parking spots

February 8, 2003 7:50 PM

You take a toy car, and hold it in such a way so that it looks like it's a real car parked between other real cars, or driving in traffic with real cars. Then you take a picture of it. That's the sublimely simple concept of Parking Spots.
posted by iconomy (28 comments total)

But... why?
posted by blindcarboncopy at 8:01 PM on February 8, 2003

cute
posted by cinderful at 8:03 PM on February 8, 2003

But...why? Because they can.

Cute time-waster. Harmless fun.
posted by davidmsc at 8:04 PM on February 8, 2003

Great link. How'd they do this? Photoshop?
posted by machaus at 8:09 PM on February 8, 2003

because this is the world wide web... and some of us like it to have some personality. I say yay for a good find iconomy!
posted by 10sball at 8:12 PM on February 8, 2003

Ah, what I wouldn't give to have my old Star Wars landspeeder bac right now so I could "park" it here in Baltimore. Or even a classic USS Enterprise.
posted by brownpau at 8:22 PM on February 8, 2003

Good find, Iconomy. I'm eyeing up my boyfriend's collection of Hot Wheels that's in the other room. I think it's picture time.
posted by aine42 at 8:37 PM on February 8, 2003

Wow! That's about the most amazing God-awful crap I've seen all week. Thanks!
posted by jmccorm at 8:38 PM on February 8, 2003

I keep mumbling "I'm crushing your car. I'm crush crush crushing your car, you flatcar."
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:54 PM on February 8, 2003

Wolfie, I was thinking the same thing. "I'm crushing your head, I'm crushing your head!" When I first saw that Kids in the Hall skit, I almost burst all my internal organs from laughing so hard.
posted by planetkyoto at 9:08 PM on February 8, 2003

Whimsical, fun stuff, iconomy - thanks!

Did you say something about car crushing, WolfDaddy? (link nsfw)
posted by madamjujujive at 9:18 PM on February 8, 2003

I used to do this when I was a kid, but never clicked pictures of it. Thanks for bringing back some good memories.
posted by riffola at 9:23 PM on February 8, 2003

Get Fuzzy's version of doing this.
posted by jmd82 at 9:39 PM on February 8, 2003

Bonsai car wrecks. Model cars again, but no PhotoShop: http://www.crashbonsai.com/

(sorry, no 'link' button in my browser)
posted by marvin at 11:08 PM on February 8, 2003

Oh man. I used to try to make the cars jump over the other cars.
posted by kevspace at 11:52 PM on February 8, 2003

I love that. I'm going to park a dreamcar in my driveway.
posted by crapemyrtle at 11:56 PM on February 8, 2003

Did you say something about car crushing, WolfDaddy? (link nsfw)

Thats NSFW?? Strict...

Anyway, cool link - perspective is fun
posted by Orange Goblin at 2:50 AM on February 9, 2003

i remember seeing quite a clever video on tv where someone had used a perspective trick in order for it to appear that a toy car was parked in a row of real cars. it wasn't until someone scoops in and picks up the toy car that you realise it's in the foreground. in fact the first thing you see is the giant hand picking a car up until the rational side of your brain takes over. i think it would be better if more of these pictures used those kinds of tricks without the hand being needed to achieve the shot. A stick achieves a neater result than a hand.

I quite like the trick of dwarfing a real car by using perspective tricks to make it appear as though you're holding it between your fingers.

Some people don't seem to get it, though.
posted by nthdegx at 4:25 AM on February 9, 2003

I love the pics, but would it have killed them to include "Next" and "Previous" links at the bottom of each page?
posted by MegoSteve at 5:32 AM on February 9, 2003

kevspace: I should get a monster truck out and do that.

Too bad I grew out of all my cars :(
posted by ODiV at 5:53 AM on February 9, 2003

(sorry, no 'link' button in my browser)

"Link Button"? You're kidding, right? You must know...oh, whatever.

This one's "parked" across a driveway. Tsk tsk tsk.
posted by kayjay at 9:09 AM on February 9, 2003

That's some good clean fun; not that I have any problem with dirty fun. Thanks, Icon. (The site navigation could use a little tweaking.)
posted by Dick Paris at 9:36 AM on February 9, 2003

My favorite. Very subtle.
posted by Dick Paris at 9:49 AM on February 9, 2003

What an awesome link. Right after I saw those pictures I went out armed with my digital camera and a 2-inch Nissan Z.
Great fun.
posted by pheideaux at 10:25 AM on February 9, 2003

Good stuff - the range of quality on offer is particularly endearing.

Made me think of Father Ted: Now concentrate this time, Dougal. These are very small; those are far away...
posted by MUD at 5:53 PM on February 9, 2003

The newest batch (uploaded today) is my favorite - the little girl parking the mini is adorable.
posted by iconomy at 6:24 PM on February 9, 2003

Yep, those are cuter than the average. And nthdegx, you'll be glad to see they've taken you up on the stick concept.
posted by soyjoy at 10:24 AM on February 10, 2003

I clicked and thought, "This is the stupidest website ever." Then I looked at every single photo and sent the link to six friends.
posted by jennyb at 10:42 AM on February 10, 2003