Photo taken on 17th Feb, 2012 - something strange in the clouds

This is my first proper thread (apart from intro thread), so hello all.

I enjoy photography - I take thousands of photos a month of lots of different things. When there's even a vaguely beautiful sunset with nice clouds and colours shining, I'll take a photo or two of it. As I have done with the photo that this thread is about.

Firstly I'll tell you about the area it was photographed.

The photo below was taken at 6:51 PM nearing the end of summer in the South-West of Western Australia, warm climate somewhat similar to the wine growing regions of France. The clouds pictured are likely a few kilometers inland from the coast. The stuff pictured is facing west, toward the beach.



Edit: Below I've added a circle and a line to make the object on the original pic easier to locate.



This picture shows something interesting along the band of cloud that runs through the near middle, another little red-blood cell shaped cloud is in front of it. It's almost the stereotypical UFO shape lol. That's why it strikes my interest - I'm not claiming this to be any sort of UFO, I'd be pretty chuffed it it were to be though. It's got the texture of a cloud at first look but the shape is what gets me.

Upon realising the special cloud I selected the area in Corel Paintshop and done some stuff to it that changes the colour (can't remember what they were called). The changes in colours of certain areas help distinguish the blob cloud from the rest. Sort of bringing out densities in a way, which are clearly different from the cloud behind it.

Here's the zoom in on the object.


Below are the colour changes.










People will ask if it was visible when I took the photo, and my response is "no." It was not visible to me consciously when I took the picture, in other words I did not notice it. Even if it was, I probably would've dismissed it as cloud as I don't wear my glasses when taking photos. I noticed when I went home and put my photos on the computer. By the looks of the photo however, it was surely there.

The preview function when I'm making this post is not showing the images correctly, they're hosted on Photobucket. The img input says it's deleted or moved - will try to get them to work.

Once again, not claiming this to be some ET thing, it's merely a unidentified object. I'd like some thoughts and opinions on this, even if it's going to get über debunked to being a cloud or something lol.

umm...
Can you circle that in the original image or something?
I can't see it at all.

It's an interesting shape - certainly seems provocative.
BUT...

I'd have to say it's just... wait for it... a cloud. It's not at all unusual for clouds to have varying densities, or even for quite small clouds to form that are very dense. I'd say that's all this is, and don't really see anything to suggest otherwise.

Sorry!

reply to post by Awen24


Done it a few mins ago

Most realistically; yes that's what I think it is, and I think you're right lol. Just find it interesting.

Thanks for your input!

just looks like a gap in the clouds

reply to post by Sierra312


Welcome to ATS! That's a really nice photo. I'm wondering if that's not just how a thicker cloud cell is supposed to look, but then again I just don't know. Your presentation is interesting. I'll be looking forwards to more of your great photos.

This is stretching it about as far as I've seen it stretched.....

Going to go with a lens flare on this. I turned down the brightness of the horizon, and you can see the sliver of the Sun which looks similar to the "ufo" in the cloud. You can check it yourself....

reply to post by gavron


Not bad

I like what you did, makes pretty logical sense. Just there wasn't that much direct sunlight to give much flare, if any - probably that amount lol.

I've got another photo taken of the sun shining through smoke in the morning, direct lens flare that at a certain part gives the impression of a fighter jet reflecting off the sun.

Thanks for the input!

so what exactly was there about your photo that made you blow it up to extreme resolution and pick over it which ultimately led to your discovery of this artifact?

Curious is all because without zooming that bad-boy up 3-400%, you're not going to see anything

An UnIdentified probable alien, extra-terrestrial craft coming thru an inter-dimensional portal.

reply to post by TXRabbit


Viewing this image on a full HD 32" LED LCD tv shows a lot of detail, that's how I view all of my images. Aside from a large viewing area, it's the contrast of the little object which is lighter than the cloud it's appearing to be infront of that got my attention, it appeared out of place.

Finally - if you click the "actual size" thingy of Windows 7 photo viewer (the icon left of the left directional arrow) it shows the little artefact in a much more recognisable manner.

Not trying to be Debbie Downer or curb your enthusiasm; but there are hundreds if not thousands of similar tiny dot images all over the web. No matter how you split or invert the colors...it is still unidentified as in inconclusive. It was in the air so that equals flying...and unless someone else right under it saw it and got a better photo it whatever it is will remain unidentified and left to speculation. So keep looking for the holy grail, but be warned no matter how clear and up close it will still garner the same treatment this tiny sand grain of a photo has received. Why? because people will believe what they want to believe even if shown otherwise.

I have a theory about this (based on experience). Many times people will take photos of clouds or landscapes because there is something that draws their attention to the area. In other words, subconsciously they sensed a presence in that area but consciously it may not have registered that way at the time. Often they pick up on this later when viewing the images. We actually see this occur quite often with UFO images

Consciousness is works in mysterious ways sometimes. For example, here are a couple of recent experiences :

www.pbase.com...
www.pbase.com...

Originally posted by Sequence33
I have a theory about this (based on experience). Many times people will take photos of clouds or landscapes because there is something that draws their attention to the area.

I'm thinking seeing a sunset like this would draw their attention too.



It doesn't mean I sensed something drawing me to take the photo....it's was just a beautiful moment and I wanted to share it with others.

Sorry, I think this is a gigantic stretch. I don't see anything odd in the picture.

Originally posted by gavron

Originally posted by Sequence33
I have a theory about this (based on experience). Many times people will take photos of clouds or landscapes because there is something that draws their attention to the area.

I'm thinking seeing a sunset like this would draw their attention too.

It doesn't mean I sensed something drawing me to take the photo....it's was just a beautiful moment and I wanted to share it with others.

Sometimes a photo is just an attempt to capture a beautiful moment. I wasn't suggesting that every photo that is taken involves such circumstances. Perhaps I should have been more clear and stated the obvious.

I'm guessing that the picture was taken at sunset?

I've seen dozen of "UFOs" at night, and I'm just counting those that I'm pretty sure it's not a plane/helicopter or satellite's iridium flare. I've seen enough of those to not "worry" about commenting on them, but I've also seen a couple of "daylight" ones (including one very, very detailed. close enough for a detailed description, as one could describe a low altitude airplane).

Funny thing is that all those daylight ones were seen at around sunset.

For some reason, I think that the Sunset lighting avoids the cloaking mechanics of some ufos.

My apartment window has a long horizon view, facing sunset (mid summer is right in front of it). Every day at that time I stay a few minutes staring at the sky. Not just for ufo tracking. The view is absolutely beautiful

No pictures of anything tho. I don't own one of those techy phones with cameras and everything, and my only cam runs in AA batteries, so most of the time it's just dead in my desk hehe.

originally posted by: gavron
Going to go with a lens flare on this. I turned down the brightness of the horizon, and you can see the sliver of the Sun which looks similar to the "ufo" in the cloud. You can check it yourself....

The strange shape in your photo is likely a lens flare. Reducing the horizon’s brightness revealed a sliver of the Sun, which resembles the "UFO" in the cloud. Checking the photo yourself can confirm this.