I’ve been taking photos and drawing since almost 10 years. This « Pencil Vs Camera » series is nothing but the result of several years of graphic exploration and a logic consequence of my artistic evolution. But the real idea came while I was watching television and writing a letter at the same time a few weeks ago. Reading my letter before putting it in the envelope, I saw in transparency the television behind the paper. I then realize it would be great to make something similar in a single image showing 2 different actions.

I went outside and Drew « Pencil Vs Camera 1 » which is very simple and shows 2 chairs with a small table. About ¼ of the scene is represented on the paper, the other ¾ happens on the photo. So this is roughly how the project started. In my other « Pencil Vs Camera » images, I tried to introduce weird elements on the paper (such as dinosaurs, ufo’s, double pair of eyes…) to contrast with the realism of the photo. Read more here

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While driving to work last week we found a large, great horned owl on the side of the freeway next to a tall concrete wall. He could fly, but not very well (he looked like he may have gotten clipped by a car).
We caught him in mid-flight before it got out in traffic and I somehow managed to not get bitten or ripped open by his claws.
We were on the way to work so we had to bring him with us.
He was pretty mad so it was really tricky to photograph him. I had to hold him with one hand in my lap and work the camera with the other hand.
One of the homeowners we met with that day gave us a box, so that made things quite a bit easier.
We dropped him off at a state park and an animal rescue organization sent a team to come pick him up (I’m not sure if they knew he was already in a box).

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This one’s not so “WTF?” as it is “Why TF is this not on the shelves of every grocery store and gas station on planet Earth?”

For some reason, the following flavor of Pepsi is only available in southern Europe, and unavailable in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor, and Northern Ireland. We’re not exactly sure why…

You know those big, wonky-looking trees that you see in video montages of Dakkar rallies and National Geographic photo spreads of Africa? The ones that look like giant desert broccoli plants? No? Well Pepsi thought they’d make for a good flavor of soda.

Tamarind, Mango, and Sunblock are apparently the flavors behind the short-lived Pepsi Samba:

The head of new product development at Pepsico, Mr. Presley, could not be reached for comment on the following flavor.

This flavor is based on a Japanese sweet bean named “Azuki”.  We’ll refrain from singing a soda version of the “beans, beans” song.  But you get the idea.

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And finally, everyone likes herbs and spices, right?  Well let’s just put them into soda.  How about one that tastes like basil?  What, the kids won’t go for it?  They will if it’s neon green!

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Hoppa, a 4-year-old mixed breed dog, from Tel-Aviv, israel, has received a very special gift, created especially for him. This adorable pooch was born without his front legs, and even though his owner, Avi Kuzi, showed him all the care and affection, he had trouble moving around.

But most of his problems were solved by a wheeling device custom made for Hoppa, by an art student, who hopes his invention could ease the life of pets born with abnormalities, or with amputated limbs.

Photos by REUTERS via CCTV

Down the snout goes the wine – a nice drop of Kagor to sweeten the taste of being blasted into space. Let’s hope it relaxes the poor piglet; he’s got a long journey ahead of him, poor porker. But wait up a second. Why are the history books conspicuously silent about this cosmonaut creature? Are we being sold some kind of pig in a poke here?

As Pinkie is piled into his capsule and carried over to the launch pad, we wonder whether those men’s uniforms aren’t a little too WWII-looking – bearing in mind that the Soviets aren’t supposed to have shot their first mammal into space until 1951. Swine flew? Pigs might fly. These are stills from the award-winning 2005 Russian mockumentary, First on the Moon.

Directed by debutant filmmaker Aleksey Fedorchenko, First on the Moon tells the tale of an unknown Soviet space program that launched a successful moon landing in 1938. In Fedorchenko’s world, the first space rocket was built by the USSR even before the Second World War, decades before the Soviet Moonshot written in history. Mother Russia, we salute you!

In this alternate reality, a Soviet cosmonaut beats his US counterparts to the finishing post – the rest of the world just doesn’t know about it yet. And just as in our more familiar reality, scientific experiments using animals paved the way for human exploration endeavour by testing the survivability of spaceflight. Seems this pilot piglet was part of the rocket trials.

When parts of First on the Moon’s plot leaked out before its release, several Russian newspapers treated it as a documentary about a real 1938 event, referring to it as the Santiago Meteorite. The confusion may have arisen because the beginning of the film is set in Chile, where the manned Soviet spacecraft apparently landed following its return from the moon.

Is it surprising that the distinction between fact and fantasy should have appeared as muddy as a pigsty to the Russian press? Depends on how you look at it. In the British and American film traditions, reality and fiction have long been tough to tell apart: films and dramas often employ documentary conventions; documentaries can contain dramatic and fictional elements.

In the West, satire is famous for spoofing the documentary, but in Russia – certainly unacquainted with Spinal Tap if not with Borat and Brüno – the mockumentary has only just landed or emerged as a genre. Fedorchenko himself was unsure of where to place his film: “For me this is either historical drama or documentary fantasy,” the director has said.

Playful filmmaking like Fedorchenko’s was lost in Cold War Russia, but the director of First on the Moon also has a serious point to make: “Our film is about how the Soviet state machinery manufactured major products – the best people. Fine, strong and clever heroes, then rendered unnecessary to the native land – some have been destroyed, others lost in obscurity, yet others still broken by fear.”

This most piggish of guinea pigs would be one of those heroes. Pigs in Space? Watch First on the Moon. If these stills were enough to fool people online, what elevating effect might the movie have on you?

Images via Taktak

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I know, they look so real, but I assure you they are only miniature models made of “of Gator board, styrene plastic, Sintra [ a light flexible plastic that can be carved, and painted ] plus numerous found objects; such as jewelery pieces, finishing washers and printed material”. They are just 1/24th scale, but by lining them up with the right environment, Michael Paul Smith managed to achieve a “legit” Photoshop effect.

Take a look and be amazed.

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Swing by Katheryn’s portfolio for more, and feel free to send me other photographer recommendations via twitter.