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So I used to have this ok photo of myself on this site. Then I shaved my beard. So after a few months of having an out of date pic, I decided to get a new one. I took my point and shoot camera, placed it on a table, smiled at it, scanned the photo, and put it up. I thought to myself: "Boy my friends will sure be appreciative of my new, more
accurate, web site." |
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It's hard to describe the negative reaction I got to this image of me. Here's a sample: |
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Hey Jake- Nice web page but about that picture. .. can you say serial killer? Maybe a different picture would attract women with full sets of teeth and no tattoos! |
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And another: Hey sexy, Honestly, I liked the other picture better. This one's decent, but you look pretty intense. Of course that can be a good look, so you decide. My opinion would be, good picture but maybe make it a little smaller so I don't feel like you're trying to steal my soul next time I open the page. |
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Man that's harsh.
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Old friends who hadn't responded to my email in months came out of the woodwork to demand I take it down. Local townspeople said I was scaring their kids and I was in danger of being featured on America's Most Wanted. |
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So I decided to get another photo. |
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Now I've got this designer friend, Andy. And he has access to a digital camera. After a few weeks of badgering ("You have 22 messages" beep, "Hi this is jik, can I use the camera today?" beep, "Hi this is jik..." and so on) he agreed to help me out. I stopped by his office and we got some strange looks as we held a photo-shoot in the corner of the break room ("pow baby pow!, make love to the camera!"). Out of 30 or so photos, Andy and I found two that were acceptable (which now open my site). |
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It was 1 am and we probably should have gone home, but Andy said "I think I've got a
star field on my hard drive somewhere..." So we put a star field behind my head. And then a Green Supernova. And added some white highlights. And why not my nickname in roller-rink
style letters? |
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It's hard to describe the feverish process of mouse clicking and keyboard punching that I witnessed as Andy took my lowly visage and made it something very special. I was (and am) indebted to him and so avoided deriding his Ad-guy status for at least a week. |
