Prior to going to MacWorld in 1990, John M. had asked me to produce a sample print with the Golden Gate Bridge and insert the Kodak Blimp flying under the bridge. John had brought me some very cool 3D software packages from one of the last SIGGRAPH conventions he had attended. One program, Stratavision3D, I still use a version of today (it was used to create all these 3D printed tiles). I decided to create a picture frame, to indicate the images are worth framing, the black background to highlight the black density the prints could achieve, plus some fine print to show detail. The frame and text were rendered in Stratavision and brought into Photoshop, where all the elements were composited. In the MacWorld text, I overlaid an image of the members of our division. My face is in the upper left of the letter D. Of course, then I had to make one for MacWorld Toronto and MacWorld Boston. They wouldn't let me have a credit after the first one, so I started hiding my photo somewhere in each one I created. It became a thing to try and find my face in each new one. If you look closely at the shadow under the far side of the bridge, John Sculley's, (former Apple CEO), face is hidden there.
That was just the start of making sample images for all kinds of events. When the first digital camera came out, we'd demonsrate the camera and the printer by photographing the visitor and then merging their photo into the sample image. Then, John came up with the postcard theme, where I would create a fake postcard on a background with some product promotional, wish you were here language on one side and a place for a mask for a persons' image on the other. I probably created 30 or 40 different backgrounds for various conventions, special visitors to Kodak, etc. I had to fit them in between, writing protocol documents, specification documents, and proposals, but I enjoyed creating unique images for the shows.
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