C&T Publications Eye on Fine Art Photography - July 2014 | Page 31
Old trick photo ideas
Food were a recurring theme, so the tall tale postcards had super-sized potatoes, fruits, and animals hauled in by the local farmers.
This is supposed to give people the idea that these rural communities had agricultural abundance, thus encouraging people to move
and settle. The exaggeration was so extreme that it looks almost surreal as you look at the weathered black and white post cards
depicting people catching ducks the size of cars. Unfortunately the reality was far from what the trick photo postcards portray. These
days you can't go to a popular tourist destination without seeing flattering postcards for sale that you can mail home. In a way you're
actually paying to advertise for them!
William H. Martin - a successful and rich trick photographer
It is around this time that one of pioneers of trick photography and special effects in postcards was William H. "Dad" Martin. He had
a studio in Ottawa, Kansas and came upon the idea of using photo tricks to create exaggerated post cards for sale. His post cards
were of quality that it was difficult to detect traces of manipulation or how it was joined together from various photos. The
meticulous attention to detail and the creativity of his post cards became a huge success.
His postcards were so popular that he sold his studio to concentrate on the postcards. By May of 1909, the Martin Post Card
Company reportedly churned out some ten thousand cards a day. A year later a newspaper reported the company was producing
seven million post cards a year. In three short years his trick photo ideas made him a very rich person. So rich in fact that he sold off
the business in 1912 and founded another company.
It is almost surreal to realize that trick photography and special effects existed more than a hundred years ago. If you ignore the black
and white weathered look and early agricultural themes, these trick photos don't look out of place besides a collection of modern
trick photos done using Photoshop software. Shows you just how far we've come!
Jim blogs about trick photography and special effects techniques that people use to create stunning photographs. You can sign up at
his Trick Photography site to receive a free report on the top 10 trick photography ideas for travel photos: http://trickphotography.org/free-report-download/ . To read his blog: http://trick-photography.org/ .
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