Helicopter long exposure

[jarlrmai]

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtlawson/33431698783

The single most unexpected image I shot during my two weekends in Carrizo Plain National Monument is this one. As some lights passed over my head I scrambled to point the camera in the way they were going, clicking the shutter into an aperture-priority mode shot 15 seconds long. As it moved away, a beam turned on shining down on the road ahead. In Carrizo Plain's most remote corner in Elkhorn Valley, this was quite an unusual sight on a Saturday night. Moments later the beam turned off and the lights faded into the distance. In the foreground the grass is illuminated by the dome light of my Xterra.

Saw this on Reddit UFOs it's clearly a long exposure of a helicopter with a tongue in cheek description by the photographer (whom I actually know and was already following on Flickr) and Reddit as usual with the easy ones had already worked it out.

Here's the admission of the joke:


Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtlawson/33509771164/in/photostream/


"I got this and other shots of the brand new helicopter (or UFO, wink)."

It's a good example of how people joke around the subject and some UFO people still pick it up and also a good example of a long exposure of a helicopter with EXIF data for comparisons with other long exposures of helicopters we may encounter.

We may also encounter this image in the future removed of context so posting for posterity. It was taken in 2017 but now has been on Reddit so I am sure this photographer is going to be looking at his Flickr stats with some interest.

 

[Ravi]

It reminds me a lot of this famous "ufo" case in China, that went quite viral. Here is a link to an article

A few example screen grabs:

View attachment 5cc14f4b240000360022a0a7.webp

 

[Mendel]

View attachment 64209

For webp images, you need to insert the attachment link as an image, like so:

I always delete the hash when I do that.

 

[JMartJr]

Ravi beat me to it. I have a few night helicopter long exposure pics I keep on hand, for use when the "Chinese UFO" comes up.

There's There is also a video that was made by taking a still image of a helicopter long exposure and animating "orbs" onto it and a flickering version of the searchlight, lemme see if I can find it....

Found it, here's a GIF:

The little row of bumps/lights across the top (the flashing nav/hazard light as the helicopter moves) are a giveaway -- not always visible in a long exposure helicopter, but frequently there. Nice use of added camera shake and the like to "sell" the video.

(Amusing side-note, early efforts to identify this UFO vid on other fora decided it must be a LED lighted shower head, maybe reflected in a bathroom window, with the water on some sort of pulse setting. Clever, but ultimately incorrect.)

 

[NorCal Dave]

IF I'm going to go for a UFO photo, this one looks spectacular.

 

[Mendel]

IF I'm going to go for a UFO photo, this one looks spectacular.

Yes. And accurate time/date/location plus a flight tracker probably debunk it, unless the helicopter was too low for its ADS-B transmissions to be tracked.

 

[deirdre]

There's There is also a video that was made by taking a still image of a helicopter long exposure and animating "orbs" onto it and a flickering version of the searchlight, lemme see if I can find it....

can you prove that? or are you taking a real ufo video and parroting something you heard on twitter to dismiss it?

 

[JMartJr]

Depends on your standard of proof, I guess. Its exact resemblance to helicopter-with-searchlight long exposure still photograph and the way the "ufo" is nailed in place compared to the power lines, etc., suggest strongly that it is based on a still image of a helicopter. Since there is a flicker effect on the searchlight and an Orbiting Orb, which would not be possible in a still image, the obvious conclusion to me is that it had been messed with in After Effects or Blender or something similar. Adding camera shake is a nifty way to hide any mistakes or cover how "frozen" the UFO is against the background, and is a pretty common component in faked videos.

If that is not convincing to you, and you think it is a "real UFO," insert "appears to have been" in place of "was."

Since I am not on Twitter, I don't parrot things from there!

 

[deirdre]

If that is not convincing to you, and you think it is a "real UFO," insert "appears to have been" in place of "was."

i can only insert 'appears to have been" if i think it's a real ufo?

Depends on your standard of proof, I guess

well my personal standard would be if someone had the original photograph, or is something like this:

And one I took back in 2011. Police helicopter over Venice, CA

Article:

A Coast Guard helicopter decided to fly down the coast while experimenting with some night shots.....

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtmeyers/2208072512

 

[Mick West]

One I took in 2011

 

[deirdre]

hey check it out..investigating the origins of @JMartJr 's gif (allegedly over france april 2017)

Article:

Tyler Glockner, who runs Secureteam10, said on the video that he was unable to find the original recording of the video and wondered aloud whether it could be a hoax.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/tech/ufo-sighting-video-purportedly-showing-massive-light-over-paris-raises-questions

Spoiler

i stumbled onto the fact that the 2014 australian ufo thing was faked as well. look, that flicker image i used above is the exact same imaged used in the 2014 australian thing you can even see the people on the beach in the ufo channels fuzzy vid.

Spoiler

and i know this shot is also my flicker helicopter (turned and stretched) because the dots match and i'm good with pattern recognition.

and i discovered that the world crashes its satellites off the right side of australia (which i think a few shots in the australia 2014 thing are of actual satellites crashing as the location fits. coolio.

 

[JMartJr]

i can only insert 'appears to have been" if i think it's a real ufo?

You may insert it for whatever reason.

well my personal standard would be if someone had the original photograph

I have searched long and hard for the original photo -- often in hoaxes like this the original was pulled from the first page of a Google image search, but this one is elusive. I suspect, but cannot prove obviously, that the hoaxer took their own pic of a helicopter in this case and that the original may therefore not exist in the web. But I think the picture I posted:

shows the necessary common features, as do the ones Mick, you and Ravi have posted, for me to be convinced. Your mileage may vary, of curse.

 

[deirdre]

shows the necessary common features, as do the ones Mick, you and Ravi have posted, for me to be convinced.

i'm personally convinced too. The point i was making is that we aren't the ones who need convincing, and if we ask CTers for evidence of their claims we should make more of an effort to provide that ourselves when making statements. (Plus since the OP was about a hoax i assumed your gif had been debunked already somewhere.)

but this one is elusive.

yea but its also probably photoshopped. meaning the original is likely in color, possibly flipped, different contrast/sharpness etc. I think it was even warped a bit (a fisheye type thing).

But I think the picture I posted:
shows the necessary common features,

yea but that one is in "all" the ufo videos too as a ufo. what we need, ideally, is to link to the photographer stating it is a helicopter.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lille_helicopter_Img004510.ppm.jpg