloween hijinks, or simply defying the disappearing daylight, we can all unite behind the fantasy that winter will never actually arrive. Or we can pretend that skeletons are smiling because they are happy to see you. (Right?)
Combine our friends’ and neighbors’ creativity with Central Illinois’s fickle autumn sunshine (or changeable clouds), and you just may find yourself spending an entire afternoon driving aimlessly around and stopping to take pictures whenever the inspiration hits. When you happen upon a Little Free Library sprouting seasonal decor, you know that Fall has officially arrived in Champaign-Urbana and Halloween can’t be far away.
Of course, we have a variety of articles highlighting more permanent and predictably photogenic aspects of our area:
- Where to Instagram in Champaign-Urbana
- 10+ Places to See Fall Colors in Champaign-Urbana
- Where to Take Fall Family Photos in Champaign-Urbana
- Say Cheese: Where to Take Cute Fall-themed Pics in Champaign-Urbana
This post, however, is a little different — it’s about the ephemeral, the temporary, the unexpected. The werewolves?
Even when a business sets up a Halloween display, it’s somehow … extra. Questions flood your mind: Will it still be there when you go back? Is that stapler somehow possessed? How long before the squirrels eat those pumpkins?
It’s about the serendipity of stumbling upon something photogenic when you visit a new neighborhood — such as Lake Falls in Savoy, where skeletons and spiders appear to have taken over.
Or perhaps you prefer your Halloween decor in an older neighborhood, maybe with more trees and more evidence of decay?
Enjoy these last few vignettes, back in central Champaign where the trees hang low over the streets, the crows are gathering, and Halloween is almost upon us.
As the sun begins to set, the lights come on. But only the spooky lights.
We hope these photos have given you the itch to Go Out and Look at Things.
Because winter is coming. And you can’t escape it.
Know a place we should add to this post? Send info/pics to editor@chambanamoms.com
