I'm So Startled! - Bigfoot Sighting While Turkey Hunting

There is a new "Bigfoot" video up on YouTube and for some odd reason, there are people who actually think this is the "real deal". Actually, the video is from June 19, 2014. One popular You Tuber has  done a breakdown of the video that supports the two subjects being real Bigfoot. I'm not sure why the video is getting this sudden attention but it is what it is.

This really surprised me because even a quick view of the video does not scream Bigfoot. It screams two-guys-walking-in-the-woods. It's obvious...very obvious.

Here is the video in question:

The first red flag for me is the terrible acting. It seems like the woman is forcing herself to breathe heavily, and she does NOT appear to be startled. She sounds more like Marlin Perkins in an episode of Mutual Omaha's 'Wild Kingdom' than anything else.

The two subjects casually enter the frame and the woman follows them flawlessly, cell phone perfectly focused. It's just a shame she didn't use the zoom function, then we would have a very clear shot of two people. She was poised enough to keep the phone steady, so I see no reason why she would forget about zooming in. That's red flag number two.

I have grabbed some stills from the video, brightened and adjusted the contrast. I don't have fancy software, so I didn't magnify the stills by 700%, which renders the images useless. I resized the images just enough to show differences of colours in the main subject (the one with the dead deer).


I'll post the full sized enhanced images and below those I will post cropped images and add commentary below each one.

Just by looking at the photos above, it's quite easy to see this is nothing more than a man wearing a gray or light coloured jacket.

Next up are the resized cropped stills. Brightness and saturation have been adjusted slightly in order to show detail.

In this photo we can clearly see the bottom line of the jacket, sloping from upper left to lower right. The head of the subject is much darker than the upper body. The legs are also darker than the body but not as dark as the head. The man is carrying something but it does not resemble a deceased deer.

Once again, dark head, light or gray jacket, and pants of a different colour. In the video it may have appeared as if a dead animal was swinging in the arms of a Bigfoot but this still shows something completely different.
It looks like the person is carrying something similar to a pack or a coat, and dangling below that appears to be a smaller bag, perhaps a case for binoculars. A strap can be seen and it's being held be the left hand.

I have isolated and magnified this portion of the video. It doesn't look like a deer head flopping around.

Is he wearing a cap? Light jacket and brown pants, perhaps. He's holding something with the right hand. The arm looks bent at the elbow with the forearm almost horizontal.

I see nothing in this photo that comes close to resembling a Bigfoot. It looks like a person wearing a jacket.


One last thing that I thought was a bit strange and it didn't make sense until someone posted this short clip from South Park.

This could be a coincidence but then again, maybe it's not. I was unaware that people like to parody South Park. A quick search on YouTube yielded many parodies of this very clip.

Thomas Marcum has also taken a look at this video. You can find his post at The Crypto Crew


EDIT: Thanks to a reader of the blog, we have a zoomed and stabilized version of the video.

 

The Real Todd Standing

I have never been a fan of Todd Standing, mostly due to his used car salesmen style of pushing his claims and his muppet looking Bigfoot heads. Todd has a very well rehearsed narrative that seldom deviates.

I won't get too much in to my personal opinion because I would like to focus on a well written article by Dave, author at 'the Sasquatch Voice'. Dave is somewhat of a Todd Standing expert. Dave has followed Standing's work from the beginning, as far as I can tell.


From Dave's blog:

"This is one of those articles that has been a long time in the works, and frankly it was very difficult to write because the events are so damn convoluted.  There aren't a lot of photos.  It remains convoluted and I may even make further edits or clarifications in the following days/weeks.   However this Exposé should shed light on Todd Standing in a way that will cause all his uninformed supporters to cringe and examine his phony claims.   I've finished it just in time for the SasquatchSummit in Washington State so that people will know who he really is, while he tries to look you in the eyes telling more of his fantastic tales.  Frankly, he deserves no podium to further sell he wares!   His conduct herein is just one more example of how he operates.  He generally gets away with things because he knows few actually validate his claims to their genesis.   He often then covers his tracks by leap-frogging his way from one claim to the next without corroborating his prior one.   Here are a few examples.   And while most of his newer supporters weren't around for most claims he's made, a few of the longer term may recall some, like when he made the claim of Dan Hamilton and the four teens that went missing and were killed in his fabled land of Sylvanic?  He used this alleged event to garner all sorts of support from the most gullible of younger supporters, and yet he never validated it and instead moved on to the next saga to trap those who are easily 'influenced'.  Many of you are also unaware of how he used shill identities on several different forums to write phony posts to build himself up and sell videos.  The different identities and their IP Addresses came right back to match Todd's same exact IP Address.   To his newest supporters who come along, you need to wake up, research his past, and start asking hard questions about Todd and his shenanigans.  Most importantly, make sure you authenticate his answers!  He will give you little validation otherwise, knowing you won't or can't check out his claims." 


Read the rest of the article here:  How Todd Standing Operates

Seek Thermal Review

The following review is based on my personal experiences with the Seek thermal camera. I am not an expert with thermal imaging devices and this is my first experience with a thermal camera.

I think it would be safe to say that any Bigfoot enthusiast would welcome a thermal camera as part of their gear. Some people in the community have access to, or own, a high end FLIR thermal camera. Many of us simply don't have the budget for such a device but now we have an alternative.

The Seek thermal camera was recently released for sale and the demand appears to be very high for this device. Seek initially had some delays but I think they are finally getting caught up on back orders. There still remain a couple of issues with the Apple version of the camera, mainly due to the app being accepted in the Apple app store. Seek assures it's iOS customers that the cameras will ship soon. I have an Android device so my wait time was only about three weeks. When the camera shipped, it only took ONE day to get to Canada.

The camera comes in a good sturdy box and shows a bit of information on the camera.

Included with the camera is a hard plastic carrying case and key ring.


Before using the camera, the Seek app needs to be downloaded from the playstore. Once the app is installed, just plug the camera in to the micro USB port. The app will prompt you to accept the device. After that, use is very straight forward.

The Seek thermal camera comes with different functions and nine colour palettes. I like pictures, so I am going to post a lot of them you so get a good idea of what the functions are.

Enabling this function will give you a fairly accurate temperature reading.

Hi/Lo displays a low temperature and high temperature. This is useful if you want to check for air leaks at home or it could aid in detecting a heat signature of an animal in the brush.

This is where you fine tune the heat detection settings. I'm still playing with this function in order to get the best images possible. You have the option of including a date/time stamp and a watermark of the Seek logo. Date and time are very important when you're out in the field, so I opted to use this.

The slide function is something I really like. This is great for day time use and you get a heat signature. You can slide back and forth to pinpoint the target. Engaging this function is done via the on/off button on the top left of this image. Unfortunately at this time the two images don't match up exactly. I'm hoping Seek can fix that issue. A new product will always need some tweaking.


Once I unboxed the camera, I started snapping photos and my dog was the target. Thankfully he was nice enough to stay still.

"Iron" 

"Cool"

"White" Subject shows in white.

"Black" Subject shows in black.

I'll post a few short video clips showing some of the colour palettes and functions of the camera. One thing I immediately realized is that a thermal camera should not be moved around a lot, like you would with a camcorder. I realized this after the fact, so excuse the blurry videos.
  The camera is great for a point and hold application.

The video above shows a herd of cattle. Finding any deer was tough due to the plethora of hunters in the area. Distance ranged from about 80 ft. for the closest animal and roughly 300 ft. or more for the furthest animal. Setting is on "White". Temperature outside was approximately 5C.

This video is from the same location with the "Black" setting used.

Once again, same location. This is the "Iron" setting from the colour palette choices. Because it was a bit cool out, I preferred the gray scale, using the "Black" setting. Personally, I found it worked better. As the day warmed up, I used the "White" setting.

This function is good for day time use. As you can see, the cattle don't appear to be a one to one scale between normal video and the thermal video. Video quality seems a bit degraded in the non-thermal side of the window. I use a Galaxy Note3 and the video quality of the phone is much better under normal use. The zoom function of my phone works while using the Seek thermal camera. The Note has a maximum zoom of 4X, so your results may vary.

Video using the Hi/Lo temperature setting. It was warming up but there was about four inches of snow on the ground. Tall grass and stumps were bare. Sunny skies with a few clouds.

Same location using the "Iron" setting.

I didn't record videos or take pictures using all of the colour palettes. These are posted just to give you a basic idea of the camera's abilities.


Overall, I am very happy with this camera. It works great around the house and I have already found a few areas of heat loss that I can address. Mechanics would probably find this to be a valuable tool during diagnostics. The camera can detect water leaks and moisture as well.


As a tool for use in Bigfooting, I would say the camera is okay. It could be helpful if you hear something close by, such as branches snapping etc. The range of the camera is said to be approximately 1,000 ft. but I have not found an animal at that distance yet.

  The Seek will never replace a professional grade FLIR, and with a modest price tag of $200, I wouldn't expect it to perform on the same level as a $1,200+ camera.

It's closest competitor is the FLIR One. The FLIR has a price tag of $349 and has a resolution of 80 x 60, for a total of 4800 pixels.

"FLIR has also applied some great technology to help users get the most out of the resolution. Multi-Spectral Dynamic Imaging, or MSX, makes use of the second camera visible on the FLIR ONE, a visible light camera with a resolution of 640 x 480. MSX uses the visible light image to mine data about surface patterns and edges, then embosses this information into the thermal image. The effect is that the somewhat low thermal resolution is much more intelligible to the eye, giving the impression of a much higher resolution."

Source: Ivy Tools Blog

 The FLIR One is only compatible with iphone 5/5S.



Compare that to the Seek's 206 x 156 resolution and 32,136 thermal pixels.

  It would be beneficial if Seek could employ similar technology like MSX to sharpen the images. Maybe this will come in firmware updates, if that's possible, or in future generations of Seek thermal cameras. 


I don't ever see myself dropping a few thousand on a thermal camera, so the Seek is a perfect addition to my collection to my kit. It's a keeper and the camera performed flawlessly the entire afternoon. I didn't notice an excessive drain ion my phone battery. I used the phone on and off over the period of about three hours and I still had over 50% battery life. Under constant usage, this may change.


If you are interested in the Seek thermal camera, visit their website:  SEEK THERMAL

Russian Yeti

Once again, three years later, these series of Bigfoot photos from Russia are making the rounds. Thanks M.K., I thought these were debunked back then.

Mr. Davis decided to drudge up these photos and I have no idea why. New people enter the Bigfoot community every day and I am sure many of them have not seen the photos.

I wasn't going to talk about the Russian Bigfoot photos because I thought it would die a quick death. Many people, including myself, think these photos are simply another hoax. There are some who think the photos are of a real Yeti and some are not sure.

For the most part, the "Bigfoot" is obscured by trees, branches, shadows, or a combination of those things.

Because I think this is just another hoax, and an old one at that, I will show why I think it is so. I will show the original first, then I will show the enhanced photo with an explanation below it.

Aside from the baggy looking arm, the most glaring anomaly is the presence of long brown hair that appears to coming loose and falling out from underneath the hood. We are looking at a profile shot so this isn't a beard. The hair is drastically different in colour and length from the fur body of the costume.

 

Not only is hair spilling out the sides, it's falling out of the back of the hood now. I wonder if the person can see where he or she is going. In the blow up you may notice a red object of some sort. Originally I thought it could be a zipper tab but now I'm leaning towards this being a hair tie for a pony tail. It doesn't seem to be working to well.

 

This photo and insert show the hair and red object much better.

 

 

It looks as though Bigfoot was thrown a hair grenade. Red object is in the middle of the neck area and on either side is long messy hair.

This photo is the strangest of the bunch. I have no idea what is on the face. Are those supposed to be teeth or did Bigfoot visit India and get one of those shiny brass things on a chain to adorn his forehead?
  I did notice something interesting on the foot. Unfortunately it's obscured a bit by the Russian website address. Blown up and enhanced, it almost looks like the sole of a boot. I'm not 100% sure on this but whatever it is, it looks out of place.

Below are all of the cropped inserts by themselves.

 

 

Based on what I see, I have come to the conclusion that this Bigfoot is just a human in a fur suit but that's my personal opinion. I am sure there will be folks who will disagree with me. To those, I would ask that they show WHY they think this is a real Bigfoot.


Quite often I get chastised from a few people because they think I'm a skeptic, or I don't "believe" in Bigfoot. I get asked why I am around if I think everything is a hoax.

The fact of the matter is, it's not very often that compelling photos or videos make it's way in to Bigfootland, and most of the time those photos and videos raise red flags for one or more reasons.

I will admit, I do not believe in Bigfoot BUT I do think there is a good possibility that they exist. From what I've seen, belief is blinding. It can be so blinding that many people will lose all rational thought. Objectivity gets thrown to the wayside. Personal due diligence is almost unheard of.

When I see alleged evidence, you can bet that I will look at every square inch of photos or every frame of a video in order to see what's wrong with it, or what is right with it. If I see a crack in the story, I am sure to voice my opinion about it. If that makes me a terrible person, so be it.

I would urge everyone to just take a bit of time and look at things more closely before jumping on the bandwagon. Really look at the evidence and look at it again. Scrutinize, ask questions.
The community has it's share of snake oil salesmen and fraudsters. There is nothing wrong with being critical of evidence. ANY researcher worth his or her salt will be more than willing to answer questions to the best of their ability.


I would like to point out that after these photos appeared three years ago, nothing ever became of it. That in itself is reason to question the authenticity of this alleged Bigfoot.


Russian News Site Photos 

Bluff Creek Project Sheds Light on Jacobs Creature

Before I get in to the story, I'll give you a bit of background on the Bluff Creek Trail Camera Project. The following information is from the group's Facebook page.

About

The Bluff Creek Project is an open-source volunteer project initially formed to survey the animal population movements in and around the Bluff Creek Area

Description

The Bluff Creek Project is an open-source volunteer project initially formed to locate the original Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film site. It consists of several project contributors who volunteered their time and gas money to complete the mountains of field work needed to confirm the site's location. They have been researching the area formally on foot since 2009.

Trail camera survey:

The trail camera project was launched in July of 2012, and successfully raised enough money to purchase four high-end trail cameras. They committed all of their personal trail cameras to the project as well, for a total of eight cameras installed at the site. The cameras were installed in late October 2012 on the 45th anniversary of the film. The cameras spent seven months in total down at the film site, capturing the movements of Bluff Creek's inhabitants. They had a few camera failures, but all of the newly purchased cameras performed flawlessly.

If you are on Facebook, you can visit them here: Bluff Creek Project


You might be wondering what this project has to do with the Jacob's creature. Jamie Wayne Schutmutt recently released a couple of trail camera photos and posted them in another Facebook group. I will provide a link at the bottom.

The Jacobs creature is still talked about, even today. A series of photos were taken from a trail camera back in September, 2007. Many people are of the opinion that the photos show a Sasquatch and many people think it's a bear. Hopefully we can shed some more light on the subject thanks to the good folks at the Bluff Creek Project


Here is a photo of the Jacobs creature, taken from the BFRO website.

This photo is the first in the set of three photos, showing two bear cubs. The above photo was captured almost thirty minutes later.

Here is one of the photos from the trail camera project Jamie posted yesterday.

Yes, this is a photo of a bear. The interesting photo is the next one Jamie posted.

Does this posture look familiar? This is the same bear two seconds later and it's stance is almost identical to that of the Jacobs creature. I had a difficult time overlaying the two images to show both animals at the same time so I prepared a few.

 

As you can see, it's difficult to distinguish between the two subject. I made two short clips for better clarity. One clip shows the Bluff Creek bear overlayed on the Jacobs creature and the other shows The Jacobs creature over the Bluff Creek bear.

Armed with this new photo, I personally think the Jacobs creature is a bear. I thought it was a bear before this but now any doubt has been removed from my mind.

No Bigfoot was found but the group did manage to capture a very informative photo, in my opinion.

These folks work hard on this project and they produce some wonderful photos and videos of wildlife in the Bluff Creek area.

You can see there videos at their channel, Bluff Creek Project and here as well.

If you have a chance, visit them at Coalition for Reason, Science, Sanity in Bigfoot on Facebook. If you would like to donate to their project, contact Steven Streufert or Jamie Wayne Schutmutt at this Facebook page.