Photoshop this!

5th post!

Seventeen magazine is just the latest company caught with it's pants down in the Photoshop controversy.  A 14 year old girl called out the magazine's overuse of digitally altered images and 84,000 people signed a petition agreeing with her.

You can find a plethora of web sites showing you the not-so-ugly truth that models are gorgeous without altering their images yet not good enough in the editor's eyes.  The biggest issue most have, along with myself, is how this affects how we view ourselves, especially our young kids and teens.  Who could live up to the images that inundate our mailboxes and mock us as we check out in the grocery store as we hide the Ding Dongs and pork rinds from their judgmental eyes.

This got me to thinking about pictures taken at races.  If anyone needed a digitally altered picture, it is the runner at mile 20.  Listen to me, Mr. Photographer, I have run 20 miles, my quads are on fire, my hair is trying to make an escape from my scalp, gu is dried on my upper lip, salt stains my temple and those light colored shorts now look like I've peed myself.  Yet I throw my arms in the air (shoot, I forgot to shave!) and give a huge smile for you.  It comes out looking like I'm escaping a psychiatric ward, eyes mostly closed, mouth askew as if I'm saying, "Fluff!"

Fellow Maniac showing us how to pose for mile 20 pictures

So go ahead, good on ya for getting the magazine to fake their commitment to unedited pictures.  But please, if Photoshop is ever introduced to race day photos, there will be millions of happy runners!  Trust me, Runner's World doesn't show what REAL runners look like on the run.  Well, not most of us, anyway.

Photoshop, where are thou?  

Are you a runner? Do you have any bad photos you want to Photoshop?  Do you think the false images are having any effect on our society or is it all phooey?