Ah yes, The Shape-Shifter Series #9. Because nothing screams “trust issues” like a Photoshop mash-up of forest animals that clearly weren’t even in the same hemisphere when their pictures were taken.
Front and center we have Mr. Fox, glowing like he’s being interrogated under a studio ring light, while the rest of the forest sulks in swampy green shadows. This fox isn’t communing with nature — he’s waiting for the photographer to shout “Work it!” before his next shot for National Geographic: Glamour Edition.
Then, lurking in the back, are two wolves who look like they’ve just been awkwardly drag-and-dropped from a completely different stock pack. Their lighting doesn’t match the fox, the forest, or frankly each other. One looks like he’s at dusk, the other in daylight, and both are asking silently, “Why am I here?”
The title font does its best to look dramatic, but it can’t distract from the fact that these animals appear to be in three different universes. The glowing dots scattered about? They’re not fireflies. They’re Photoshop’s last desperate attempt to blend these puzzle pieces together. Spoiler: it didn’t work.
So what do we have here? Not the “Nature of Trust,” but the Nature of Cut-and-Paste — a cover that whispers, “We didn’t plan a photoshoot, we raided Shutterstock on a budget.”