Friday, January 23, 2015

Behind the Scenes of National Geographic


In the summer of 2011, I published a post about my boys.  In the post, was a picture that Nathan and his crew took while they were doing some scouting for a film they were working on.  I had mentioned in that post that there was a story behind this picture… and yes there was;  They took the picture and did a little "editing" to it as a joke; inspired by a "girlfriend" of one of the Guys. She was worried about the bears that they might encounter while scouting in the mountains of Colorado. Now I understand her worries…"bears happen" in Colorado, so we weren't laughing at her concerns, but were just full of fun and  there were many jokes about "those bears" that kept us all laughing; I'm sure we all remember the jokes about the "pepper spray" that was offered as a solution to that bear problem, but the final joke the guys came up with, was this picture.  I love the picture.  It is really fun isn't it?

Nathan put the picture on his Facebook, and I think the other guys probably did as well.  I snagged the picture from Nathan's Facebook and put it on my blog.  I also pinned it on Pinterest onto my "Funnies" board. Within a few months of that pin,  I started getting all kinds of traffic to that post from a travel blog in France. They had the picture with the caption in French, saying something like "you don't have to be faster than the bear, just faster than your friend". Soon after that, the picture was all over the internet, with captions like the title of this post.  It got funnier and funnier to see it coming and going. The conversations about the pictures that evolved were a marvel. People would say "how foolish these guys were", and how "it couldn't be real because of this or that". It was never intended to go out as a "real" picture, but it seemed to gain momentum for the debate as to whether it was "real" or not  as it got passed around.  Nathan and Himilce recently posted this article on their Facebook pages; The article was pronouncing it a "Fake".  It is a good article written by Matt Novak on factually.gizmodo.com, and really added to the fun when it had to be debunked in this way.  Our friend Tim Sparks the redhead on the back right was able to set the record straight in an e-mail with Matt Novak for the article.


A great story don't you think?  The article tells you who is who, but let me just say this; Nathan is the guy in the right in front; He's my boy.  That gives me a little button popping privileges don't you think?  You can go back to that first post that I posted this on and read a few more of the details and see a few more of the pics from this story…. mostly from a "mother's" perspective about boys, life and the empty nest etc, then be sure to click on the link above and read about this "Fake".. and check out the Godzilla version, you'll love it.

            Have a great weekend everyone.


A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22

6 comments:

  1. I LOVE that picture!!! Soooooo funny and I can't wait to hare it with my husband and boys tomorrow.

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  2. I remember that post because of the picture but didn't realize it had gone viral. It's rather amusing to read the comments. People take debunking myths so seriously don't they and boy there are a lot of gullible people out there as well! An important lesson about blogging and pinning too. We think our blogs are only read by other homemakers but it doesn't take much for one photo or one post to be passed on and possibly misinterpreted. I can't believe how many people keep pinning the photo of my humble little woodstove. Christmas is over but it is getting repinned almost daily. Seeing it appear in my own feed is kind of flattering but amusing at the same time! Did I tell you that a photo of one of my Victorian teacups was pinned from my business website by Barbara Taylor Bradford! I did a double take when I got that notification and thought it was funny someone would share the same name as a famous novelist until I checked her board and realized it was the real Barbara Taylor Bradford. Yes, you never know who is visiting our websites, boards and blogs! My daughter tells me she has seen the 'Bear photo' so it must have reached down under!

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  3. FUN!!! Love it that your boy is internet famous (or infamous as the case may be!) Hugs, Camille

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  4. Oh my... how fun is this!!

    Glad it's only fake.

    It reminds me of a joke/question.

    If a bear was chasing you - would you rather go in a church or up a tree?

    Maybe you know this one...

    I'll let you guess.

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  5. I still can't stop laughing Mom! And that it all began here hahaha! So cool!!

    I love yOUUUU!!

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