Bicycle-shaped kids

See an overview of my other three school class photos: the bicycle, the cupcake, and the worm. Or read an in-depth article about how the class photo is made.

This is quite probably the best photograph that I ever took, which, after taking pictures of world wonders, like the Sphinx and the Parthenon, means a lot.

Pictured here are the 507 illustrators of Falling Uphill at Poplar Creek Elementary School, plus the staff. It took me an hour (plus planning) to illustrate the chalk outline of the bicycle (see below). I used a string and two bricks to help guide me. Luckily, arranging the kids was no problem thanks to the principal and teachers. However, I still had to overcome some challenges like the partly cloudy sun and shadows. The kids constantly jumping up and down. And a surprising change in perspective: when I drew the picture, I was looking straight down, but now, on the roof, my view is angled. This makes the bike appear distorted. And, of course, not falling off the roof while I took the picture. I was looking through the lens, not at where my feet were going. Luckily, the custodian was there to help.

I had no idea it was going to be this cool. From the ground, it looked like organized chaos.

Principal Gennerman

Once on the roof, I realized I had to move the seat up 8 feet. I found that funny because when I was riding my real bike, I could tell if my seat was off by only 5 millimeters. And, surprisingly, the image was too big for my camera, so not only did I have to tile the picture, but now I had to deal with the lens distortion and vignetting. Lastly, in the final composite, besides normal retouching, such as color correction and erasing the odd marks, I also deleted the cars in the parking lot. If only I could erase the cars in real life :)

I’m still surprised this turned out so well. Thanks again to the students, staff, and parents of Poplar Creek Elementary for helping to arrange this, especially Associate Principal Larry Lueck for the brilliant idea for this photo, Principal Jane Gennerman for her support and arranging the kids from small to big (falling uphill), along with Kate Krzysik, and for her idea of having the kids illustrate the book.