The power of makeup (and not the old Bush joke)

[jmowreader]

This is a picture of General David Petraeus, carefully prepped and primped for his official photo...


The guy in the middle is the same man, photographed yesterday...

[enlightenment]

1. Looks like they might also have

applied some photo editing - or a bit of filler . . . his naso-labial folds and marionette lines are suspiciously less conspicuous. Having said that, I'll add that I'm not at all opposed to people doing that sort of thing. In moderation and with some forethought.

[hlthe2b]

2. I just want to know where I can get someone to do that for my passport photo

;) Yeah, I'm serious.... LOL

[enlightenment]

4. If I did that on my passport photo I'd never get past

security.

*would if I could, though!*
:)

[hlthe2b]

7. Oh, I would just do enough to let me claim my diminished appearance

was only due to jet lag and a bit too much rich food....;)

[jmowreader]

5. Tell ya true...

I was getting the bottom picture ready to put in the newspaper and thought, "this poor guy doesn't need to be director of Central Intelligence, they need to deploy him to Kalapaki Beach with a surfboard and a truckload of rum before the stress kills him."

[lunatica]

3. plus soft indoor lighting and a good photographer

The bottom photo is catching him in mid word where the muscles around the mouth are being worked plus direct sunlight and shadows plus he's also squinting from the glare of the light.

[BlueJazz]

6. Why is he a 3 star General in the top photo and a 4 star in the bottom photo??

[Zywiec]

8. Um, could it be that there were several years between the photos?

He got his third star, top photo, in 2003. Did you look different 8 years ago?

[jmowreader]

9. This is him in April

He still looks pretty good.

[RB TexLa]

11. No, no, no, it's something more sinister than that. Don't try to argue reality

My God you are going to be eaten alive. The photo obviously has to do with the advancement of the corporate personshoood. :silly:

[Rex]

10. The first picture is when he was younger...so what.

Unless he forgot a star.

[underpants]

12. The picture makes the man - a little insight into official Army photographs

when I was in the Army (early 90's) you could tell when someone was coming up for promotion. Especially from E6 to E7 or E7 to E8. Mind you this is not only the norm but this was in the time of "downsizing" when 14 year careers went *poof* into the air. SO close to retirement, many good NCO's got booted due to stupid mistakes (DUI's for instance) when they were 19 year old privates.

My platoon Sargent did the following:
tailored his Class A's
tanning bed
lost weight
re-tailored his Class A's
repeated haircuts
found the best barber (shave) in the area
teeth whiting

At the Pentagon when the board looks at prospective promotees they have one board of their record and points and their official photo. Guys worked their tails off to make that picture the best it could.


Not that Petraeus is getting promoted but the official photo is a big deal. Patraeus (from an article in Runner's World) sleeps about 4 hours a day and runs 6 minute miles usually from 5-10 a day. Not that I am a big fan or detractor but the guy is Type A to maximum.