March 16, 2009

cormorant \KOR-mur-unt; -muh-rant\,

noun:
1. Any species of Phalacrocorax, a genus of sea birds having a sac under the beak; the shag. Cormorants devour fish voraciously, and have become the emblem of gluttony. They are generally black, and hence are called sea ravens, and coalgeese.
2. A gluttonous, greedy, or rapacious person.


What a fantastic word of the day to use while my dad is in Raleigh visiting! No, he's not a species of Phalacrocorax, nor is he gluttonous or greedy. But it is definitely fun to smear ketchup and mustard on his face.

That's right, my father is the dignified man in the photo stuffing his face full of Cookout hamburgers. (A dozen burgers for $12? Yes, please.) Thanks also to Bryan for helping me do the smearing and setup.

It was all done in the same small "studio" upstairs in my house, with the homemade softbox and a flash in the background to light the $2.99 wallpaper we found this morning at the thrift store. The sheet that covered that TV tray table was also from the thrift store. All in all, a very good match.

In retrospect, I would have changed the way we hung the wallpaper to be vertical instead of horizontal - it's definitely too distracting. In real life, I may have worked a little harder on the wallpaper part, but I'm still pretty happy with having soaked my dad in condiments.

So there it is. And if you've got any photos to add for cormorant, just shoot me an email with your photos attached. Happy Monday!

3 comments:

  1. This is awesome. Your Dad is awesome.

    I would have gotten laughed at or slapped before I was even able to finish asking my Dad to do something like this.

    Turned out pretty well, but you're right, the horizontal line in the wallpaper is a bit distracting. Nice work, though.

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  2. Add a second to the awesomeness.

    I'll agree with the wallpaper comment, but this is still a great idea and executed well. I've got to try my hand at that soft box as well...

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  3. The second picture in the post indicates this was a photo shoot of your Dad and therefore 'staged,' but it's just possible we've actually seen him eat like this before. Or, maybe that was Uncle Henry...

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