The Night Parrot

[greg_parkerAdmin]

Caught part a story the other night on the news about a photographer who claimed to have photographed the elusive (and maybe extinct) night parrot.

Instinct kicked in and I decided to see what I could find on the web.

Turns out the photographer was busted for faking a previous shot which purported to be of another rare / possibly extinct bird.
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/night-parrot-seen-alive-again-after-30-years.htm


But where it gets interesting is that the buster was a forensic photographic expert out of RMIT University in Melbourne... who originally haled from Dallas, Texas. His name is Gale Spring.

Photo expert? Dallas? I had to check to see if he has had any past interest in the assassination. What I found was that he had attended a conference in Dallas in 2001 on "Biocommunciations".    

Plenary I
The President's been shot and we are bringing him to the Emergency Room
Dr. Ron Jones, Chief of Surgery
Baylor University Medical Center
Dallas, Texas

Plenary II

Computer aided simulation, visualization, and animation: Current technology and application in Biocommunications 

 

Jeffrey B. Wheeler, M.S. 

Vice President / Director of Biomechanics 

Knott Laboratory, Inc. – Denver and Los Angeles 

University of Colorado Orthopedic Biomechanics Lab 

Perceptions and Misconceptions of Photographic Evidence

Gale Spring

 

"Seeing is believing" may be an acceptable way of dealing with photographs on a casual basis. When photographs are required to give a fair and accurate account of a scene or situation, a deeper analysis must be undertaken to determine how, why, when, where and by whom the photograph was created. Problems are often encountered in the interpretation of the image. Technically speaking all photographs "lie"; sometimes by accident and sometimes by deliberate misrepresentation. Using a variety of case studies, this presentation covers areas of difficulty in extracting facts from photographs and what photographs can and cannot reveal.

 

Mr. Gale E. Spring is an Associate Professor of Scientific Photography at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.  He came to RMIT University in 1988 after 13 years as the Director of Photographic Services for the Department of Pathology at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Dallas, Texas. From his background in forensic and technical imaging, Gale finds himself involved at all levels of law enforcement, lecturing, consulting and acting as an expert witness in cases involving the interpretation of photographs used in evidence.  Gale is the Program Leader of the Southern Hemisphere’s only applied science degree program in scientific photography. The program awards degrees from Bachelor of Applied Science (B.App.Sc) to PhD’s.  The program embraces the internationalization of education and has many professional links throughout the world.

http://hesca.net/dallas/daytwo.htm#plenary1

If anyone is interested in contacting Prof Spring whose expertise could be of enormous value in this 50th anniversary year...

http://www.rmit.edu.au/staff/gale-spring

I would -- but this area is better left to those with more interest/knowledge of these areas of the case.

[Hasan Yusuf]

Interesting stuff, Greg.