I, Robot
Tom knew he was destined for greater things. He was fed up with his kitchen job, day in, day out scraping the ceramic hob whenever the stupid humans in the house had been unattentive (again) and something had boiled over. Something he knew would never happen to him. Didn't they know he was an intelligent, sentient being? In his dreams, he was a fully-fledged robot with superpowers, and a famous, Michelin star-decorated Chef. His robotic swiftness and razor-sharp mind would revolutionise how the world cooked and ate. But here he was, inside a kitchen drawer, waiting for the next "Great Boil-over". As he was about to work himself into a rage of indignity (while his drawer mates sighed, eyes rolling: "Oh no, not another tantrum, Tom, come on!"), he heard the distant voice of one of the humans, and then the drawer opened. "There you are! Great! Come on, I need your help with a photo assignment, it will be fun!" "Finally she recognises my true talents", Tom huffed more to himself. "Well, it's not as if you were doing the scraping job alone, right? Because behind every ceramic hob scraper is a human hand that leads it. Isn't it?", the human said. "No need to be so over-dramatic...", Tom grumbled. But inside, Tom was smiling.
I didn't expect this to be so straightforward. Usually, pareidolia just "happens" but it's difficult when I'm deliberately looking for it. So I rummaged through the kitchen shelves and drawers with little hope of finding something I hadn't already used for a pareidolia-themed photo before, such as the old phone (its underside resembled E.T. but it has long been discarded) or the toaster's crumb tray (that had a surprisingly happy smile). But then I found "him", the unfortunate ceramic hob scraper that (or rather: who) has an even nastier job than the crumb tray and the cutest surprised face. On its flipside, there is the "GS" logo (GS = "Geprüfte Sicherheit", "Tested Safety", a voluntary certification mark for technical equipment), the production number, and the manufacturer's logo which I first misread as "TOM" (wrong glasses) but says "TCM". So "Tom" it was.
To make Tom look more interesting than possible with just the bland steel tone and the hint of rust on the pretty well-used blade aka his "hair", I used my makeshift colour filters to jazz him up a little and enhance the robot look.
A first single test shot already looked nice but since an image like this works best with all-over sharpness, I did in-camera stacking (15 Raw files combined in Helicon Focus, method B, R 8, S4). Size info: Tom is 4,5 cm/1,77 inches at his widest.
HMM, Everyone!
I, Robot
Tom knew he was destined for greater things. He was fed up with his kitchen job, day in, day out scraping the ceramic hob whenever the stupid humans in the house had been unattentive (again) and something had boiled over. Something he knew would never happen to him. Didn't they know he was an intelligent, sentient being? In his dreams, he was a fully-fledged robot with superpowers, and a famous, Michelin star-decorated Chef. His robotic swiftness and razor-sharp mind would revolutionise how the world cooked and ate. But here he was, inside a kitchen drawer, waiting for the next "Great Boil-over". As he was about to work himself into a rage of indignity (while his drawer mates sighed, eyes rolling: "Oh no, not another tantrum, Tom, come on!"), he heard the distant voice of one of the humans, and then the drawer opened. "There you are! Great! Come on, I need your help with a photo assignment, it will be fun!" "Finally she recognises my true talents", Tom huffed more to himself. "Well, it's not as if you were doing the scraping job alone, right? Because behind every ceramic hob scraper is a human hand that leads it. Isn't it?", the human said. "No need to be so over-dramatic...", Tom grumbled. But inside, Tom was smiling.
I didn't expect this to be so straightforward. Usually, pareidolia just "happens" but it's difficult when I'm deliberately looking for it. So I rummaged through the kitchen shelves and drawers with little hope of finding something I hadn't already used for a pareidolia-themed photo before, such as the old phone (its underside resembled E.T. but it has long been discarded) or the toaster's crumb tray (that had a surprisingly happy smile). But then I found "him", the unfortunate ceramic hob scraper that (or rather: who) has an even nastier job than the crumb tray and the cutest surprised face. On its flipside, there is the "GS" logo (GS = "Geprüfte Sicherheit", "Tested Safety", a voluntary certification mark for technical equipment), the production number, and the manufacturer's logo which I first misread as "TOM" (wrong glasses) but says "TCM". So "Tom" it was.
To make Tom look more interesting than possible with just the bland steel tone and the hint of rust on the pretty well-used blade aka his "hair", I used my makeshift colour filters to jazz him up a little and enhance the robot look.
A first single test shot already looked nice but since an image like this works best with all-over sharpness, I did in-camera stacking (15 Raw files combined in Helicon Focus, method B, R 8, S4). Size info: Tom is 4,5 cm/1,77 inches at his widest.
HMM, Everyone!