# Are there more UFO/Bigfoot photos now, what with camera phones being so popular? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 17, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284 "2006-01-17T00:16:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/1 "2006-01-17T00:16:59Z")
Now that a lot more people carry cameras, what with them being built into many cell phones, are there a lot more UFO and/or Bigfoot pics? How about Nessie and Champie? Even though I don’t think aliens are visiting Earth, my belief was that most were not faked pics, but pics of actual terrestrial things in the sky. If the ubiquity of cell phone cameras didn’t result in a significant rise of UFO pics, this could indicate that the majority of them in the past were purposeful fakes. If they were simply cases of mistaken identity, surely the increased number of cameras would result in more of these mistaken identities being photographed? Of course, there’s other reasons why increased cameras might not equal increased UFO pics; perhaps they are actual alien visitors, and they are losing interest with us, or losing better cloaking technology, etc. I consider that highly unlikely, IMHO. Or maybe, people are just less gullible these days. Or, there are actually a lot more of these pics these days, but I just haven’t heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/2 "2006-01-17T00:54:05Z")
Good point. When something does happen, like a terrorist attack, the pictures from the camera phones start popping up like crazy. But pictures of UFOs aren’t. I suppose your real point is that there’s nothing there to see - a point I agree with. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/3 "2006-01-17T01:01:11Z")
I am absolutely certain that UFOs exist. I saw one once. It was most definitely an object flying through the air and I was unable to identify it, and I know beyond all doubt that I incapable of identifying it. Erek ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/4 "2006-01-17T02:07:15Z")
Sorry, Erek. That was me. My bad. I was wearing my Pink Unicorn costume. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/5 "2006-01-17T03:56:25Z")
Heh, and all this time I thought it was a secret government aircraft being as I grew up in New Mexico and all. Erek ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/6 "2006-01-17T04:19:35Z")
I have, in fact, been a UFO, besides that time with Erek. [http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/HudsonValley.htm](http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/HudsonValley.htm) Small flock of ultralights. Amusing, hm? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/7 "2006-01-17T13:57:05Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I suppose your real point is that there’s nothing there to see - a point I agree with. Not so much that there’s nothing to see, but that maybe most of them in the past were purposeful fakes, as opposed to honest failures to identify the object as a terrestrial object. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/8 "2006-01-17T18:44:55Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > I have, in fact, been a UFO, besides that time with Erek. > [Hudson Valley Sightings - UFO Evidence](http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/HudsonValley.htm) > > Small flock of ultralights. Amusing, hm? I lived in the Hudson Valley during part of that time period and I don’t remember seeing you there. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/9 "2006-01-17T18:58:56Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Or maybe, people are just less gullible these days. People want to believe in UFO’s. But they also want to avoid looking like fools. So they only see ‘evidence’ that fits the specific technology and social expectations of any given time. In the 1950’s people saw flying saucers, (in black and white, with no lights), which moved at the speed of an airplane. Photographs were proudly shown as high-tech proof. In the 1970’s ( color TV, and Star Trek) ,they saw larger UFO’s with lots of colorful flashing lights, which moved at high (warp?)speed. Videos were proudly shown as high tech proof. In the 50’s (cold war era), encounters with aliens were impersonal, and spoken of in military terms of foreign invasion. By the 70’s (after the hippie revolution) ecounters were intimate, & involved sexual touching. By the 90’s, (after child abuse became a permissable subject for TV shows), alien ecounters involve abduction. Now, we have a new technological “problem” for the UFO believers: computers. With Photoshop in every home, simple pictures are too easy to be accepted as proof. So, surprise, surprise, the OP is right–there are fewer UFO’s being photographed ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/10 "2006-01-17T19:02:05Z")
There being the airport, or there being one of the lights, or what? It was a flock of ultralights and we went out over the Hudson, round bout Croton Point. It was like five years later I ran across the UFO claims, and allowing for exaggeration, it pretty much had to be us. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/11 "2006-01-17T19:05:24Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Now that a lot more people carry cameras, what with them being built into many cell phones, are there a lot more UFO and/or Bigfoot pics? How about Nessie and Champie? FTR, our local IPU is Champ, not Champie. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/12 "2006-01-17T19:45:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Now that a lot more people carry cameras, what with them being built into many cell phones, are there a lot more UFO and/or Bigfoot pics? I believe the most well-known supposed photos of Bigfoot are from one short sequence of amateur movie, and this one incident has, AFAIK, been thoroughly debunked as a hoax. Thus one actual Bigfoot photo would be a lot more than currently exist. Since there is no central clearing house for submission and validation of supposed UFO photos, it would be rather difficult to determine whether there are more now being submitted than before. I would say not, for one simple reason: a large proportion of ‘UFO’ sightings consist of nocturnal lights. Cell phone cameras at present are mostly relatively crude devices with low resolution and no or little zoom capability. A distant light in the sky will likely end up as nothing more than a blurry, washed out spot of light on a cell phone image. > [@](#): > > If the ubiquity of cell phone cameras didn’t result in a significant rise of UFO pics, this could indicate that the majority of them in the past were purposeful fakes. If they were simply cases of mistaken identity, surely the increased number of cameras would result in more of these mistaken identities being photographed? I disagree, for the reasons already outlined above. Photographic evidence alone seems unlikely to ever be enough to prove or disprove UFO’s as vehicles carrying aliens; it has always been possible to fake a UFO photo, and such fakery is easier than it has ever been. At this point, IMO, only a gen-yew-wine manufactured alien artifact, or alien organic material, would be sufficient evidence to convince most people. ---
**Author:** ![Citizen\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Citizen\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Citizen_Bob)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/13 "2006-01-17T20:20:26Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I am absolutely certain that UFOs exist. I saw one once. It was most definitely an object flying through the air and I was unable to identify it, and I know beyond all doubt that I incapable of identifying it. Sure, “unidentified” by YOU. I’ve done some UFO faking in my time… If it is an artist and you give me the details, I could probably give you rest of the artist’s M.O. Of course, there are quite a few (not popularly known) experimental aircraft which I have often salivated over on paper - I would love to actually see some of the effects I’ve predicted. ---
**Author:** ![Citizen\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Citizen\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Citizen_Bob)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/14 "2006-01-17T20:30:05Z")
Oh, and about ball lightening and sprites. I have been trying to put myself in a situation to obseve ball lightening, but I still haven’t had a chance to see this phenomenon. However, one time, recently, I was driving in an ideal location to see above-cloud plasma discharges during a severe lightening storm (eg sprites) – that was freaking cool! It took me a minute to figure out what I was looking at during the periodic above-cloud flashes. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/15 "2006-01-17T21:12:00Z")
Psst: Erek’s UFO was literal. It was flying, an object, and he had no idea what it was, exactly. Doesn’t mean it was an alien. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/16 "2006-01-17T21:18:53Z")
I definitely saw Ball Lightening once. It flew right past my head. It was at my Grandmother’s house in New Jersey. My Grandmother, my Uncle and I all saw it. It flew in through the screen door straight up the staircase and out an upstairs window at the top of the stairs. I have no way to prove it, I don’t know how it works, but I definitely saw it, and we were all pretty shocked by it. (Pardon the pun) As for UFOs. I always thought that it was funny to hear people disputing the existance of objects that fly and are unidentified. **chappachula** Robert Anton Wilson actually talks about that phenomenon in “Cosmic Trigger: Final Secrets of the Illuminati” and describes how the sightings fit the cosmology of whatever time period that it’s involved in. Like way back in biblical times they talked about Angels in their wheels of light. That was something that I actually gave a lot of thought to prior to reading that book even, how Angel/Alien sightings were very similar in their descriptions throughout history, but the change was updated to fit the cosmology of the culture that was interpreting whatever it was that they experienced. I think even in the Hindu Vedas (Which I haven’t read I am just repeating what I have heard) that the Gods are supposed to fly around on discs of some kind. Erek ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/17 "2006-01-17T21:25:37Z")
For your enjoyment: [http://www.bfro.net/](http://www.bfro.net/) Official Bigfoot Field Researchers site. Includes updated pictures and sound recordings. Many comments leap to mind, but I wouldn’t want to prejudice your perceptions. By all means, take a look at this site with an open mind. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/18 "2006-01-18T00:02:26Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > People want to believe in UFO’s. But they also want to avoid looking like fools. > So they only see ‘evidence’ that fits the specific technology and social expectations of any given time. > In the 1950’s people saw flying saucers, (in black and white, with no lights), which moved at the speed of an airplane. Photographs were proudly shown as high-tech proof. > In the 1970’s ( color TV, and Star Trek) ,they saw larger UFO’s with lots of colorful flashing lights, which moved at high (warp?)speed. Videos were proudly shown as high tech proof. > In the 50’s (cold war era), encounters with aliens were impersonal, and spoken of in military terms of foreign invasion. By the 70’s (after the hippie revolution) ecounters were intimate, & involved sexual touching. By the 90’s, (after child abuse became a permissable subject for TV shows), alien ecounters involve abduction. And in the 1890s they saw airships. And had close encounters of the third kind with their pilots - who hailed from New England. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-more-ufo-bigfoot-photos-now-what-with-camera-phones-being-so-popular/340284/19 "2006-01-19T18:31:58Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > FTR, our local IPU is Champ, not Champie. 🙂 Oops, I stand corrected.