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NilesCalder. Posted: 24-08-2001 on the Fortean Times message board. 

 

"...In fact I think that the 'spaceman' is a person standing with both their feet firmly on the ground... if you look at the top of the hill you'll see that there is a thick hazy dark blue line between the hill and the sky - that's the distant horizon and follows the hill top almost perfectly. It's the girl and the photographer who are at an odd angle! The 'spaceman' is someone wearing a white jacket and a white/cream scarf. The scarf is drapped back over their left shoulder then wrapped left to right around their neck and then drapped over their left breast. They either have short platinum blond hair (in a bobcut?), are wearing a clear plastic hood or a whitish motorcycle helmet (although I think that this option is pushing it slightly). So have I solved it? My first mystery solved? Folks? Niles"

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This picture was the second out 3 to be taken and nothing was in the other two and besides wouldn't u think he would see them standing there and be like hey get the heck out of my shot you people don't have an open mind at all
Styles | Styles15301@yahoo.com | February 05, 2013

To the above commenter: No. I wouldn't think that at all. Being a professional photographer, and having taught photography to many beginners for many years, I know that amateur photographers, when framing a shot, tend to focus their attention completely and entirely on the subject they wish to capture - to the absolute exclusion of everything else in the frame.

As an instructor, one of my most important jobs is to beat into the heads of aspiring photographers the idea of taking account of everything in the frame. People naturally resist doing this. I teach what I call the "four corners rule" I train my students that when framing an image, they must train themselves, before pressing the shutter release, to visually scan all four corners of the frame and take account of everything they see - move there eyes from one corner, to the next, to the next, to the next, and make a determined assessment of whether or not they're happy with the image in its entirety.

I suspect that you'd be really, really surprised at what people tend not to see in their photographs if they don't train themselves to do this.

If the photo contained a perfectly crystal clear, indisputable image of an African elephant wearing a top-hat and pink tutu in the background, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the photographer later claimed that he/she saw no such animal at the time the photo was taken. I've personally experienced MANY inexperienced photographer being entirely unaware of the presence of some incredibly astounding things that were in their photographs, and were completely flabbergasted upon viewing the final image and discovering the presence of such things.
Rory Cornelius | roryc@ottawamusicscene.com | October 25, 2013