It started with a moment of adulting at the local Checkers.

I was ambling down the aisle, basket in hand, when a bag of Ghost Pops caught my eye. I hadn’t had them in years. I stood in the checkout queue like an NPC, staring at nothing, until the intercom voice ordered me to have my loyalty card ready.

As the bright green and purple bag hit the conveyor belt, a thought occurred to me. Halloween was close. It was time to put these things under the lights.

The Anatomy of a Failure

Back at the studio, I got to work. I only had one bag, so there was zero margin for error. I couldn’t iron it or flatten it; it had to be an “open” bag in the final shot. I lit the base bag, wrinkles and all, and then carefully photographed the internal foil to composite later.

Then things got complicated. I wanted the chips to look like they were flying out of the bag by some dark magic.

The plan was simple: set the camera on a 10-second timer, sprint around the lights, and drop a handful of chips just as the flashes fired.

It was a disaster. After an hour, the studio was a mess. There were Ghost Pop crumbs on the camera, the lens, and my clothes. My dog, Mr. Brown, was treat-mining the floor while I dodged light stands in the dark. It was a comedy of errors. I eventually gave up, laid the things flat, and shot them in a simple triangle.