A lot of you have probably seen these, I mean, they have been around for almost a 100 years, but I guess I was late to the party. My buddy, Cary, sent these over and I've been hooked ever since. Some of the images, taken by Englishman Arthur S Mole and his American colleague John D Thomas, use over 18,000 US Soldiers, and some of the ones at the tops of the icons are over 1/2 mile away from the lens. That's just impressive. I mean, like blow your mind impressive. "Hey, you. No, not you... you, yeah. Could you move slightly to your left?"
August 7, 2009
Gimmie An 'A'
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70 comments:
I saw these a few years ago; but, I enjoyed seeing them again. Just thinking of the chaos when posing our own family for pictures makes me have such great appreciation for the incredible amount of patience and organization represented here!
WOW. take that beijing olympics box routine!
Impressive, but a complete waste of time for the soldiers involved. We hated parades and dog & pony shows when I was in the army.
To be fair though, is not being in the Army in the first place a complete waste of time? ;)
Just kidding of course. That being said, those are impressive as hell.
I had never seen these photos. They are very unusual.
An Arkies Musings
Impressive, but one question: Where are they getting the money and time to fund this? I mean, I don't want my tax dollars to go toward choreographers for them to do THIS. And I don't want any of our people out there actually doing stuff while these lazy holes get to make pretty sky pictures.
Wow, gotta love Archie Bunker mentality above with the "WASTE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS" commentary. What have YOU done lately to validate taking up space here on earth, Mr. Anonymous? The photos are friggin' incredible.
It was almost 70 years ago, none of your tax dollars paid for this.
These look a little fake to me.
The people at the back look far too small compared to objects in the background.
what the hell... everytime an impressive photo appears on the web, some asshole throws down the "fake" card like he's playing uno and is slapping down the 'draw four' card. The reason the people in the back look smaller is because they're futher away from the lens. In order for the picture to work the photographer had to have to use more soldiers/people (higher density) towards the back of the formation than you do in the front... Othwerwise the effect would be lost, it would just look like a few thousand people trying to make a shape on a large field. The image or insignia would have looked stretched or elongated... But wait... GPS devices didn't exist 70-80 years ago did they? So how could they do this? Yep, must be fake... (intended sarcasm)
You're right squall4040 definately fake, they didn't have GPS back then.. I think they used lasers or something like that. Good pictured but a shame they didn't use colour, probably couldn't afdord it with all the money spent on lasers.
ALWAYS a post from a negative nancy. I think the pics are incredible. How in the world did they choreograph this!
A reminder that cool stuff existed before the Internet :)
Some people need to realize that supper amazing pictures can just be taken, and afterward not shopped.
Having seen much of this sort of thing done in real life, these are most definitely NOT fake. Just carefully planned, drawn up, and executed.
Actually if you look closely at the 'photos' you can see the same person repeated over and over. It's obvious cos they haven't even bothered to change they're clothing! I agree it's a shame they didn't take colour pics, again probably didn't want to show they're all wearing the same clothes...
Oh my gosh, this is so intense. I cannot believe this, it is so amazing and patriotic(:
ive found one of the statue of liberty.
Photoshopped for sure.
Kidding. Awesome work.
Ah-hah! So THAT'S how people Flash Mobbed before the Internet was invented!
To all you "thats fake" folk,you need to look at the photos close enough to tell these are called UNIFORMS.To those who say "they didnt do that in "MY army" you must not be from here . To those who say "NOT WITH MY TAXES" you are right;THESE ARE OLD and from a time when people did PATRIOTIC THINGS FOR FREE!! THIS IS THE U.S.A.AND WE DO EVERYTHING BIG-you penny pinchers could learn from these PATRIOTS FROM THE PAST .....
Definitely shopped
Have any of you people watched a marching band...ever??? Yeah, they all look alike due to wearing UNIFORMS, like in the Army, or Navy, or Marines...or marching band for a university or high school. It makes them more cohesive, as in a group that works together...so they all got together, coordinated things and set up some great looking "people pictures"...amazing! photo shopped my a@#!
it's definitely not photoshopped, if you look at the US Shield photo: see how the inner most white stripes only have three soldiers across per white stripe at the bottom of the shield, or closest to the camera? As the stripes, or soldiers, continue further up the shield or away from the camera, they have to add a fourth and then a fifth soldier to account for the distorted perspective due to the massive amount of space these guys are taking up. Also, I highly doubt there was a sophisticated photoshop-like program available in the 19-teens, even the 1940s.
Power to 'em
I can't believe that my tax dollars are going towards teaching someone to use photoshop. At least they're not spending it on color and gps, though. As far as the lasers, I want to know where they got b&w lasers...
The next to last one... who's that guy? Why didn't they do someone cool like Ah-nold?
Sadly there's a new generation of kids who believe everything is photoshopped. The moon landing, the holocaust, the Kennedy assasination. All photoshopped!
Sigh.
If photoshop is as powerful as Clifford says, then I don't understand why we let our children play with it.
I hadn't actually seen this before. We did a human flag in Sacramento once using different colored t-shirts.
What a bunch of idiots some of you are. If any of you are old enough to of had grandparents back in WWI or WWII they did do this kind of thing. Pretty clever if you ask me. I know for a fact these are legit. Grow up!!
i wish i would have seen this earlier and gotten to post earlier but...
to those of you that think its a waste of taxpayers dollars, these pictures represent our country, the greatest country in the world. some of you should be proud to show this... thats just my opinion tho, i have not been in the army and i never will be, but i like these alot, bring people together.
not fake... stfu troll... just planned out, organized and executed... shows patriatism.
Oh my God people! Catch on! The people saying they are fake do not really believe they are fake! They are just trying to get you to respond. They are trolls. Way to fall for their bait. Just ignore them. No one really thinks these were photoshopped or all the same person. Duh!
The posters calling "fake" and "tax dollars" are just morons trying to get us normal, appreciative folk all riled up. Just disregard.
Very impressive stuff. God bless the U.S.A.
Great photos, but please, you american patriots, take your heads outta your asses.
Doesn't matter how they did it, What's done is done. It's Amazing and Beautiful! And I believe that putting something like this down, is a slap in the face, Come on America! Let's have some Positivity, and enjoy!
Thank You, And have a Great Day! =)
Does nobody appreciate the brilliant humor in these post? I think they're brilliant. Jerry Seinfeld's in da house!
"I think they used lasers or something like that. Good pictured but a shame they didn't use colour, probably couldn't afford it with all the money spent on lasers."
"I can't believe that my tax dollars are going towards teaching someone to use photoshop. At least they're not spending it on color and gps, though. As far as the lasers, I want to know where they got b&w lasers..."
Oh, and the replies of all those who fall for it made me laugh almost just as much! *L*
"Actually if you look closely at the 'photos' you can see the same person repeated over and over. It's obvious cos they haven't even bothered to change they're clothing! I agree it's a shame they didn't take colour pics, again probably didn't want to show they're all wearing the same clothes..."
Shopped!!!
Sorry to all the people I have antagonised with my laser and colour photo comments, you are easily wound up though :). I'm in the military myself (brittish though as you may be able to tell by my spelling..) and I have taken part in such things, just on a smaller scale. These are excellent examples. Good to see there are still people out there who will fall for a good "they're all wearing the same clothes comment", beauty!
It would suck to be the people in the middle!
Πολύ καλή δουλειά που απαιτεί συγχρονισμό και ταυτόχρονα πολύ καλή ματιά του φωτογράφου.
I haven't seen these before. Somehow knew that one on top was from here in SA. I bet there are a lot of newly-minted airmen in that photo. (Lackland is basic training for the USAF.) Certainly it wasn't a thrill a minute for them, but no worse than all the other wastes of time you have to deal with, and look at the result!
Now if they were all naked, that would be something to see.
Seriouslt, great post.
There were some pictures at the top of this page and I looked at them.
I hadnt seem these before. Thanks for sharing!
these are nothing short of awesome... thanks for posting.
I'm a hundred and three years old today. I was the first official retoucher for the United States Armed Forces. I can confirm that these photographs were created from a single soldier who was dragged from the brig early one morning after having been scooped up on a drunk sweep by MPs the night before. Using Photoshop 0.00000001 on my steam-powered Appleseed computer, which was portable, by the way, brought in on a twenty-six car freight train to Fort Benning, I cloned the image of that single soldier into the fantastic "photos" you see here. Originally, Morris wanted to carve the "troops" out of soap and coal, but that didn't work out. There you have it. Sorry for the seven decades of deception.
http://rokdrop.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2id-insignia.jpg
21MAY09 Camp Casey Korea ;) 2ID Patch Day
amazing concept, i just wish that the photographer had depicted something more worthwhile. i have been an american my entire life and i never understood why the usa is so nationalistic. we should be breaking down the borders of nationality, not reinforcing them with redundant symbols meant to elicit "patriotic" pride. people living on one side of an imaginary line are no different than people on the other side.
What a waste of manpower and time and money! While it is somewhat unusual my first thought was the best.....WHY?
all the money spent on lasers. haha
i'm trying to figure out how all your taxpayer money was wasted. these photos are all from the first world war., when none of you had even been concieved yet.
For anyone that complained about the army wasting time or money with this, these were made quite some time ago and none of your money was wasted on them, so stop complaining.
Plus where is your sense of patriotism, people need to be enthused about the people protecting their rights and their country, even if you don't agree with how leaders are delegating them.
Reminds me of Catch-22 and the emphasis on aerial photographs.
The photos themselves took no more than thirty minutes for the soldiers. The image was projected, at night, with a spotlight and an image on a glass plate onto the field from the same point of view from which the picture was taken. The image from any other perspective would appear distorted, but from the point of view of the photographer it would appear exact. The image was drawn out by a few soldiers at night, most likely with the same powder they use to trace the lines of a football field. Instead of solid lines, they would have done dotted rows. Dropping either a dark or white pile of chalk determined by whether or not light was shining on the ground at that spot. All while counting the number of dark and light chalk piles. The commanding officer would know before hand how many soldiers should be wearing each color. Then the soldiers would file on to their respective piles of chalk in the morning after being told what color shirt to wear. Viola. It cost less than the price of any Adobe Photoshop program (with inflation.) It also happened with the efficiency of a daily morning line up. The effect of patriotism and pride that it had on any viewer and consequent mental and economic support that it stirred far outweighs the cost of making these genius images. The soldiers and artists who came up with this incredible idea should be commended.
ps. j/k it was photoshopped! :)
these really are amazing! the comments are not.
lol definately photoshop
Agreed. It's Photoshopped. You see, on the last picture the beard is just too pointy, so pointy I find it hard to beleive that it is real.
it's shopped. i can tell from the pixels and that i have seen many shops in my time.
it's shopped. i can tell from the pixels and that i have seen many shops in my time.
These are amazing ... It must have taken a lot of effort and time to come up with these images.
Its amazing work, very well executed :)
you guys are funnier than the damn pictures. I think that they are real, because I have similar photos in a set from my great grandparents. But just reading these comments was five times more entertaining than the photos. Keep it up smart asses out there.
Simply awesome,I 've never seen anything like these before, this was 70 years ago. Thank you for sharing.
My high school did something a little less extreme, but along the same lines.
During the lunch period, they got allll the kids together, and everyone stood in the shape of a peace sign.
It was actually really cool.
Pretty incredible stuff!
http://www.wedgeofallegiance.com
Awesome
meat meat meat nom nom nom im a carnivore!!!!!!!
these are real. i have participated in these events. they are a display of disipline unit pride cohesion and patriotism. yes it takes a bit of practice most do,t like to do it. it looks fake because of the distance away need for the formation to fit on the picture. also becaues the camera was raise up an looking down at around a 45 degree angle. viola solved
jajajajjajajjajaj eerrr diablozzzzzzz jajajajajajja
How would anyone organise all those people. I have trouble with 80 when photographing a wedding.
Cool...but really...who cares
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