I hate to be that guy but....
Subject Sitka Sentinel articleFrom March:
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitkan Tim Shobe is known for taking photos so good they're ``unbelievable.'' But none is quite so unbelievable as the one he took of his friend Rich Kraft paddling through the mouth of a bubble-feeding humpback. The photo of the humpback is real, and so is the one of Kraft. But the two together? Not real.
``He sent it to me, and I showed it around work,'' said Kraft, who is a physician at SEARHC-Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital. The image included a quip about Kraft conducting an oral exam. ``It was just a picture to get a chuckle,'' Kraft said. He thought his
friends would enjoy Shobe's photographic and PhotoShop skills -- and the joke -- and sent it along to a few people about 10 days ago.
But in the world of the Internet, such things take on a life of their own. Before Kraft knew it, the photo had come back to him after reaching several other people. The question was always: ``Is this real?'' The caption ``one plus one can still equal one'' and the joke about an oral exam were missing, which probably resulted in some people being deceived, Kraft said.
He even received a call from an Anchorage reporter, and an offer from a cousin to send it to National Geographic.
Kraft sent off a hurried e-mail stop to that from happening, and said he would never represent the photo as real, except as a brief joke. But he continues to marvel at how real it looks.
``That's unbelievable,'' Kraft said. ``The way the water comes up on the side of the kayak. How did he do that? It looks so good.''
The photo of him in the kayak was taken last winter, when he and Shobe were out kayaking near the ferry terminal. The photo of the whale was taken two weeks ago Thursday in Nakwasina Sound. Kraft said Shobe is an undiscovered talent in the world of photography. Shobe said he was surprised not only that people took the photo at face value, but also at the wide distribution of his PhotoShop-ed image. ``It's been up and down and around, and back to Sitka,'' said Shobe. ``It's kind of funny. ... It's a lot of hours being bored, and being creative. Now I just have to find a way to put it to good use.'' Shobe said, as someone who understands PhotoShop, ``I don't believe anything anymore. But now that people know the photo isn't real, they
don't believe the real stuff anymore
