Steven M. Greer releases UFO photographs!
http://www.cseti.org/trainingphotos.htm



this is my first post here, so i hope its ok ... i thought the UFO pictures would be cool to share, dunno could just be me though heh (:OP

Welcome to BAUT, nbgoku. Is there a story associated with this picture? It apparently is an out of focus close up image of something spinning, looking a bit like an auger. What are they saying is special about it?

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Welcome, nbgoku! I've moved your post to this forum; I don't know if you're proposing UFOs are alien, or if there is a conspiracy, but the general topic itself fits better here.

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Looks to me like a bird taking flight under long exposure.

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Welcome to the BAUT, nbgoku!

Read the FAQs, especially the rules, and have fun.

Re the photo, it appears to be a scene where people are seated in chairs, with a car's headlights off to the right. The "UFO" looks a stick that's on fire or possibly some fireworks. It's a small object since it's between the seated persons and the camera.

The exposure time would probably be greater than 1/30 of a second based on the scene being at night. Plus the f-stop is probably less than 5.6, based on the shallow depth of field.

Plus, since it's a capture from a video, and exhibits a repeated pattern, probably just good old lens flare, similar to the lens flare in the "Joshua Tree" example.

Therefore, no "UFO", just someone's picture of what's probably a campfire scene, 4th of July celebration, or the glare from the headlights of the car.

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Isn't that one of the alledged "spinner" animals, or somesuchiosity?

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I had to come out of my self imposed exile for this.
The first picture is clearly a video frame grab and is precisely what you get when a fast moving winged animal (in this case, almost certainly an insect) moves past the lens. The sine wave shaped blur is caused by the motion of the wings.
The second picture on that ridiculous page, called "The Loved One", well... can you say "moth", children?
The third picture is ASTOUNDING! An unidentified glint of something! Call out the militia.
Good grief

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Guys, I am surprised you don't know what it is.
This ufo is in the general category of the so called 'Flying Rods'.
They have also extensively filmed not only photographed.
Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amnNgXRK_vo

Some say they are living insect.
..and ppl are trying to catch them all over the world! :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzbGPC8NdDM

I'm kinda underwhelmed by those photos...

You won't catch me buying into aliens unless you show me some green-skinned Venusian harem girls.

Nosiree!

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I have been familiar with Greer's stories for years. Anyone that charges people lots of money to go out into the dark to see UFOs that he "summons" through thinking about them and then flashes a spotlight to communicate really is not dealing with a full deck. I always like to point people towards an article from outside magazine about the great Dr. Greer.

http://www.mufon-ces.org/docs/outsidemagazine.pdf

Can you say "snake-oil" salesman?

But the evidence is just too compelling.....

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"Loved One": I concur with Occam, it's an image of a moth or butterfly caught with an electronic flash at night. Photographer Mark Cassino describes the problem of what he calls "iridescent blowout" when exposing many insects with flash.

"Orb on Dr. Greer's chest": Obviously, Dr. Greer's chakra is über powerful, especially while he is in the presence of fine ladies (in training).

They are living insects, but anyone trying to catch a 'rod' is going to be in for a disappointment.

A large number of insects flap their wings at speeds in excess of the shutter speed of a camera, or the frame rate of a video (I know that's not strictly the right term, but I can't think of it right now). That means that when they are exposed on camera or in video they take on an elongated appearance caused by their motion across the frame, with the weird protrusions caused by the motion of their wings through several cycles of flapping during the exposure time.

It's elementary photography. If you expose a moving object too long it turns into a streak on the picture.

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A large number of insects flap their wings at speeds in excess of the shutter speed of a camera, or the frame rate of a video (I know that's not strictly the right term, but I can't think of it right now).

Both frame rate and shutter speed apply to motion picture. The frame rate is the number of frames recorded per unit time. The shutter speed is the length of time over which each frame is exposed. For both film and video, the shutter speed must clearly be shorter than the frame rate. And in practical terms it must be significantly shorter than the frame rate because of the overhead in preparing the next frame for exposure.

It's elementary photography. If you expose a moving object too long it turns into a streak on the picture.

And also elementary photographic analysis. A photograph accumulates an image. That accumulation includes, and represents in convoluted equality, all that occurs over a window of time of significant duration. When a feature exhibits a regular cyclical pattern over some spatial domain, the interpreter should immediately investigate the possibility of repetitive motion inside a relatively slow shutter speed.

I recall trying to photograph the famous light at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas. I set up my tripod and arranged for a suitably long exposure. However, I could not expose a single frame that did not contain the "rod" pattern produced by birds flying through the beam, feeding on the insects the beam attracts. To the naked eye there was no anomaly; the hungry birds were easily identified for what they were. But on film the funny cyclical patterns would probably have baffled the inexperienced observer.

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nbgoku, welcome.

You haven't specified what about these pictures interests you. You call them UFOs - which means Unidentified Flying Objects, but often is shorthand for "aliens" or "alien vehicles". You did not specify which meaning you intend.

Regarding the pictures, the first is a pretty typical rod photo. Rods are either birds or insects flying through scenes filmed by video cameras, where the moving object is faster than the image capture rate. See the excellent description in the link by LTC8K6. That picture is described as being taken in "night shot" mode, which is near IR illuminated. The object displays the cyclical structure of a wiggling object in close exposure. The object shows up because it is near the camera and exposed by the IR light from the camera. I suspect an insect, given the distances involved I would think a bird would have been noticed and commented upon by the people in the picture.

The second picture is almost certainly an overexposed moth or butterfly. I was a bit curious how it could be so overbright, but the link by Alan G. Archer explains it.

I'm not sure what "TTL" setting is, but the description suggests it is an auto flash setting. If so, then flash washout is a very cogent explanation of that image.

The third picture of the "orb" I'm a bit less certain about. Most orbs are dust or water droplets close to the camera and captured by the lighting, especially flash. I've seen a particularly creepy effect by capturing cigarrette smoke in a smokey room. It wasn't immediately obvious what was visible despite being in the middle of it. I think this could be a water droplet, but the symmetry is suspicious to me. And I'm assuming it's not a pattern on his shirt.

I would prefer to analyze a higher quality original. Jpegs on websites are poor substitutes. I would make one observation - the pattern of concentric rings looks suspiciously like the pattern of what one of those plastic cups with lids would look like from the top. You know, the cup he has in his hand. Now the angle seems odd to be a reflection of that cup, but the pattern is suggestive. I can't be definitive, but I'm not convinced this is anything more than a picture anomaly caused by ambient conditions rather than signs of paranormal/alien influence.

The fourth image is a cliff with a strange blue light. Again, we have a lousy picture to try to analyze, but two things come to mind. It could be an object on the cliff that is reflecting sunlight. However, I think this is a lower probability. I think a higher probability is that it is an internal reflection in the camera optics. If you notice shadow angles and the shading of the cliffs and trees, this image is looking somewhat up-sun. That's a good condition to generate internal reflections if the optics have any flaws.

I know, not exactly mind-shattering.

astrophotographer, interesting article into the mindset of Greer. However, that doesn't address the particular images being shown. It does suggest we should take Greer's interpretations carefully, but doesn't explain what is being shown.

Agreed. Looking at the photographs, I am not impressed. Greer has made so many stupid claims over the years (including one where the army was attacking aliens!), that when he is being presented as a source, I feel everyone should be aware of his interpretations of what he "experiences".

I found that site too; this page is particularly informative, where video captures of flying wasps produce perfect rod imagery.

http://www.opendb.com/sol/bugs.htm

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