Yesterday The Weekly Standard blog displayed a photo released by the White House purporting to show Obama at Camp David "shooting skeet". Accompanying the photo was this warning:
"This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House."
Even at first glance one gets the notion that something is not quite right here; the stiff posture, the shotgun butt too high on the shoulder, no sign of recoil reaction, etc. Apparently anticipating the serious vetting of this photograph bound to occur the WH trots out flunky David Ploufe to thwart such activities by mocking those who might attempt to expose this fraudulent Yes Ploufe image. Ploufe says; "Attn skeet birthers. Make our day - let the photoshop conspiracies begin!"
Yes Ploufe, the "conspiracies" have begun and analyses by many experts (see below) have demonstrated the many problems with this photo and, despite the warning the blogosphere is having a field day with the photo. Visit Michelle Malkin's "Twitchy"site for remarkable and hilarious examples of manipulation.
Some examples:
Some analysis through more experienced eyes: Steve Sheldon at Clash Daily writes:
"The recently released photograph of President Obama reportedly “Taken at Camp David –
the Maryland presidential retreat – on August 4, 2012, his 51st birthday,” is a complete fake.
As a lifelong shotgunner, I immediately smelled a rat. Nothing in the photo looks right and
upon closer examination, it is a complete fraud.
One need go no further than examining the ports on the shotgun. Ports are tiny holes
sometimes drilled near the muzzle (the business end of the gun) to release energy and
reduce recoil. They serve as a pressure release valve of sorts. One will immediately notice
that there is smoke coming from the right side of the gun in the photo as well as out the
front. The only problem is that there is no smoke coming from the ports on the left side of
the gun, clearly seen in the photo suggesting that the smoke was doctored into the photo.
Furthermore, the smoke exiting on the right side of the gun does not match the port pattern
on the left. If this gun was being fired as suggested by the White House, then the smoke
would be coming out the ports on the gun clearly seen in the picture and evenly on both
sides..".(there is much more evidence here)
But wait, there's more! A Facebook friend notes:Fooling the Fools
"For someone who "shoots all the time" as Obama claims, there are some SERIOUS problems with this picture. First off, his stance is HORRIBLE. The elbow of his stock arm is WAY too low and the butt of the stock is way too high on his shoulder.
Secondly, his line of sight is too low. Also, he's not leaning forward enough, his cheek is too tight to the stock and his stance is too narrow and he should be leaning forward from the waist.
In other words, this is a person who has hardly, if ever, shot a shotgun. Shooting all the time like this would make for a very bruised and sore cheek and shoulder regularly. So much for his "I shoot skeet all the time" load of BS.
Furthermore: There is also no sign of any recoil. The shotgun is a magnaported Browning Citori, so the blast from the top of the barrel would be correct, BUT, modern ammo does NOT smoke like that. That means that these are either black powder blanks, or the smoke is photoshopped. This is nothing more than a posed and possibly photoshopped photo-op to fool the fools."
Secondly, his line of sight is too low. Also, he's not leaning forward enough, his cheek is too tight to the stock and his stance is too narrow and he should be leaning forward from the waist.
In other words, this is a person who has hardly, if ever, shot a shotgun. Shooting all the time like this would make for a very bruised and sore cheek and shoulder regularly. So much for his "I shoot skeet all the time" load of BS.
Furthermore: There is also no sign of any recoil. The shotgun is a magnaported Browning Citori, so the blast from the top of the barrel would be correct, BUT, modern ammo does NOT smoke like that. That means that these are either black powder blanks, or the smoke is photoshopped. This is nothing more than a posed and possibly photoshopped photo-op to fool the fools."
Fooling the Fools:
If you saw a column of smoke can you tell if it blowing toward you or away?
ReplyDeleteThat is the case in this photo. People are thinking the smoke is only on the right side. It is impossible to make this judgment from looking at this angle. Perspective in photos can be confusing.
Second is the lack of recoil. There is recoil. Look at the full sized image.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/8436110735/sizes/o/
In this image you can see the blurring of the gun as it kicks. This is another photographic quirk that confuses people. If the photo is taken with a fast shutter speed any object can look as it is frozen in space.
But if your shutter speed is slow you can see the blurring of movement.
The Pres doesn't appear to have much experience shooting shotguns though.
But when folks jump on this "fake just like his birth certificate" all that does is make people sound like radical nut jobs. People like this dont logically think things through and just see what they want.