FAQ
Question: How’d you get the squirrel to hold the camera?
Answer #1:
I made a deal with him. I would shoot his picture, if he would shoot mine. He ran off without giving me mine, so I use his without a release. Fair is fair.
Answer #2:
Actually, I took the photograph of the squirrel back in the ’70’s. It was at Yosemite National Park. I fed him a potato chip, while he was under a picnic bench, to get him to hold still. Years later, while in search of an image for a business card (I was doing freelance photography), I remembered the picture. “What did it have to do with photography” I asked myself. “What if I put a camera in his hand?”
The composite was actually done conventionally. Computers were not widely available for such work, at least within my budget, plus, I prefer to do all my own graphic work. The original was a color neg. I made a large black & white print (around 16 x 20), measured the size the camera needed to be, and shot a full size neg of the camera (I was a graphic arts cameraman with access to a process camera), contacted it, cut it out with a razor blade, cut around his fingers and slipped the camera in. The composite was reshot, retouched, and shot again. Voila, I have used the image ever since. I like it as a sepia-toned image. The whole process took a day and a half.
Years later, I redid the image in Photoshop, in full color. It took a whopping 20 minutes.
Question: Where did you get the name TreeO?
Answer:
Several years ago, I started a business producing limited edition photo greeting cards. A “conventional” artist and myself were working at a lab and decided we could market our work that way. They were editions of twelve, six of my photos and six copies of his acrylic paintings. We got together with another friend, who did marketing. There were three of us, so I thought of trio, which became TreeO. The business never went anywhere as I had to move to Philadelphia to marry. I wanted to pursue the enterprise, but my associates declined, as I was the “motivating” force.
Years later, when the internet cam along, I decided I wanted to build websites commercially. While in search of a short domain name, I came across the original TreeO logo in my basement and decided it was perfect. That was 1995.
FAQ
Question: How’d you get the squirrel to hold the camera?
Answer #1:
I made a deal with him. I would shoot his picture, if he would shoot mine. He ran off without giving me mine, so I use his without a release. Fair is fair.
Answer #2:
Actually, I took the photograph of the squirrel back in the ’70’s. It was at Yosemite National Park. I fed him a potato chip, while he was under a picnic bench, to get him to hold still. Years later, while in search of an image for a business card (I was doing freelance photography), I remembered the picture. “What did it have to do with photography” I asked myself. “What if I put a camera in his hand?”
The composite was actually done conventionally. Computers were not widely available for such work, at least within my budget, plus, I prefer to do all my own graphic work. The original was a color neg. I made a large black & white print (around 16 x 20), measured the size the camera needed to be, and shot a full size neg of the camera (I was a graphic arts cameraman with access to a process camera), contacted it, cut it out with a razor blade, cut around his fingers and slipped the camera in. The composite was reshot, retouched, and shot again. Voila, I have used the image ever since. I like it as a sepia-toned image. The whole process took a day and a half.
Years later, I redid the image in Photoshop, in full color. It took a whopping 20 minutes.
Question: Where did you get the name TreeO?
Answer:
Several years ago, I started a business producing limited edition photo greeting cards. A “conventional” artist and myself were working at a lab and decided we could market our work that way. They were editions of twelve, six of my photos and six copies of his acrylic paintings. We got together with another friend, who did marketing. There were three of us, so I thought of trio, which became TreeO. The business never went anywhere as I had to move to Philadelphia to marry. I wanted to pursue the enterprise, but my associates declined, as I was the “motivating” force.
Years later, when the internet cam along, I decided I wanted to build websites commercially. While in search of a short domain name, I came across the original TreeO logo in my basement and decided it was perfect. That was 1995.