Okay, so I saw this “Shaq holding things” meme going around, and I just had to try it out myself. It looked hilarious, and I figured, why not? It’s all about perspective, right?
Getting Started
First, I grabbed my phone. I’ve got a pretty decent camera on it, so that was good to go. Then, I needed something to be the “Shaq” in this operation. I looked around my room and spotted my old, kinda beat-up basketball. Perfect! It’s got that round shape and it’s big enough to make this work.
Next up, I needed something small… something Shaq-sized, relatively speaking. My eyes landed on my little desk cactus. Yup, that’ll do. It’s tiny and kinda cute, so the contrast should be pretty funny.
The Setup
I took the basketball outside. I figured the natural light would be way better than anything I could get indoors. I found a spot in my backyard where the sun wasn’t too harsh, creating any weird shadows. I held the basketball up, trying to get it positioned just right. It’s harder than it looks, let me tell you! My arm started to get tired pretty quick.
Then came the tricky part. I placed the little cactus on the ground, a good distance away. I had to experiment a bit with the placement. Too close, and it just looked like a cactus on the ground. Too far, and you couldn’t even see it. The key was to make it look like the basketball (my “Shaq”) was holding the cactus, even though they were actually several feet apart.
Taking the Picture
This is where things got a little clumsy. I had to hold the basketball with one hand and my phone with the other, all while trying to line up the shot just right. I took a bunch of pictures, adjusting my position and the angle of the phone each time. I squinted at the screen, trying to see if it looked convincing. It took a few tries, but I finally got a few that I thought looked pretty good.
The Results (and Some Tweaks)
I uploaded the photos to my computer and took a closer look. Some of them were definitely duds – blurry, bad angles, you name it. But a couple of them actually worked! The basketball really did look like it was holding the tiny cactus. I did a little bit of editing, just to brighten things up and adjust the contrast a bit. Nothing major, just a little polish.
- I picked out the picture.
- Adjusted brightness just a hair.
- Cropped it slightly to get the framing perfect.
It is * final result is a goofy, fun picture that totally captures the spirit of the meme. It’s not perfect, but that’s kind of the point, right? It’s supposed to be a little silly and low-effort.
