The Obamas' umbrella

[Jenn]

Comment: I received the email below, along with the attached photo, from a
family member. It looks like a genuine picture but I can't find any reference to
it anywhere else online. Can you find out the back story on this photo for me,
please, because it is just too silly to take at face value:

IS HE SMART OR WHAT????????

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk through
a gate in the Columbia Parc Development to visit newly built homes in New
Orleans, Louisiana, August 29, 2010.

As soon as he figures out how to walk whrough that gate holding an
umbrella, he'll take care of the economy, health care, Wall Street, Irak,
Afghanistan, unemployment and a few things more.

But first things first.

IF THIS PICTURE WOULD HAVE BEEN OF PRESIDENT BUSH AND BARBARA....
YOU WOULD HAVE SEEN IT IN EVERY NEWSPAPERS AND ALL THE TV
CHANNELS!!!!!!!! enjoy it!

[BringTheNoise]

Assuming it's a real photo, it's perfectly easy to sort that out. Move one hand from the one side of the gate to the other, let go with the hand on the inside of the gate, and lift a little. A lot easier than putting it down, getting wet and then putting it up again. Looks like Obama is doing just that.

IF THIS PICTURE WOULD HAVE BEEN OF PRESIDENT BUSH AND BARBARA....
YOU WOULD HAVE SEEN IT IN EVERY NEWSPAPERS AND ALL THE TV
CHANNELS!!!!!!!!

Was George Bush Sr really that well known for being stupid? I never heard that.

[katikate]

I didn't realize Irak had changed the spelling of their name...

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by BringTheNoise

Assuming it's a real photo, it's perfectly easy to sort that out. Move one hand from the one side of the gate to the other, let go with the hand on the inside of the gate, and lift a little. A lot easier than putting it down, getting wet and then putting it up again. Looks like Obama is doing just that.

Exactly - he is in the process of moving it from one side of the gate to the other by the easiest means, surely? What kind of idiot wrote the forwarded comment?

[Chloe]

But look how still he's standing! I looked at the photo for five minutes and at the end of that time, he *still* hadn't moved the umbrella! What a dimwit!

[Stan The Man]

Originally Posted by katikate

I didn't realize Irak had changed the spelling of their name...

While Iraq is certainly more common, Irak is also correct.

[Hapax Legomena]

I wondered what, if anything, I was missing here, as it looks like he is lifting the umbrella over the bar in order to keep it in use rather than to put it down and through the gate and get wet in the process. What other possible way could he have done this? These "har har lookit what OBUMA did!!" things don't even make sense anymore.

[ParaDiddle]

I'm not all that well-versed in digital manipulation or investigation, but I was playing around with a few settings in Piccassa. After adjusting a few things, then playing with the sharpness, it seems like the horizontal crossbar was added after the fact.





I suspect that the umbrella canopy was too wide to fit between the two vertical posts and POUSA decided to lift it higher.

Maybe I have a future as a CSI technician, eh?

- P

[Chloe]

It's the same image (and crossbar) in the Guardian: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...-Miche-001.jpg

[videoguy]

I would have collapsed the umbrella a bit and then ducked down while walking through. Obama's method seems fine though too.

[Lainie]

He might have chosen to do it that way, thinking that it would do a better job of protecting Michelle than if he collapsed it.

[videoguy]

I think the photo is real, because here is a similar (but certainly different) one.
http://twitpic.com/2jm6yq

[Jenn]

I think it's nice that he's a gentleman.

[Hapax Legomena]

The same pic, along with one apparently taken after they went through the gate, is also at the Columbia Parc Development site (scroll through the gallery to the end). The crossbar is an actual part of the gate, unless they've manipulated the pics on the site.

So how long before someone removes the bar in editing and sends the same email around?

[AliBaba]

Wow. So I guess the haters are really running low on things to ding Obama for? Hell, I'm an Obama supporter and I can think of plenty of things I'd like to ding him for.

This is beyond stupid.

AliBaba

[ParaDiddle]

Originally Posted by videoguy

I think the photo is real, because here is a similar (but certainly different) one.
http://twitpic.com/2jm6yq

Unaltered pic from the OP



Twitpic from Videoguy's link



I wanted to see what was different about them. I can tell that one has been cropped and possibly squeezed/streched a bit, but I may be missing what actually makes them a different image. I'm getting the same impression from the UK Guardian. I really do believe they are all copies of the same image. What's disputable is if the image was altered.

- P

{ETA} Typed before reading #14 by Hapax Legomena

{ETA #2} I can now see that they are different images taken at almost the same moment in time.

[Nonny Mouse]

Originally Posted by Jenn

I think it's nice that he's a gentleman.

Funny, I was just thinking that it was kind of silly for Michelle not to have her own umbrella.

Nonny

[Lainie]

Maybe they like sharing an umbrella when they're walking together. Two people, each with their own umbrellas, have to walk fairly far apart.

[Eddylizard]

It looks also possible to me that he may be grasping the catch mechanism thingy to fold the umbrella down prior to going through the gateway, and a breeze took it out of his control in that moment.

In other pointless news I heard a rumour that Obama ate an avocado recently which had been grown in MEXICO. Does he not know that they are also grown in Spain where his wife recently went? She could have brought a box back for him. Where is the man's decency and respect for the citizens he claims to represent?

[Mama Duck]

Originally Posted by Nonny Mouse

Funny, I was just thinking that it was kind of silly for Michelle not to have her own umbrella.

It might be the president that doesn't have his own umbrella. So he would simply be carrying his wife's umbrella.

I have no real love for the president. But I think it's a sweet picture. It took me awhile to figure out what the OP thought was wrong. Even then, did the OP commenter not know one can *gasp* switch hands?