How Canon Indirectly Made Fun Of Nikon’s ‘Airplane Photo’ Awarding Blunder
Nikon Singapore recently made headlines for inadvertently awarding a photographer named Chay Yu Wei whose submitted image depicted an airplane framed by a ladder found in Chinatown. Photographers were quick to comment that the photo was a product of bad Photoshop usage, and Canon Canada didn’t waste the opportunity to join the hilarity that ensued.
“Yu Wei chanced upon a set of ladders while on a photo walk with his friends in Chinatown, and thought the view above would make an interesting perspective,” Nikon announced in a post that was already deleted. “Little did he expect to catch an airplane in mid-air. We’ll try looking up too, Yu Wei.”
The airplane photo was reportedly shot with a Nikon D90. The winner was awarded with an exclusive Nikon Trolley bag. When asked via Instagram how long he had to wait for the airplane, Chay said that not too long because he got “lucky.”
In an attempt to subtly make fun of Nikon’s awarding blunder, Canon shared its own version of an airplane photo encouraging people to upload their own too. “Up in the air! This week, share your best airplane photos with us. Extra points for creative use of photo editing software to put planes in surprising places,” read the instruction.
Camera enthusiasts responded to Canon’s post with amusing photo edits. Shairol Rafizan Mohd Radzi quipped that while he was swimming, a plane “photobombed” his underwater photography pursuit.
Respondent Joshua Alan Zermeno complained as well that two planes ruined what could have been a perfect shot of a German monument.
Meanwhile, Joseph Louis Tan used the same Nikon airplane photo but replaced the icon with Carl’s infamous house from the well-loved Pixar film Up.
Tan Yao, on the other hand, didn’t expect that he’d find an aircraft in his afternoon coffee.
Chay already released a statement through PetaPixel. He admitted that he captured the photo while on a photo walk and for fun’s sake, he altered it.
“Like one user commented, I was on a photo walk in Chinatown and I chanced upon that set of ladders. I snapped a picture of it, and subsequently felt that a plane at that spot would make for an interesting point of view. Hence, I inserted the plane with PicsArt and uploaded it to Instagram. That’s how I use Instagram, sometime it’s to showcase the work I’m proud of, sometimes just to have fun. This case, that small plane was just for fun and it was not meant to bluff anyone.”
He said that it was supposed to be uploaded just on Instagram, but he “crossed the line” by submitting the photo to Nikon’s competition. He apologized to Nikon for claiming that he captured the plane mid-air instead of saying that he incorporated it to the photo using PicsArt.
Nikon also addressed the issue after taking down Chay’s controversial airplane photo. The company said that they made an honest mistake and would use such occurrence as a lesson.
“Moving forward, we will tighten our image review process to avoid similar situations in the future. Thank you once again for all your responses today – for your humour and most of all, your candour and honesty. We hope not to disappoint you in the future and to continue to have your support.”
Many made fun of what happened, but some also thought that it was a careless mistake on Nikon’s part. Some claimed that photos submitted to contest should have minimal editing.
[Image via Nikon]
