Originally published at: How a 1937 hoax captured the imagination with giant grasshoppers - Boing Boing
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Tradition lives on in the name of the tools used to alter digital photographs, like dodge and burn, both physical darkroom manipulation techniques.
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Too bad he missed the 'hopper’s shadow. Hard to believe this really caught fire with the obvious flaw.
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this image marks a significant milestone in the history of photo editing.
It’s a fun image, but I don’t know about a “milestone”. Canard was copying the already established “exaggerated animals and vegetables” photo postcard craze that was popular in the Midwest from 1900-1920. Canard definitely seemed to corner the grasshopper market though. He made a ton of different photos of them.
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Turns out it was just a regular grasshopper photographed with a man who was four inches tall.
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Here’s the post card for the train hold-up…
… then this gift from the Search Engine Bonus Gods, a cafe in South Korea:
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I don’t believe it. No one makes rifles that small.
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damn, i was late again!
came here for the jackelope.
leaving satisfied!
looks like the original photo of the dude with the gun, may have been holding a hare or a pheasant, before the darkroom addition of the superimosed lubber (and that’s a goddamn lubber!)replaced the catch.
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Goat Guns do. 
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The Formicidae, however, are already there.
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TBF - there are some big fucking grass hoppers in Kansas. I didn’t like them as a kid.
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Big enough for something like the Humanx Commonwealth?
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Predatory grasshopper kin that had wingspans up to 16"/40cm.
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That giant red-winged is huge, but you don’t see how pretty they are unless you see them with the wings open.
Also, to quote FloridaManJefe “that’s a goddamn lubber!”
(same subfamily as the eastern lubbers in Florida)
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