Photo of eagle on Fort Snelling gravestone touches hearts, goes viral

Star Tribune ^ | August 10, 2011 | JON TEVLIN

[DManA]

Talk to anyone in my business and they'll all say the same thing: No matter how long you write stories and put them in the newspaper, you are never really sure which ones are going to strike a nerve.

[snip]

Requests for the photo, and use of the story, have come from the Department of Veterans Affairs, military publications, Arlington National Cemetery. Soldiers in Afghanistan have inquired about the photo, including some from the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division, stationed at Bagram Airfield.

"I sent a good-sized one to a base in Afghanistan because they wanted to build a memorial to members of their unit who had been killed," Glick said.

This letter, from Atlanta, was typical:

"You have no idea just how much this photo and story mean to so many of us who have served. We do not ask for special treatment; we do not ask for your gratitude; we don't even ask for your patience when we occasionally 'geeze' with old stories. We would like to have some understanding just how much service to this great nation means to each of us. Your picture and story show me that some do understand."

[more at link]

[I Drive Too Fast]

Go to the link I posted above (post#36) and see the earlier June story which tells of the man who took the photo.

[xenob]

He has about 60 shots from different angles.

That's why I threw out CGI image... If he actually designed the scene in a 3D modeling software he could have hundred pictures, he could have a fly-through. CGI (computer generated graphics) are getting harder to distinguish from reality. There never was a photo, it was all staged in a 3D modeler. The haze was added to cover further disguise the image. As a hobbyist in computer graphics it's an interesting theory anyway... That's my conspiracy theorist opinion anyway, doing my best Jesse Ventura voice.

[IYAS9YAS]

While interesting. It’s fake. The shadow doesn’t show the eagle, just the marker.

[Joe 6-pack]

My computer has a new desktop. Thanks!

[I Drive Too Fast]

I didn’t say duplicate, but added it in case anyone wanted to see more info on this.

[21twelve]

“Shock and awe that the Red Star & Sickle would print such a picture that might stir patriotic feelings...”

Agreed - especially after their photogs looked at it and the others that the guy took of the eagle and obviously could tell it was a photoshop job yet deny it. /s

[DManA]

Thank you. I missed that other one. So did a lot of others from the postings here. Worth repeating I think.

[DManA]

The author seems a bit befuddled by the fact that it struck a cord. A normal person would see it instantly.

[ExTexasRedhead]

What an awesome and patriotic photo!!!

[IYAS9YAS]

He has about 60 shots from different angles.

Do you have a link where we could view them? The only thing that sticks out to me is the eagle doesn't appear to cast a shadow.

[Dead Corpse]

Damn it's dusty in here. My screen went all blurry.

Semper Fi...

[rottndog]

NOT FAKE....read the article...:

"Not surprisingly, there were few readers who insisted that the photo was a fake. The bird was too big, they said. There's an aura of light on one side that reflects the use of Photoshop, said others.

"It's not Photoshopped," said Glick. "I did crop it [as did the newspaper]. If I had Photoshopped it, I wouldn't have the eagle's tail covering the name."

He also may have put the eagle on a different headstone to make the composition perfect, he said. "It's a good picture, but it could have been a much greater picture."

Glick took the photo with an older Nikon camera and a multi-purpose lens. He took more than 60 shots of the bird at the cemetery, from different angles and locations. Some are sharp, some are blurry. Some are not very well composed.

"But I just like the feel of this one."

Star Tribune photographers studied the original that Glick sent me and said there's nothing conclusive to say whether it is faked. They also looked at a photo of the bird from the front and said it seemed legitimate, and consistent with the other photo.

As for the size of the bird?

The tombstones rise about 22 inches from the ground. Eagles can grow to 37 inches tall. So the proportion seems right.

[NoDRodee]

Agree

very nice photo, I couldn’t help but wonder how that girl must have felt.

[two23]

"He has about 60 shots from different angles."

And it could very well be a composite of 2 photos. And in art, that's fine. The other posters comment about the shadow is also a great observation.

Truth vs manipulation is a common topic with photographers, and many accept some processes as a means to a high impact end. Art.

[Daffynition]

Mary McHugh on her fiance's grave, Memorial Day 2007

[squeegee boy]

I think its a great photo but it is curious. I checked the roll call for Fort Snelling National Cemetery and the two names on the front headstones, M Leone and Ralph J Nelson are not listed, John C Workman is though.

http://files.usgwarchives.net/mn/hennepin/cemeteries/fortsnelling/

[IYAS9YAS]

I take it back. The shadow is a bit bigger than the other markers I can discern (it certainly is proportionately bigger then the marker at the closest point in the photo). The angle of the sun and the mist would diffuse detailed shadows of the eagle, and the bulk of the bird would roughly match the bulk of the marker.

[listenhillary]

It would take a sick man to do this to the widow. Does anyone read the articles anymore?

[angcat]

Noah Miles Pier
Noah, 25, of Charlotte, NC, died while protecting freedom on February 16, 2010 in Marjah, Afghanistan. Born on July 28, 1984 in Fairfax, VA, Noah and his family relocated to Charlotte in March of 1995. Noah was an avid outdoorsman and was involved in the Police Explorers Program at CMPD as a teenager. He loved American Freestyle Martial Arts and earned a black belt rank. Noah fell in love with his childhood sweetheart Rachel, whom he was to marry when he returned home.

[N. Theknow]

They never go ground level, I’ve only seen an eagle on the ground one time, and that was when it was released from a cage at a native ceremony. Neat picture, but I don’t think it’s real.

Ahem....

And ahem...

Shot this fella while coming back from an airboat ride on Lake Kissimmee in Central Florida.

He is eating an armadillo. Or as we call them, "possum on the half-shell."