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Late last September of 2011, a strong typhoon hit the country leaving Roxas Boulevard flooded and this is probably the first time that this incident has ever happened. What contributed to the flooding is how the seawall along Manila Bay area was constructed. It was high enough to deflect certain wave heights which resulted of course to the amounts of debris that came along with the waves that contributed to clogging the rainwater’s pathways.

After the typhoon, a few DPWH officers visited the area and had their photos taken. The photo was published and there was a twist. The photo was manipulated to an extent where their original photo was cropped and was layered on top of another photo they were in. In other words, to show the public they were there and were doing their job. This was later on discovered by a blogger who noticed that in that photo, the officers looked as if they were floating. But of course, they were cropped and placed on top of that photo anyway. not to mention the artist may have very low standards of editing skills.

So yeah, this caused quite a commotion. People everywhere began bombarding these officers and the whole DPWH for faking their photo. They were laughed at and they were called numerous names. Their photo was even edited again and again putting these DPWH officers in different places and time. The blogger who discovered the “photoshopped”, or what most photographers call an edited photo, even said that he pays his taxes well and this is what they show him?

Let’s look at the numbers first. How many of us gets convinced by edited photos and advertisements. Not to mention the amount of movies, TV shows and commercials we watch that undergo dramatic CGI effects and video editing. At one point we all bought them. Yet, we never complain because we think they to our advantage. Here are a few examples:

• Full time athletes with washboard abs promoting weight loss products.
• Genetically light complexion models posing for a skin whitener.
• Dentists promoting toothpastes that uses a technology even NASA don’t even have.
• Vitamins that say will help children grow taller, bigger and smarter.
• Actresses who get their hair done everyday promoting shampoos.
• Actors promoting alternative meds with no pharmaceutical claims.
• Wedding photos of people who look like gods and goddesses.

Now let’s go back to DPWH’s edited photo. The men were there on the site. A few set of photos were taken. One was edited for better presentation. That’s basically it. But sounds to me that isn’t even comparable to the amount of edited media and lies that we buy probably every single day. Unless of course you missed the point.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 at 1:50 am and is filed under My Personal Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.