Do you have tips on Photographing cryptids?, page 1

It seems to me that most of our best (relatively speaking) evidence for cryptids is accidental. Even when they have loads of equipment and a film crew, the people who go out deliberately looking never seem to find much. I like to watch shows like Destination Truth and MonsterQuest, but my husband has commented several times that he wished he could find a job where he would get paid for never actually accomplishing what he's supposed to be doing.

The best Sasquatch sighting I've heard is one where a lady walked around the side of her trailer to see what her dog was barking at and came face to face with a gray/white Sasquatch rummaging through her trash can. Then they both (she and the creature) ran away in opposite directions screaming while the dog tried to decide which one to chase. Why do I think that's the best? Because it's the sort of thing that actually happens with known animals.

In over 40 years of outdoor hiking and activities, I'd never seen a live bobcat or a live armadillo (or anything really, except squirrels, deer, and birds). But after I moved to the country and got some chickens, I've seen all sorts of wild animals!

But when a coyote took my best rooster not 10 feet from the big windows in the living room, I couldn't get the camera in time. When a bobcat showed up under my bird feeding tree, I did manage to get a few shots but they're all blurry and, if a bobcat were a cryptid, they wouldn't be very good evidence. Then an armadillo showed up one night digging around the fenced back yard, totally ignoring both my 3 large dogs who were barking themselves hoarse, and me, as long as we stayed inside the fence. I took about 20 pictures of that armadillo, and none of them turned out very well.

If you're wondering where I was going with all that, it's to say this:

1) Get used to keeping that camera within arm's reach at all times as if it were part of you, like your cell phone. If you live close to a large forest, Bigfoot showing up while you're on the toilet is just as likely (perhaps more likely, actually) as him showing himself while you're out looking for him.

2) Practice going out into the woods and getting pictures of real animals. Deer, coyote, bobcats, raccoons, and other animals are quite shy of humans (unless they live in suburbia) and can usually sense you long before you see them. If you get good enough to get some good pictures of wildlife, you'll be more likely to get a decent picture of a cryptid if there is one around.

3) Enlist help from a friend and ask them to surprise you while you're out walking. Practice being able to stay calm and steady and take a picture of the thing (presumably your cohort most of the time) which has startled you. When you can get a decent portrait of your friend after he's just jumped out from behind a tree and screamed, you might be ready to capture something that's startling and/or scary for real.

And finally, "hunting" for cryptids with a camera is in some respects not all that different from hunting animals with a gun. You're much more likely to succeed if you can become part of the scenery than when you're out traipsing around making lots of noise and being highly visible from a distance (because you're moving). Getting a blind and leaving it sitting out near game trails, or finding a good tree to sit up in and be quiet for (literally) hours, is more likely to lead to success than hours of walking around looking for things.

Good luck, and have fun.