Back Yard Photography

Thanks me Ole salt

The following is an image essay describing modeling work I've done in analyzing the power line and LHO figure shadows in the back yard. 


Here is the model on a Google map. It sits on the Neely house. A feature of Sketchup is that one can geo-locate the model. As a result the shadows in the back yard can be generated for every minute of daylight on every day for the entire year.


Here you see the model closer in. I've replaced the google map with a green grass ground cover, but the geo-location is the same. Note the wires hanging in the air as if by magic. It's the wire shadows we care about, not the poles.


Above we have the wires as they were back in those days. Today they are in a different location, on poles further away from the house. 

All of the dimensions in the model are careful approximations based upon the google map scale, and upon photos showing apparent ground level changes, typical floor to floor heights, typical door heights, and stair construction technique observable from the variety of photos available on the internet. I do possess the types of construction knowledge needed for purposes of making these kinds of inferences. That said, the model isn't perfect. But it was useful for making a point in studying the back yard photos.


Above is at 2:25 PM on March 29, which was when I was able to get a decent match for shadows close to what we see in BYP's. One thing I struggled to get and never did succeed was a decent correlation between the post height and LHO's height. Could be my fault, could be something more suspicious, but I know this issue has been brought forward by others in the past.


Side view with some critical dimensions (again 3/29 @ 2:25 PM)


This is sequencing one minute at a time. I was amazed to see how far the shadows traveled up the pole (six inches) in just three minutes. Also note that as predicted by Steely, the head shadow goes UP the fence too, but much more slowly than the wire shadows. The speed of the wire shadows is due to the distance and elevation of the wires. These shadows are traveling toward the horizon faster than all the ground based shadows are. Point of order: Terry Martin gets the credit for the original discovery of this shadow anomaly.

So this leaves us with two possible conclusions: One, the photos are faked. Two, LHO moved closer to the camera within the time span of only several minutes between shots. Let's see how we must move LHO in this model in order to render a similar shadow change as observed in the BYP's:


Here it is at 2:27 as that time looks most similar in terms of wires on the post. I'm focusing here on the bottom wire shadow and ignoring the fact that the upper two wire shadows are much higher on the post in the BYP's. The point stands either way. LHO is now way too far forward of the wire shadows on the ground. He is even taller compared to the post. (For those who are interested, the field of view setting for the perspective views is 30 degrees).


Here are the dimensions and time stamp for the preceding view. The difference in distance from LHO to the fence is now 12" further from the fence.  

Thus eliminating the possibility that LHO moved closer to the camera, my final conclusion is that the photos are apparently faked.

Outstanding work, Jake.

I've only given this a cursory look so far, but I want to make sure I'm understanding. 

Are your conclusions that the pictures are fake due to the fact Oswald's head shadow moves too slowly up the fence relative to the wires in the given time frame in your modeling? In other words, they should have moved more unless Oswald moved forward toward the camera?

Thanks,
Stan

I think we have this baby wrapped up and ready to present to it's parents, Dr Sykes.

I think we should send this work to Mr. Farid.

His peer review would be most interesting.
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/

Ha! I was just thinking about the beauty of Jake's work here is that he lays it all out wonderfully so that it allows for independent verification. 

That's how you do it, Jake. Well done!

Thanks guys. I felt I needed to contribute something to at least try and keep up with you people. 

This is something I worked on a long time a while back and then I left it alone for a long time. I felt it was apparent LHO had stepped forward in the photo and I became discouraged. Then when I came back to it and saw how little time had passed between shots, it seemed less likely he would have moved much between shots so I tested it by moving him and doing so just put everything out of whack, so I rejected the idea.

Stan, the byp's show the shadows moving up the pole, yet LHO's head shadow moves down onto the ground in that same photo. The upward movement of the head shadow along with the upward movement of the wire shadows was expected. Again it was the head shadow moving down onto the ground while wire shadows moved up the pole (and toward the back of the yard for the wire shadows on the ground) that set off Steely's alarm bell. It was just surprising to see the wire shadows move up so fast relative to the rest of the shadows. The head shadow moving slowly up was more in line with what we expect to see while watching lengthening shadows or grass growing 

Greg, I'm afraid I don't get who Farid is, but thank you very much for the compliment. I guess he's a computer expert? This work is to send to whomever you think will help us make progress on the subject.

Ah yes. Now it comes back to me, Jake. 

What a contrast between you and certain creatures that inhabit other forums. They huff and puff and declare this and that, with nothing to back it up. Just empty words. You humbly put forth a solid model that can be tested by others.

I tip my hat to you. And to Steely. And to Terry. And the whole ROKC team.

Nice work Jake, well done m8!!!

Terry takes all the credit for spotting the cable shadow anomaly, Jake. FWIW I'm convinced a single background image was used with shadows meant to move in unison to indicate a brief passage of time between each photo. It's clearly fubar. Unless there were 2 suns.
Excellent work Jake and it ties in nicely with the overlays Stan posted.

Jake Sykes wrote:Thanks guys. I felt I needed to contribute something to at least try and keep up with you people. 

This is something I worked on a long time a while back and then I left it alone for a long time. I felt it was apparent LHO had stepped forward in the photo and I became discouraged. Then when I came back to it and saw how little time had passed between shots, it seemed less likely he would have moved much between shots so I tested it by moving him and doing so just put everything out of whack, so I rejected the idea.

Stan, the byp's show the shadows moving up the pole, yet LHO's head shadow moves down onto the ground in that same photo. The upward movement of the head shadow along with the upward movement of the wire shadows was expected. Again it was the head shadow moving down onto the ground while wire shadows moved up the pole (and toward the back of the yard for the wire shadows on the ground) that set off Steely's alarm bell. It was just surprising to see the wire shadows move up so fast relative to the rest of the shadows. The head shadow moving slowly up was more in line with what we expect to see while watching lengthening shadows or grass growing 

Greg, I'm afraid I don't get who Farid is, but thank you very much for the compliment. I guess he's a computer expert? This work is to send to whomever you think will help us make progress on the subject.

Jake, Hany Farid did a 3D study of the photos a couple of years ago, declaring they were the real deal. As is usual with any "lone nut" breakthrough, the story got mass exposure. 
https://news.dartmouth.edu/news/2015/10/settling-controversy-over-photo-lee-harvey-oswald

So... I kind of had my tongue in cheek about sending it to him. But -- on second thoughts, what the hell? it should be sent to someone who can peer review it. If the work is affirmed, it should damn well get the same attention Farid's work got.

I'll also take this opportunity to wholeheartedly agree with Stan's comments.

Great job,Jake.

Very sorry to have failed to credit Terry with this. Please accept my apologies and thank you for spotting the issue in the first place.

By the way, the horizontal dimension from LHO to the back wall is to the taller wall on the right of the picket fence. That wall is placed 6" forward from the picket fence itself, so add 6" to the dimensions shown from LHO to the wall to get the distance from LHO to the picket fence, which is what his shadow does, and does not, cast upon in each of the two set-ups.

Awesome Jake. Those photos never looked right to me. When they made the cover of Life it not only helped to incriminate Oswald it also legitimised they were genuine. It served as evidence. I did at one point didn't care whether they were fake or not. If Oswald did pose it was staged as if they were faked anyway. Either way this notorious image was used as propaganda to enhance Oswald's guilt. I don't trust the MSM. 
I agree with what the others here say. We are extremely grateful you are a member here. Your contributions are always thought provoking and well observed and studied. This is just a prime example.

I was showing Jake's work to my wife and I built this to help better explain it.

Perfection Stan. That was what was missing from my presentation. As per usual, you've done it better than I would have. Note that the lowest shadow hits the middle of his right foot in BOTH images. Oswald has grown in height and that smells in Denmark.

Paul, thank you my brother.

Great presentation, Jake. Proves what I have been saying all along that the larger size of "Oswald" in CE133b was unexplainable to the so called experts, who said the camera must have moved towards Oswald, which couldn't be as the parallax of the posts to his rear didn't change, or he moved towards the camera which he couldn't as his shadows didn't move the same direction.

Thank you very much Ray. Yes the height issue is not resolvable. Thank you for the peer review. That is what is needed for it to gain acceptance.

Since we know by the solar clock on the post that the head shadow moved off the fence mere minutes after the photo with the head shadow on the fence, then moving the camera could not have done that, only moving Oswald could have done that. We now see that Oswald would have had to move about one foot further from the fence to get his head shadow off of it and in the mean time the wire shadows on the ground had to move closer to the fence. Oswald and the wire shadows were needing to move in opposite directions, yet the wire shadows are at his feet in both photos, which is not possible given the set-up in the model.

Absolutely outstanding work here Jake.

I'm humbled by this presentation. Thanks to Terry, Stan, yourself and others here - we now know these photos which were used so effectively back in the day to incriminate Oswald are indeed absolute fakes.

My question now is what part of those photos has been faked in relation to the person standing in them?

Again Outstanding stuff Jake.

This is the sort of stuff which will turn the key.

Thanks Mick. Only the shadows know.

Yes Jake,

There's an emerging pattern here within the case and it has to do with the shadows, maybe we're onto something

Great work Stan. Good production quality and easy to watch. Obviously I agree that it shows the photos are faked. 

Terri's observations and the PM image together inspired me to write the following poem a few years back on the old site. I think these two issues are pillars, along with all the others, in the ROKC pantheon.

Noontime poses,
On plate glass scenery.
Shadows box,
On backyard greenery.
A shutter closes out,
Blackout noses in.
The sun won't lie for anyone.
The sun does not know how.

Vinny wrote:Great job,Jake.

Thank you Vinny.

Ray Mitcham wrote:Great presentation, Jake. Proves what I have been saying all along that the larger size of "Oswald" in CE133b was unexplainable to the so called experts, who said the camera must have moved towards Oswald, which couldn't be as the parallax of the posts to his rear didn't change, or he moved towards the camera which he couldn't as his shadows didn't move the same direction.

Quite a blow.
This makes trash of Farid, Lampost Lambkin, Warrenista's, Fbi
MCADAMS, Life Magazine and a slew of experts.

They were all wrong.

They can review the material presented and send apologies to 1-800-fuc-koff

Cheers!
Ed