Hand Stand at the Four Corners, USA

• Hugh
  August 27th, 2007 at 6:49 pm

  I assume this is photoshopped? He looks like he’s being held up in a static position (not a clever cartwheel), but he can’t be holding up his weight on one bent finger!

• Anita
  August 27th, 2007 at 7:55 pm

  If that’s not photoshopped, he’s one strong kid!

• L
  August 27th, 2007 at 9:17 pm

  Someone’s holding him by the ankles. Look at the angle of his feet. There’s also a weird horizontal line in the sky. I doubt it’s a UFO. It’s probably some bad Photoshop work. The reflection on the little metal disk also doesn’t look right.

• hippybear
  August 27th, 2007 at 9:44 pm

  It’s obviously faked. Zoom in on the picture a bit, and the haloing around the kid’s legs is a dead giveaway. Probably pasted in from an entirely different picture altogether.

  Clever, but double-plus untrue.

• Chris
  August 27th, 2007 at 9:55 pm

  Actually, there’s an EC comic that deals with someone who commits the perfect murder by dropping someone out of a plane to land at exactly this spot, thus creating so many jurisdictional conflicts to be able to die of old age before the case finally reaches the courts.

  Went wrong, of course, but still worth thinking about. If you dropped that kid on his conk, who would pick up the endangerment case?

• toby
  August 27th, 2007 at 10:30 pm

  I’m going to go ahead and say it’s real. The disk reflection looks perfect in my opinion, the horizontal line is obviously a cloud. I’m not sure where the “haloing” around the legs is. Looks fine on my screen. I’m thinking the kid did fast cartwheel where he was only on the finger for fractions of a second. The photographer might have used a “burst mode” of shooting a few frames with one shutter button push to catch just the right frame.
  I’m in a business where I have to scrutinize photo-shopped images images and in my opinion this is just a good/lucky photo.

• Doe
  August 27th, 2007 at 10:36 pm

  I used to be a competitive gymnast, and trust me, it isn’t that hard to balance in a handstand and just lift up one arm.

• Vexorg
  August 27th, 2007 at 11:16 pm

  Actually, the Four Corners is on two Indian reservations (Navajo on the AZ, NM and UT sides, and Ute Mountain on the CO side,) and the Navajo tribe is in charge of tne monument. I would assume for that reason that any misbehavior would probably be handled by them.

• dragonbec
  August 28th, 2007 at 2:18 pm

  That isnt a one armed handstand. He’s on one -finger-. I think he really looks like he’s suspended by the ankles not mid cartwheel.

  Also this pic on the original page says “my son has this idea for a picture at four corners” not “here’s a picture of my son…” I think that clearly states that its not a picture of him there…but a concept

• Orjan
  August 28th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

  “I’m not sure where the “haloing” around the legs is. Looks fine on my screen.”
  “I’m in a business where I have to scrutinize photo-shopped images”

  So you must be a professional? If yes then I feel sad for the people who hired you.

  It’s called image artifacts, often seen when images are edited.

• Alex
  August 28th, 2007 at 8:10 pm

  This monk can do a one-finger handstand too!

• Another Jake
  August 29th, 2007 at 8:41 pm

  Once played 4-square on the 4-corners. Each person got a state. People were watching and cheering. It was awesome.

• Bunk
  August 30th, 2007 at 12:32 am

  The photo was doctored. There are no lightpole bases shown on the original which was flipped 180 degrees for the Neatorama post. The original photo may be found on TackyRaccoons. (And yes, I’m a webslut for traffic.) All in fun.

• Jay
  September 16th, 2007 at 9:30 am

  very funny Alex,im sure you know that the monk doing the one-finger handstand is a fake.they never show him geting into that position because his shoes are mounted to the wall suporting most of his weight.you will also notice that the camera purposley avoids the tips of the monks shoes.still this 4 corners photo may or may not be photshoped.regardless we all know if it is real that he was only on his 1 finger momentaraly and without any real weight on it.ive seen lots of haloed images over the internet.even ones ive sent myself.i belive it has to do with low resolution pics.i have to agree with Toby, because all the colors look especialy “right” ..ive been to 4 corners and they dont care what you do there. every one is doing somthing crazy and taking pictures of it.im sure they have seen everything!

• Jay
  September 16th, 2007 at 10:15 am

  Bunk,it is the TackyRaccoons photo that was doctored or re-doctored, which ever may be the case.this photo here is the more original of the 2 . it is easy to see where tackyracoons has removed the “FLAG POLES” not “light poles” as you say so ignorantly .im guesing that someone on tackyracoons removed the flag poles for clarity of the child.it may be “All in fun.”but
  you should get outside and visit the real world instead of spending all day inside on the idiotnet.

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