Another Photo of Raystown Ray
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on May 23rd, 2006
Well, there is another photo posted on the Raystown Ray website.
This one is no better than the one that was posted here on Cryptomundo last Saturday. In fact, it’s probably worse.
Pennsylvania’s Loch Ness Monster? Maybe Photoshop Phil…
Here is the first photo for comparison.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Sigh..I think I am turning into a cynic.
Frank Searle did a better job in the 70s before photoshop.(and he was entertaining to listen to).I just worry what will come after this…every lakeside resort will have a monster, every photo will be seen as fake…
Boo-urns.
The photos are so pitifully small & in such a compressed format that it is impossible to determine either definitive signs of fakery, or evidence of legitimacy.
Anyone have a coin? Heads it’s real-Tails its fake.
Fake
Why is this even being given attention? It’s quite clearly a marketing tool. No story. The more serious attention you give it, the more you play right into their hand.
I pulled it into photoshop, and zooming just to “Fit on Screen” Ray already loses a significant amount of detail compared to the background. Zooming in further you see that he has no real shadow/reflection whereas all the trees along the shoreline do. I can’t say this with 100% certainty, but I’m thinking someone just dobbed a few dark pixels in to create Ray.
Well atleast this one shows some type of scale.
bear.
obviously.
jjames1,
Who is your comment directed at? Myself, for posting the picture here? I even jokingly gave it another name, Photoshop Phil. Doing that, I thought it made it quite obvious what I thought about it.
Or was it directed at the Cryptomundo readers that are offering their comments?
I think the bigger question should be, “Why are you getting so bent out of shape about it?”
The more serious attention you give it, the more you play right into their hand.
I hardly feel that is the case. Playing into their hand would mean going there as a tourist and spending your hard-earned $$$. All that is going on here is discussion of the photos. I doubt that was their goal.
Is this not the same photo – i.e same point and time and background just a different drawing, sorry i mean, monster. Seriously though it concerns me, what could some one really produce with serious time effort and simply from listening to the critisms and comments from this site alone. They would certainly know what to avoid in terms of the usual editing errors!
Craig, I’m not getting “bent out of shape.” My post was not directed at anyone in particular. It was a general comment.
I still think it is a fake. I wonder Craig what the next photo will look like.
now, lets pretend for a second that it was taken with a 35mm film camera…. if they did a full scan the image would be HUGE in tiff format, showing us all the happy details we could need to analyse it. If it was digital, lets say the average digital camera lurking around is still 4mp… that’s still big enough to analyse… I think its deliberately small.
Plus its harder to fake full res images than it is to fake small, “web friendly” images like that one.
Im still amazed at the lack of detail in a lot of the “crypto” images seen on the internet are so small and lack so much detail.
If i snapped a photo of an unknown creature, id damned well be posting the full sized RAW and JPG’s so others could verify it (or not).
Ahwell
If you’d go to the Raystown Ray website you’d see pictures 1 and 2 together. It makes a difference and seems more legit.
I’m not saying it is but…
I added the first photo to this post to facilitate comparison.
come on guys, it is obviously a large sturgeon. didn’t you know, that’s what everything is.
The rare longneckus elusivia sturgeon. Yeah…
Now I know I haven’t got my specs on but the first photo on this page(which is the second in chronological order I belive Craig?),the monster looks like it’s sinking. Did it spring a leak I find myself asking?
There’s supposedly over 20 pictures in the series. I wait with baited breath-get it?- “Baited”?
on the “validate/invalidate” question that jjames is discussing. I must weigh in on the side of those who have no problems with discussing what are most probably straight up fakes (not a misidentification, not a victim of a hoax, but a hoaxer themselves).
With all due respect jjames, to discuss a concept is not necessarily to validate it. My key area of interest is UFOlogy, and over my years of study I’ve come to conclude that, while real to the individuals reporting it, the phenomenon is likely psychological in nature rather than physical. So while I don’t believe that George Adamski really took a ride with Venusians, his story is valuable in understanding the evolution of the phenomenon.
In that vein, the fact that a small Pennsylvania community can “tap into” that sense of wonder people feel for cryptids (much in the same way the people of Roswell NM have with saucer buffs) is worthy of discussion, if nothing else.
I do agree (one curmudgeon to another) that to debate the legitimacy of these photos is asinine.
But discussing the fact that some people will blindly believe these could be real, despite the fact that it is a relatively new, man-made lake is worth some time. No?
(I mean, to play devil’s advocate, we could begin discussing the tradition of river monsters, etc. and how those traditions could allow for blah blah blah… but I think you get my point. Even if we don’t agree these are real photos or that the “sightings” are the cream of the crop, there is always some wheat still sticking to the chaff that could be winnowed away, even if it is just a glimpse into the minds of those who will blindly believe in anything.)
Sorry Jeremy, James, et al., but I suddenly have an image of a Dalek spinning around shouting, “INVALIDATE! INVALIDATE!”
I don’t now it could be a bear or somthing
I’ld rather look at fakes (which I’m sure this is) than just dismiss anything that might possibly be real just because the person doesn’t know how to use their camera. hey, if this person(s) put this into photoshop and actually tried to make this look “real” at least someone is taking pride in what they are doing. The waves won’t be bigger than the monster.
I recently chanced upon the Raystown Ray website.
I didn’t think too much of the ‘evidence’, but I forwarded it to a friend with whom I’ve visited this reservoir in the past – just for amusement purposes.
Much to my surprise, she had been there recently with some other friends and said that one of the party claimed to have briefly sighted ‘something that looked like the Loch Ness monster’. These people are not interested in fringe subjects and had certainly not heard the legend of Raystown Ray beforehand. To my mind this suggests that there may really be something there.