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Peculiar Sighting in the Mountains


fairweatherrider

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Well, yesterday my in-laws came over for a short visit and they ended up telling my wife and I about something very odd they saw in the mountain forest near Powell, Wyoming, where they had taken a short trip. They scarcely knew how to describe it, but the picture that he sent today is here for all to see. He is a "photo nut", taking nature pictures by the hundreds when he is not working. He uses very high end cameras, helping to explain the clear image he sent us. I would not know where to begin in ascribing a name to this phenomenon. For the record, he said that after a short time, it was gone. Any ideas?

post-88150-0-58645000-1374581397_thumb.j

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Reminds me of a spider web. But you said it dissapeared`? That's odd.

Edited by Jennifer_P
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very cool pic(please tell me it's real)

if so, to investigate it further, you should ask your uncle how he felt when he saw it; amazement, fear..etc. obviously some sort of apparation, but from where? looks like the smoky 'light' was illuminating some sort of creature inside(or maybe that's just me seeing it?)

sometimes, people have talked about seeing this white, smoky like illuminated light, many times in the more remote areas..concepts of portals have been thrown around..you know, it doesn't feel 'bad' to me, whatever it was..maybe he(or you)should go back and look at that area again? reminds me of a odd 'mist' that has been recently reported in northern idaho..

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obviously some sort of apparation,

There's no way you can say that.

To fairweather, can you post the original photograph please. This one looks like it was pretty severely cropped and enlarged.

Thanks.

Edited by Rafterman
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Could this be the winged dragon lizard we have heard so much about?

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It does look like there is a human face inside. Interesting.

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Could this be the winged dragon lizard we have heard so much about?

oh please don't start that again...

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It does look like there is a human face inside. Interesting.

It does look like it, doesn't it. But I think what we're seeing is simply the end of a branch. If you look below, you can vaguely see the limb coming from the trunk of the tree.

Unfortunately since Fairweather seems to average about 1 post every 14 months, I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure.

Edited by Rafterman
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oh please don't start that again...

It's just a matter of time...... :whistle:

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I just PM'd Fair Weather and asked him/her to come back and address some of the questions raised in this thread.

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Hello All, the is Fairweather, back to respond:

1. My brother in law is a shrink. He is a "super straight arrow". My wife and I joke about what a square he is; the point being that one thing this is not is a hoax. Period. that leaves either some innocuous natural phenomenon like a spider web, which was my initial reaction (I don't think now that's what it is), or something more strange. His goal in this photo was to capture the field of "Indian Paintbrush" flowers.

2. The photo is cropped for the sake of seeing the image more clearly. Pulling back, all you see is a wider view of the forest.

3. Someone noted that I don't post much, considering this a problem of some kind. Fact is that I don't have much in the way of oddities to report. I do read from this site, but seldom feel compelled to comment. That's just me. I live in a super remote area, which describes much of Wyoming. I would love to have a fascinating personal account to pass along, it has just not happened.

4. My brother in law travels around a lot, taking photos, which is his hobby. This inclines him to see more things that are unusual. He has told me three stories that defy explanation. One is this thread, one involved a fox that had an odd, human-like face and one involves a strange structure that a friend of his saw in the desert south of Green Mtn, here in Wyoming (I did throw this last one unto this site). You travel around like he and his wife do, it increases the odds that you might see something.

5. I notice that many of the threads herein contain replies from critics and skeptics. That's natural, I suppose. I'm sure some of this stuff is hoax material. I will close by reiterating that this pic is not a hoax. Beyond that, it is up to each of us to offer theories. In the end, none of us will be sure.

post-88150-0-20538200-1374753116_thumb.j

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PS: I will discuss this once more with my brother in law, specifically concerning how he felt when they saw this.

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Thanks for coming back and posting the uncropped image.

My personal opinion, it's just a lens flare or some such light anomaly. If you notice in the original photograph, there is another lens flare to the upper left of the primary one. Could also be a spider web that was closer to the lens. I was also thinking that it could be one of those web-like caterpillar nests.

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PS: I will discuss this once more with my brother in law, specifically concerning how he felt when they saw this.

thank you, i appreciate that :) you know, i don't understand either what the big deal is of whether you post daily or once a month..? as you said, if nothing happens, not always does one feel like posting lol..

i was also wondering..you said you live in a super remote area..do you ever notice anything 'odd' when you are out trekking about? reason i ask is that some of the 'toolies' i believe are kinda 'charged' in a way; i have read this other places and experienced that myself a little :) areas that have fewer people DO seem to attract 'things'..what they are, is still up in the air, of course, but there does seem to be some of 'relationship' with the experiencer..so i just wondered if your family has experienced other 'stuff' out there?

thanks for coming back..such an interesting story and picture, thanks :)

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thank you, i appreciate that :) you know, i don't understand either what the big deal is of whether you post daily or once a month..? as you said, if nothing happens, not always does one feel like posting lol..

i was also wondering..you said you live in a super remote area..do you ever notice anything 'odd' when you are out trekking about? reason i ask is that some of the 'toolies' i believe are kinda 'charged' in a way; i have read this other places and experienced that myself a little :) areas that have fewer people DO seem to attract 'things'..what they are, is still up in the air, of course, but there does seem to be some of 'relationship' with the experiencer..so i just wondered if your family has experienced other 'stuff' out there?

thanks for coming back..such an interesting story and picture, thanks :)

The point I was making about post frequency had to deal with the fairly common occurance around here of forum members posting something like this and then never coming back to address the various questions and comments. It's a troll tactic.

Which is why I thanked him for coming back and participating.

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I'm with my fellow professor on this one.

It look's like the symmetry of wings on either side of the semblance of insect or bird..

Me thinks a small bird taking off, it has a beak too..

Edited to add: nice photography..

Edited by Professor T
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I'm with Professor T, it looks like he captured a bird who's about to fly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I live in the remote Utah desert, but was raised in eastern Washington state and often camped in the forests there.

This looks like sunlight reflecting off a Tent Caterpillar's web.

Tent Caterpillars create a large web between the small limbs of a shrub or bush. It's often cup or funnel shaped.

If sunlight were reflecting off the web, it would eventually "disappear" as the Sun moved.

I once lived in northern Wyoming, but can't recall seeing Tent Caterpillars there. But they're common in the forests of the Northwest.

This summer, I saw some of their tell-tale webs in Yellowstone and Jackson National Parks, which would place them in Wyoming.

I've also been a professional photographer for nearly 30 years.

I know from experience that reflected sunlight can create many different, seemingly inexplicable effects on film and the pixels within a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) in a digital camera.

Any kind of light can reflect off even the tiniest of surfaces and create anomalies. The entire industry of "orbs" is based upon this effect on dust particles, glass, painted surfaces, etc.

I don't see anything odd about the submitted photo. I see sunlight reflected on the lens or a web, nothing more.

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It looks like a dragonfly to me. Interesting though, nature photographs can sometimes be very interesting.

Once I was at a friend of the family's workplace, and while messing around with his laptop, I started browsing nature pics and just zooming in for fun. In one of the pictures, there was this astronaut-like shape on the petals of a flower. The resemblance was amazing. But I highly doubt that it was a teeny tiny astronaut. Photography can be very misleading. Such as the human face on this picture. Makes you think that it might be an apparition surely, but like I said, it looks like a dragonfly to me ^^

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  • 4 weeks later...

The only thing I can think of is a Hummingbird.

Maybe the bird was somehow wet, or was drinking water. When it flew up the water on its wings and the direct sunlight caused this illusion.

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At first glance, it looked like some kind of seed pod exploding. No idea.

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  • 1 year later...

OP, you say the photographer said the object disappeared? Too bad he didn't take an after shot.

Many of the details present are actually in the background and must be eliminated from consideration in the overall observation of the object.

After that, and looking at some oddly shaped webs, (below) I am left to believe everyone calling this some sort of web is correct.

https://nepalindiasc...e-of-a-ball.jpg

http://upload.wikime...uk_-_411758.jpg

http://mygarden.rhs....73/360x480.aspx

http://en.academic.r...al_Orb_Webs.jpg

http://www.biodivers...mages/web2a.jpg

Edited by AZDZ
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I like the tent caterpillar idea. We have them here in northern Oregon also. Sometimes, if you look at it from slightly different angle, the light polarization makes it seem to disappear and reappear.

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