Bignose photographer illos pet game
I have discovered a game which one blogger calls a “virtual petting zoo.” It is Animal Paradise, which uses images from the wildly popular cat photographer, Yoneo Morita and his Hanadeka (“bignose”) style of photography. You’ll recognize the style when you see it; he uses a fisheye lens, which makes the animals much cuter than you could ever imagine mere two dimensional portrayal could achieve. It's somehow like touching them.
The player of this -- what? -- it’s not exactly a game, but a “product” -- meets and befriends a variety of animals, not just cats, but a miniature dachshund, hamsters, horses, and lop-eared bunnies. If I understand correctly, the animals all eventually die. One blogger says this is supposed to teach children about mortality. I’m not sure we need to teach children about mortality; they will encounter instances of it soon enough.
But I thoroughly admire Morita’s openly sentimental but luxuriant images:
(image from www.postercheckout.com/PictureFull.asp?PrintID=278289
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
maryturzillo) wrote,
