Just Say Cheese! Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch August 12, 1997.
SO WHAT'S THE BEST way to photograph extraterrestials, should you encounter them? This is assuming that they hold still long enough, and they're not transparent. Or how about the thing they ride in, those unidentified flying
objects.
Walter Chandoha, a photographer from Annandale, N.J., has some suggestions. Chandoha, who usually focuses on pets and gardens, has photographed most of the cats and dogs featured on Ralston Purina feed packages. He figures aliens would behave for the camera very much like cats and dogs.
So in the interest of public service, we revisit the subject of UFOs and their alien passengers, the topic of a recent Everyday Sunday feature, inspired in part by the 50th anniversary of the famous alien incident at Roswell, N.M.
This is a pragmatic follow-up to our story, prompted by a press release from Robyn Frankel, a public relations woman with a finely tuned sense of clever ways to get her client - Fox Photo - some ink. The company is jointly owned
by Eastman Kodak Co. and the CPI Corp., which is based in St. Louis.
Frankel's idea was to use Chandoha's pet photography techniques and apply them to UFOs and aliens.
Great idea, said Chandoha, speaking by phone from Long Island. "The problems are about the same. Dogs, cats and aliens are restless creatures and move around a lot. With aliens, much depends on how big their ears are."
Chandoha, who's been at this work for more than 30 years, says it was a Life magazine assignment years ago that piqued his interest in shooting the paranormal.
"It was a story about these fantastic caverns in Italy inhabited by ghosts. They considered me a photographer with some rapport with ghosts. And, sure enough, the ghosts said `be our guests.' Since then, I've always had a soft spot for them. But the photos came out underexposed.
"So I told everyone, `The spirit was willing, but the flash was weak.'"
With that in mind, here are some Chandoha tips reprocessed by Frankel, who has UFO photography Web sites and invites e-mail tips from those who've had their own experiences with extraterrestrials. The sites are www.cpiphoto.com and www.foxphoto.com.
An obvious tip: Always have your camera ready, as these sightings are unpredictable. Most great UFO pictures are lucky accidents.
Try for eye contact. Aliens are curious. Otherwise, why would they be here. If you make soft, subtle noises, tap or scratch the camera, they'll probably look for the source of the sound.
Use flash cautiously to reduce reflection around spaceships made of shiny substances. For group shots of aliens, pose the tallest in the center for a more pleasing effect.
To avoid red eyes in aliens, shoot at an angle. Or have the alien look slightly away from the flash.
Keep background simple. Avoid clutter behind the UFO. A plain field or a dense hedge are good, and will not detract from the subject. However, a single prop like an intergalactic lightsaber or droid are logical and can be included.
Look for a focal point. UFO spaceships have many eye-catching elements, but don't try to include them all in one shot.
Store all film in lead-lined containers marked "Classified Information."
"We believe that by following these simple and practical suggestions, people will be better prepared to document UFO sightings and avoid creating the kind of mystery and intrigue generated by the anniversary of the Roswell incident in 1947," said William Cronin, executive vice president of CPI Corp.
We also heard from a local search company, Find People Fast. They found out what happened to Buck Nelson, the Mountain View, Mo., farmer who was mentioned in our UFO story. Nelson was all the rage in the '50s and 60s, after he said he made trips to Mars, Venus and the Moon aboard flying saucers.
The space people, a.k.a. aliens, were equite friendly land even let him drive the flying saucer, he said. Buck wrote a book about his claimed adventures and held flying-saucer conventions on his hardscrabble farm. One year (1958), 400 people came. Howell County authorities and the local
newspaper had no idea what happened to him.
Well, Buck Nelson's dead, said Tamra S. Chancellor, office manager for Find People Fast. He died in California in March 1982. He was 88.
Archive EVERYDAY MAGAZINE story
by John M. McGuire
Post-Dispatch Staff Writer
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