Amas Veritas – A Halloween theme photoshoot

Posted on Oct 31, 2024

Year 12.

Twelve years! A whole calendar’s worth of creating a little bit of Halloween magic, a silly passion project inspired by and centered around our goodest girl, Willow the Wild.

By popular request, we have indeed created a 2025 calendar for you, featuring all 12 of Willow’s Halloween themed photos! It will be available for pre-order at the link at the bottom of this post. Estimated shipping mid-November and early December for Mexico orders.

Despite feeling like I write this paragraph every year, the truth once again is the world feels like something out of a Stephen King novel. So much hurt, injustice and death. Not to mention an election year, which—as an immigrant, watching all this play out feels like that scene from The Princess Bride: “Now, where were we? Ah yes, The Pit of Despair.”

But once again, I’m not here to write about that, or pretend the horrors of today’s world are not real. I am here, however to offer what art and creativity does for me, even in the darkest of times: to offer a little respite, a little healing. As I read somewhere last year and it bears repeating again now, “So, in unfathomable times, we go small. We do our tiny things…(sic) We write, and work. Try to be grateful for the mundane things we get to do, because we are lucky to be alive to do them.”

With this banner held high, I’m showing up today to release Year 12 of our Halloween photo project.

It goes without saying that after a beloved dog reaches a certain double digit age, every year… every month, every day is a gift. I have never taken that for granted. Ever.

Almost a year and a half out of Willow’s major surgery at UC Davis, there is absolutely no doubt in my heart that this incredible friend of mine is protected and cared for my some serious magic.

“I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for.”

Truth time? I had other plans for Year 12. The timing and ingredients just didn’t align for those specific plans and I was honestly so sad and dejected that I had a hard time searching my imagination for another idea. We vowed to make sure Year 13 sees this idea come to life—given that gift of time, but for now, we needed another plan.

None of the themes from our “idea book” seemed right. This year needed a certain tone. So, Bill and I sat down and brainstormed, together and separately—and more ideas were added to our book, yet none of them were “sparking” for me.
It was only while watching one of the “comfort” movies I treat myself with every autumn that a little petal of an idea landed on my head.

It started with a wish, the part of me that was still sad we couldn’t do the idea I had originally planned. That wish had at its core, the very theme that we went with for this, Year 12.

A wish can be called by another name, you see. A wish is a spell.
In this case, a true love summoning spell one Sally Owens called Amas Veritas.

The Nineties called, they are bringing Practical Magic back

The minute this idea landed on my head, I texted our friend Jen (who’s been involved in most of our Halloween shoots).

Practical Magic (along with several other witchy/Halloween movies) was a solid staple if, like me, you were a child of the 80s’ and came of age in the 90s’.
More of a comfort film than anything else, Practical Magic had a solid cast, a really good soundtrack (Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell anyone?), coined the popular “midnight margaritas” and had a central theme that proved timeless: love (familial, romantic, community/coven) can heal a broken heart, protect and yes… it can break generational curses too.

After dissecting the idea down with Bill, we quickly hashed out a plan. We would need to do some prop shopping, but to our great comfort (and relief), this shoot would end up taking place at our home, which allowed for one extra special ingredient: Artemis, Willow’s 18 year-old feline sibling would have a cameo as the Owens sisters’ black kitty. Jen would be our Gillian Owens and don a long, red-haired wig. I would step in as Sally Owens, and our goodest girl, of course would be the twist in the story. Willow would pay a visit to the Owens Sisters (her coven), to ask for a “love summoning spell”. Sally’s Amas Veritas.

But this is no ordinary love, no. Willow is so loved, and so full of love that she knows herself to be a key ingredient of this spell. The “love” she is summoning is that of legacy. Someone that not only sees and loves her, but will learn everything she has to teach, someone to learn from as well. A love that will carry her spirit and be there to love and protect everyone Willow holds dear.

It will likely go under the radar for most of you, but I’d love for you to know that the scene we ended up with is chock full of personal Easter eggs and little nods to very meaningful things. To name a few, crows to represent Corbin. A beautiful set of prayer beads, lent to us by Jen and her sister Lauren when Willow went in for her surgery. A hand-painted illustration a dear Instagram friend made for me years ago, featuring Willow and Corbin. Jen is wearing a ring that belonged to my grandmother. I could go on and on.

The rest of our prop shop items came from small businesses in downtown Petaluma. Candles from Estuary, a gorgeous resurrection plant from Flourish, dried flowers from Acorn, dried lavender from Side Car Mercantile, and color glass vases from Boho Bungalow among others.

The antique cabinet, an unlikely hero

One of the best parts of doing this project year after year is making the scene in my mind come to life. In thinking of where we could photograph our Practical Magic scene, I looked no further than… our dining room.

An old farmhouse cabinet Bill and I found at a local antique shop in Petaluma would end up doing a LOT of the heavy lifting in our scene. Decked out in books, herbs, ephemera and serving as our witches’ apothecary.

Working in the comfort and coziness of our own home, we were able to photograph each component of the scene separately:

Exposing for the warm, candle-lit scene with a splash of moonlight created by a strobe placed right outside the window.
Gillian Ownes (Jen) with her “midnight margarita” smiles knowingly as the spell cast by Sally and Willow starts to take shape.
Sally Owens (me, Nat), holding Wren, the Owens cat (Artemis) kneels next to a table with a large wooden bowl, surrounded by candles and other key ingredients for Willow’s spell.
Willow sits behind the magic bowl, watching in awe as her spell starts to take flight in the form of petals and flowers, carrying her wish all the way up to that full-bellied moon, the stars of her loved ones and ancestors who guard her.
The spell itself! This was the last image we photographed on a separate day. We used a fish tank filled with water and lit from below, with reflectors on either side. Artificial flowers and petals swirled in the water after a good stirring with a stick. This, admittedly was my harebrained idea and it was such thrill to see that it somehow actually worked!

Lana del Rey played as we light the scene and photographed each component. For a shoot that came together so quickly, it felt like one of the chillest we have ever done. Willow took turns snoozing on her bed and supervising the styling of the scene (Jen and Chris did most of it). Midnight Margaritas were had, and a delicious Mexican dinner was enjoyed curtesy of Quiote Restaurant, even if we did try to wrap up by 9 pm (a first for us).

We all got our brief little moment in front of the camera, but nobody enjoyed this part more than Willow herself. This girl knows her job. She knows this is about her. She’d nail her pose, get her cookie and though released while we checked focus, and she would just go right back up to her marker, unprompted. A true star, nailing her part in under 15 minutes.

And what was that spell, you ask?

Amas Veritas (Willow’s version)

He will hear my call a mile away.
He will lift me up, like a favorite song.
He will fit into our life like a missing puzzle piece.
He can catch pancakes in the air.
He’ll be marvelously kind.
And his favorite shape will be a star.
Maybe he’ll have eyes like the Corn Moon.
Maybe he is wishing for me, too.

A massive, huge Thank You to our Gillian Owens/prop stylist/#1 supporter of this silly project (and Willow auntie) Jen and to Chris (Willow’s uncle), for staying up late on a school night to help us whip up some magic, for always being so game to play a part in this. To all the small shops in Petaluma for helping us bring this to life in such a tangible way. To Bill, for sitting with me when I was sad and yet didn’t let this Halloween go by without us creating something magical, shouldering most of the tech side of things, and having so much fun prop shopping.
And to our one and only, greatest dog star, the magical being herself, our Willow the Wild, for being the catalyst of this creative project and the driving force behind it for the past 12 years.

I, for one, can’t wait for next year.

To you, who read this far. To you, who say you look forward to this every year and come back, even during times like these, thank you, because while we do this for Willow and ourselves, we come back every year to do it for you, too.

I may not know what the future holds for us, I can only make an “educated wish.”But there are some things I know for certain: “always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can.”

Happy Halloween, friends!

Willow the Wild’s Halloween All Year! 2025 Wall Calendar

You asked and here it is! You can pre-order your 2025 calendar and celebrate Halloween all year long with our goodest girl. This beautifully printed calendar features all 12 years of our Halloween passion project. Pre-orders will be available until November 26th to guarantee printing and shipping in time for the holidays.