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Post by mingle on Jun 6, 2008 11:44:53 GMT 10
Hi,
This is hypothetical (unfortunately!)...
If I have some 100% genuine video footage and colour photos of a thylacine, who do I show it to first?
Who do I report it to? The national media, government departments?
Bearing in mind that overexposure of the creature could ultimately result in it being hunted/harassed to extinction all over again!
Also consider that such evidence could be worth $$$ to the finder...
What would YOU do?
Cheers,
Mike.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2008 17:32:34 GMT 10
Ring yout agent, if you don't have one look one up and ask if they can market the story. Those guys know all the big TV producers and magazine editors personally and will have them bidding for your story, the better the film etc the better the sale price.
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Post by TC Girl on Jun 7, 2008 15:20:47 GMT 10
Very, very good question Mike. I’ve thought about this a lot over the last year … obviously (LOL). If I’m lucky enough for it to ever happen again, I will have that camera in my hand ready and powered up. God willing, I get a good shot, or shots. Better yet, have a video.
This is what I would do. Anyone please tell me if any of the following has flaws they can see. It may all seem a tad paranoid but if I ever get bombshell photos/video, my plan, in order, is:
- Guard the camera with my life until I got home. It physically would not leave my hands. If I had to drive, no-one would hold my camera – I’d tie it around my neck.
- Straight home – no diversions – drive safely (want no accidents with cameras being smashed!)
- Burn some copies on disk and check each disk to make sure they copied OK & the files open properly.
- Print out some hard copies of the pics.
- I would not leave any copies on my computer (check the temp files).
- Keep one set of disks and prints.
- Put one set in a mate’s safe.
- Put one set in my work strongroom.
- It would probably be a Sat or Sun, so I then nervously sweat it out until Monday and then put a set of disks & prints PLUS the camera/videocam (which holds the originals in memory) into a bank safe deposit box.
- Get home and have a small nervous breakdown (LOL).
- Contact the administrators here off-board with an “Urgent – ring me now before I explode.” message.
Between us then discuss and work out where to go from that point and what’s the best course of action and who else is to be involved or can be trusted with the information, how to view what I had, etc. – because I just don’t know the answers to any of that side of things. I would rely on others more experienced than I in that area.
I am more concerned about protecting an animal and its habitat than making money from any photos/footage. It’s not a question of money for me (even though money is wonderful stuff and, God knows, I need some – ha!).
I do not wish to offend anyone in media or government departments who may happen across this post. I know the vast majority of you in both areas are hard-working, well-meaning guys and gals. So please don’t be offended ... but … you will NOT see me immediately running off the mountain to the closest media outlet or government department, waving my camera in my hot, little paw in a screaming hurry, yelling “Look what I’ve got!”
Mike hit the nail on the head when he said: “Bearing in mind that overexposure of the creature could ultimately result in it being hunted/harassed to extinction all over again!”
Yep – that statement about sums it up for me. Couldn’t have put it better myself Mike.
So ... that’s what I’d do. My 2c worth – if it’s even worth 2c?! (LOL)
PS – I just thought of something – does it matter if I leave the batteries in the equipment I put in the safe deposit box – or should I take them out of the device/s?
PPS – Just reading over this, my mate just said it reads like I might possibly already have “something” on film.
OK - I must stress this – I do not. Zilch evidence on film. Unfortunately!
Just … Not Yet.
It is now coming up to the 12 month mark. My right arm has improved a bit more. Feeling more confident that I’ll be OK in heavy bush with it. Desperately want to get up to the hut ASAP to see what needs to be done to it. Plan to spend a weekend up there (health permitted of course – I’m silly, but not stupid). It needs some work. It’s a real Mickey Mouse Amateur Operation I’ve planned, but .. who knows … it may just work. It’s been seen before. Who knows, it may be seen again. The chances of winning Lotto are probably better (LOL) … but, if I don’t try, I’ll never know. Oh Great! I was just asked: “We’ll take the rifles, won’t we?” Bleeding hell! “No, there will be no guns!” Lordy! The Quest will probably be reading about us in the news – but for a different reason – I can see it now – Headline reads: “Best Friend Shoots Mate In The Butt, On Big Cat Stake-Out”. And it would be MY butt that cops it, for sure! LOL. On that note … I’m outta here .... to have (yet another) argument about firearms I think. Wish me luck on THAT one!!!!
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Thylacoleo Gal
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Thylacoleo Gal
The Singularity is near.
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Post by Thylacoleo Gal on Jun 7, 2008 16:36:50 GMT 10
Yup, well spoken TC Girl and Mingle. It's hard to know. If it's a digital camera, it's important not to tamper with the card or change the gizmo's date+time settings in any way. Better just to keep the whole unit in a strong box as is. At the very least you will be called upon to allow forensic examination of the memory card before anyone "coughs up". That much I know. I also know big media will offer reasonably biggish sums to purchase the card, the images the copyright and the whole kaboodle. Which they, not you, will then syndicate around the globe and reap enormous profit. With not a thought for the welfare on any rare and unique critter. Needless to say, you will not sell outright ownership to these bloodsucking pirates, right?  If it's an analogue camera, there's a problem. You have to have the film developed so there's no way to secure secrecy. I guess the best thing, assuming you're on first name terms with the people at the photo-developer shop, would be to drop in somewhat late-ish in the afternoon on a day when you know things are quiet and ask to have special job looked after. For this favour you will, of course, pay extra for and say you know it's late but you'll wait around if they can do it right now. "Oh, well actually do you mind if I stay and watch? I've always been fascinated by how photography works." The "gushy routine" ... you know? Take a note of the time + date + how long they take to do the job and get a receipt as proof they did develop the film straight out of your camera. Mingle's right. Untimely exposure could easily lead to a rare animal's final demise. Can't let that happen. We cultivated contacts with this possible eventuality in mind. The idea being to have any such critter declared protected and access to its territory restricted before any announcement was made. OK, it's not all that likely but ... you never know. Better to have the ground prepped in advance, right?  Glad to hear your arm is getting better! No guns hey? Good! We won't have a bar of firearms out there ourselves. Too damn dangerous. Best - D  |
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Post by youcantry on Jun 7, 2008 17:41:30 GMT 10
I found myself in just this position today ... sort of. Went out to check my quoll camera - it's been out for nearly 2 months. Took my portable hard drive so I could back up the photos straight away. Took the laptop so I could view them straight away (a second backup too). Took the GPS so I could pinpoint the camera location. Took my digital camera just because I always do in case I see something worth photographing. Took the video camera for fun. Took me over an hour to drive there, then nearly another hour of walking to get to the camera - yes, lugging all that stuff, plus a first aid kit and food. First thing I did was to eject the SD card with the camera in-situ. If I turn up an Eastern quoll I want to leave the camera there. There I am, hanging off the tree trunk reaching around the far side of the camera, press the card in and let go .... POP! Flew right out and down into the scrub. Great. Mission objective: find SD card. Phew - bright blue and found it straight away. Lucky the camera wasn't next to the 100 foot cliff a bit further on! Okay - card's out, time to view the pics. Fire up the laptop. Doh! This is not my usual SD card!! My usual SD card has a USB connector built in - no card reader required! Do you think I have an SD card reader on my laptop? No. Okay - no viewing photos today until I get them home. Lucky I have the portable hard drive - it meant I could take the pics home and leave the card there to keep snapping away. (In the end I decided to bring the camera home anyway). So - what to do? The camera tells me I have 31 photos. 32 if you count the one of me staring in the lens while I'm trying to turn it off. There might be an Eastern quoll on there - and I've decided now to bring the camera home. Okay - first thing's first - it's digital. People won't trust it. Pull out the video camera and film the trail camera in-situ. Film the target area where the animals walk through. Walk around at least 180 degrees so you cover it in all angles. Film my yardstick up close - that's my metre measure so I can get a rough idea of the size of any animal walking past it. (Literally a tree branch, but I took a tape measure the first time so I could snap it at the metre mark). The other reason to film all around the location is to prove that it's in fact in NSW - I'm not photographing Tasmanian Eastern quolls and trying to palm them off as being local to here. So that's got the location and genuine-ness (!?) covered. Now it's drive home and check the pics. No Eastern quolls. No spotted-tailed quolls unfortunately. Just a macropod that appeared fully (back to the lens) in only 2 successive frames, and in another 6 frames (3 sets of 2 successive frames) just its tail is visible - in total on 3 different days. All the other shots are lacking any obvious sign of an animal. To date that's been the frustrating thing about the cameras - ensuring the animal remains within the frame long enough to be photographed. Someone suggested I might have a slow SD card, but I think the first photo should still have been snapped as soon as the camera wakes up. At any rate, I'll post the pics online sometime. The most likely culprits, based on general location, are the swamp wallaby, red-necked wallaby, eastern grey kangaroo and parma wallaby. Based on the long thin tail I'm liking the parma wallaby, but based on that tail being about 70cm, it's likely to be one of the others. In infra-red it appears totally black, without any extra markings (seeing only the rump, tail and right foot. In one frame the ears are visible from behind - also black). So that's that. Two months yields one wallaby, wahoo!  |
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Post by youcantry on Jun 7, 2008 17:42:41 GMT 10
Oh yeah - guess who forgot to take the video camera off the roof of the car before driving off? Found out about it about 400m down the road.
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Post by mingle on Jun 7, 2008 19:56:52 GMT 10
Hey Chris,
Well, at least you got a couple of shots... Were they all at night?
I found that there was a delay of around 1-2 seconds between the camera sensing movement and the picture actually being taken. I think it maybe due to the camera 'waking' up and also switching on the IR flash...
I don't think the speed of the SD card (I might've mentioned that previously) would make any difference. I believe the camera buffers each frame in its internal RAM before saving it to the SD card.
The best way to use these cams (as you already know, I guess) is either 'looking' along a trail, or with some sort of bait, so the targets stay in range long enough for some decent shots...
Oh, I hope your video camera was okay!
Cheers,
Mike.
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Post by youcantry on Jun 7, 2008 21:22:42 GMT 10
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Post by Wally1 on Jun 8, 2008 14:22:31 GMT 10
A word of caution and sound advice.
DONT put your goodies in a bank strongbox.
My long suffering vet friend from WA had stuff re cat research in his strongbox.
The box was ratted and when he protested the manager told him that **** can do anything.
Wally
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2008 6:07:34 GMT 10
I can't eject the tape and everything on the LCD is in a shade of green - not sure if that's a screen issue, or a sensory issue...  Either way, that sounds ... bad.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2008 6:17:28 GMT 10
Good stuff Chris! I'd say the wallaby is almost certainly a Swamp Wallaby ( Wallabia bicolor - is that the Latin name?) You know, I'd take the camera down out of the tree quick smart. It's way too visible up there - to humans, not animals! Would make for excellent target practice, if you know what I mean?  Besides, one needs to get the animal reasonably close to the lens in order to make an unambiguous identification. IR lacks the definition of visible light and so, while, say, black & white stripes would show up, subtle gradations in colour & pattern might not be discernible. My 20c worth. QfT |
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Post by molloch on Jun 9, 2008 19:22:46 GMT 10
Yeah, I'd agree Wallabia bicolor, Black Swamp Wallaby. The tails on these guys is really quite long when you see it up close.
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