Fake UFO Photo Led to Newspaper Job
The email landed in my work inbox the other day. Kilgore College will host the 51st annual East Texas Regional Science Fair starting Friday. Project are available for public viewing right after lunch. I plan on moseying over there to take a look. After all, my science fair project has a lot to do with me becoming a newspaper photographer in high school — a step up from working in the mailroom stuffing circulars into the papers. That had been the second rung on the career ladder from being a paperboy, as described in last week’s piece.
For my tenth-grade science project, I decided to demonstrate how easy it was to fake a photograph of an unidentified flying object. I can’t recall what prompted me to undertake this endeavor.
My UFO was a partially dismantled “Star Trek” model, with its wings stripped so all that remained was the saucer shape. I borrowed my mother’s Instamatic camera and a roll of black-and-white film, and bought the lightest fishing line I could get. I strung the model, which was about a foot in diameter, about three feet off the ground out in our backyard, tying the fishing line between a pair of azalea bushes.
I wriggled my way under the model and lay down on my back. From that angle I composed the photo so it looked as if the flying saucer was hovering in the sky over the roofline of our house. I shot the entire roll of film, taking photos from several angles and then mailed the roll off to be processed. That took a week back then in the Mesozoic Era — decades before one could take a photo with a phone and upload it to the world in seconds.
Once I got the snapshots back, I selected the best four and took the negatives down to the Camera Shop in downtown Longview. There I had black-and-white 8x10s made of them. I figured that would make the photos even blurrier — since I used an Instamatic, the pictures were not exactly sharp anyway — and the graininess would disguise the fishing line holding up the UFO. Getting the enlargements took a few more days, but finally I had my fake UFO photos. If one did not look too closely, and ignored the whole perspective problem (since the flying saucer appeared to be about 100 times the size of our roof), and didn’t use a magnifying glass to see the thin fishing line, it looked as if a flying saucer was hovering over our home in South Longview.
From there, the rest of the project was easy. I went to the old Nicholson Library on Green Street and did some cursory research on previous famed sightings of UFOs, and notable hoaxes. I titled the project “UFOs: Fact or fiction?” and slapped it on a tri-fold of heavy-duty cardboard. It was judged convincing enough placed high enough in the class to send me to the regional science fair at Kilgore College.
While there I was accosted by a man in an Army uniform, who questioned me closely about the photographs. Where did I get them? I faked them, I proudly answered. Was I sure about that, he asked. Well, yes. It’s my science project, I replied. He seemed dubious but finally accepted my explanation. (Then, as now, the Army, Navy and Air Force award prizes at the science fair. I think they are on the hunt for promising recruits. It is likely a smart place to look.)
My project won some type of prize from the Army, which my mother held on to for decades, along with the photos. I still have them in a box somewhere. A few weeks after the science fair, the chief photographer for the paper came up to me.
“So, I hear you’re interested in photography. I saw your exhibit at the science fair,” he said.
I was interested in photography like I was interested in UFOs, collecting rocks, baseball trivia or antique cars. It was just something I had done at the time. But I said yes to be polite.
“We have a part-time job developing film and taking pictures once in a while,” he said. “It’s yours if you want it.”
My interest in photography escalated instantly. It beat the heck out of stuffing inserts into newspapers. Soon I was learning the mysteries of the dank darkroom, shooting football games, and learning the thrill of seeing — albeit rarely — my photos in print with my name under the cutline.
I was hooked, both on photography and newspapers. And all because of a science project on how to fake a picture of a UFO.
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