Some 10 years ago, on a beautiful spring morning, my son Elon and I did a little experiment together. I proposed to make a trick photo where he would seem to have a twin. The shot should have a natural setting and the "twins" should have some interaction to at least cause confusion at first sight.

I remember Elon adding in a lot of suggestions which I incorporated into the set, the angle of photography and the post-processing of the result. His logic and geo-spacial insight was crucial even though he always tended to poke fun at my photography hobby and my "Pentax buddies" (his words).

Elon was extremely happy with the outcome and shared it on his own FB page - a rare honour for one of my shots only ever repeated with a spectacular series on one of his show jumping sessions with a horse he dearly loved. In the end, we had a lot of fun that day.

Little did I know that from having two sons (even if one of them was only the result of fancy photography and a bit of imagination) to having no son at all would only take another 6 years and a bit.

Four years ago today on the 20th we spoke to him face to face for the last time, hugged goodbye. My last question was "Will we see you this weekend?" and his reply was "I'm not sure, we'll see". The last login on his laptop was 4 years ago, about now 11'ish pm. We have reconstructed that sometime in the early hours of the 21st he executed his well-prepared plan and gracefully and painlessly ended his life.

[Aaron28]

great memorabilia.....nice composite

[grog85361]

So very sorry for your loss. I know how the pain never really goes away. In February, it will be five years since the police came to our door late at night. My son would have been 35 this year. You are in my prayers.

[VictorDA]

Regarding your terrible loss: all my sympathy. I hope you can find some kind of peace.
My first son would be 7 and a half today had he been able to survive birth.

Now back to the image: the missing shadow of the 2nd twin arm (on the right side) is really bugging me. I don't get how the glass shadow is present but the arm's not. I can only guess that was intentional?
Nice work nonetheless, and a fun project indeed

[gatorguy]

I lost my own 24-year-old son just over a year ago. This is the second Christmas without him, and in fact I don't even remember last year's, it mattered so little. I treasure the photos I have of him, even those I thought were bad when I took them. I'm so thankful now that I never deleted even the worst of them since they're all we have left outside of the memories. My wife and I send our heartfelt condolences and understanding of the pain that you still carry inside.

I was told over the weekend that it all gets better with time, but never goes away. For my wife the Holiday season makes it as fresh as the week it happened, so I truly hope that our friend (who also lost her son four years ago) is right and that time helps her cope.

[gatorguy]

Regarding your terrible loss: all my sympathy. I hope you can find some kind of peace.
My first son would be 7 and a half today had he been able to survive birth.

Now back to the image: the missing shadow of the 2nd twin arm (on the right side) is really bugging me. I don't get how the glass shadow is present but the arm's not. I can only guess that was intentional?
Nice work nonetheless, and a fun project indeed

I wondered the same at first. I think the pitcher and glass must have been all one unit, joined by a clear epoxy (?) to resemble pouring water. The merged twin image wasn't holding a glass? That's all I could think of.

EDIT: Nope, I don;t think that works either because the arm shadow should still be there since the shadow across his jeans still shows the table was in place. Perhaps the arm shadow was deleted during post-work.

[MikeNArk]

A loss like this is difficult to cope with and something that remains with us. I am so sorry for your loss. My first grandson was born 23 years ago and was diagnosed with cancer. He spent his 5 month life at St. Judge's hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Your photograph provides a good memory of time with you son.

[mroeder75]

My dad's ancestors came to the U.S. from Luxembourg in 1867. They had 10 boys, and 2 girls. The oldest boy died young, I think in 1884. Sometime in the late 1890s the family sat/stood for a family photo in a studio. The ancestors to the creators of Adobe were already in business in the 1890s because they photoshopped the deceased boy into the photo, and he sits perfectly on a chair with his family. If we did not carefully review genealogical records, we wouldn't know they did photoshopping back then.

You had a great, and imaginative idea planning, setting up, and executing your planning with this photo, and if you hadn't mentioned it was the same boy, it would have passed the eye test for me. Such a loss is difficult to bear. Time heals a lot of wounds, but there would be scars here and there with this one.