fake nature photograph goes viral or stupid pet stories

by Tim Barribeau

Photographer admits to faking “lava photographer on fire” image that went viral.

Over the last few weeks, a seemingly incredible image of a photographer standing on a lava flow with his feet and tripod in flames has gone viral. It quickly spread around the Internet as evidence of a photographer’s apparent extreme dedication to his craft, but also because many accused it of being a fraud or faked with Photoshop. Now the photographer behind the image has admitted it’s not a case of spontaneous combustion, but says his intent was never to deceive.

The image was taken by photographer Kawika Singson of Hawaii, posing on top of a lava flow. The viral image made the rounds insanely quickly, first through social media, and then on to major news networks. A big part of the image’s popularity was the debate about if the image was faked or not — because while lava can get hot enough to cause spontaneous combustion, the photo certainly doesn’t look like it’s in a hot enough state for that. Not to mention, Singson isn’t wearing gear appropriate for dealing with that sort of heat in the shot.

Now, in telephone interviews with the likes of CNN and CBS, Singson has confessed that the image was staged. While the flames were very real, it wasn’t a case of his tripod and shoes spontaneously combusting because of the intense heat. In truth, Singson  used accelerant on both and got a friend to take the photo, simply because he thought it would look interesting and “It’s just something I wanted for my Facebook cover photo.”

The photo is incredibly cool, and has catapulted Singson to unexpected fame. It has also, doubtless, caused a boom for his photography business. Here’s just hoping this doesn’t lead to a trend of photographers setting themselves on fire trying to be the next viral star.

i just can’t believe some peoples level of intelligence by believing this trick photography as being even close to real. maybe people have gotten dumber as i’ve gotten older but maybe i don’t get it. people are always looking for something special and different. oh well i’ve not posted anything or done anything myself here so i’ll add my silly post here.

now for serious stuff we’ve been planning for our next adventure, Russia.woo hoo. Hermitage and Puskin museums here we come.

hear that NSA we are going to soak up some of the worlds finest art. our travel dates probably too late to meet edward snowden in moscow airport and wish him well.

i believe he did the right thing exposing the NSA policy of illegal open phone data gathering and our government is way off base and punitive in it’s actions. it just makes my stomach turn.

Jene Youtt