An imaginative dad has created what could be the first 360-degree photo pregnancy announcement – hilariously demonstrating what parenting is really like.
Early dad-of-the-year candidate Sven Van de Perre crafted the genius reveal by stitching together 15 separate images, each showing something amusing happening in the frame.
As you explore around the photo, set inside his family home, Sven and partner Ellen Servranckx are pictured acting out humorous moments all parents will recognize.
From their son Nio trying to eat pet food out of bowls on the floor, Sven stepping on his son’s toys to Ellen surrounded by piles of ironing – the brilliant photo captures classic parenting moments.
Finally, the image shows the family stood together smiling for the camera, in a movie poster scene, with Nio’s old crib previously marked ‘For Rent’ now showing ‘GONE’ with pink balloons tied to it announcing the news they are set to welcome a daughter in October.
Sven, from Brussels, Belgium, said: “The idea came to me through my job as a consultant in the world of 360 media, VR and Augmented Reality.
“We shoot 360 images as a set of regular photos, which are then stitched together. So, I thought, let’s take announcement photos to the next level.
“I’m a tech geek, optimist and trier of new things. Coming up with the idea, buying the props took some time, as did the shoot which that took two hours and a day of post-production.
“But all of them where fun to do – we laughed a lot during the shoot and Nio managed to score a lot of cookies for being cooperative.
Sven revealed taking high end 360 images is technical work with a lot of manual Photoshop to stitch together and recommends hiring a pro if other families want to try something similar.
He added: “Moments like this last a lifetime so people are better off getting them done as well as they can.
“The reaction has been great. People didn’t suspect Ellen, the love of my life and the mother of my son, and come October, my daughter, was pregnant again.
“We deliberately told people we didn’t want a second baby yet, because one was already very challenging.
“So, we caught a lot of people off guard. It’s probably the most liked thing I ever posted on Facebook.
“We hope it makes other parents or parents-to-be smile, and maybe set them on a path for their own announcement idea.”