Photographing Sasquatch: Perhaps it’s time to rethink our strategy

Editor's Note: Adrian Dorst is a 40 year amateur sasquatch investigator, and has made a living as a nature, wildlife and wilderness photographer in Tofino, BC. Over the years, Adrian's research yielded three possible Sasquatch encounters, one in 1980, 1993, and Christmas day 2008. You may contact Adrian at his email address: adrianusdorst@gmail.com

Is there a solution to overcoming the poor images of Sasquatch captured thus far? Perhaps it’s time to rethink our strategy.

First a little background. I’ve been interested in the subject of Sasquatch/Bigfoot ever since reading one of John Green’s books 40 years ago. For a good portion of that same time-span I made a living as a nature, wildlife and wilderness photographer. My forays into the wild, over all those years, yielded three possible Sasquatch detections of my own: an incident of midnight foot stomping in the Cascades in 1980 (that scared the livin BJeeses out of me, by the way), tree knocking in a remote valley in Clayoquot Sound in 1993, also at night, and a visual daytime sighting on Meares Island, near Tofino on Christmas day, 2008. Although all three incidents were highly suggestive of Sasquatch presence, none was 100 per cent conclusive.

Three “possible” incidents is not a lot to show for all those times spent exploring wilderness areas. And even my 20 second visual in 2008 was far away, thus providing no opportunity for documenting it with a camera. My personal experience with the elusiveness of this phantom animal demonstrates to me the difficulty faced by researchers in capturing evidence with a camera. More than most people, I recognize just how much wild country there is for Sasquatch to disappear into. When an animal is this intelligent and largely nocturnal on top of that, it’s a challenge indeed.

Still, with the increased interest in this phenomenon in recent years, generated in part by the increased communications provided by the internet, plus the prevalence of photographic devices of all kinds, new images are surfacing more frequently. Unfortunately, the majority of these are shaky images captured on video that do little more than provide comic amusement for the skeptics. Often, the person holding the camera doesn’t know enough to hold it steady, by holding it against a tree, for example. And even if the camera was held steady, when you attempt to blow up such an image, it quickly breaks down into a pixelated soup of indiscernible shadows. The resolution needed for blowing up the image up just isn’t there.

I’m sure that most people with an interest in Sasquatch have been as frustrated with these image failures as I have. Tantalizing glimpses sometimes, yes, but ultimately no proof. There may be a solution, however, at least for the serious researcher. Leave the bloody thing at home and bring a modern Single Lens Reflex Camera or SLR. That is, if you’re serious. The reason? Pixels. Without going into excessive detail, a modern high definition video camera may provide an image of 1920 X 1080 pixels. That’s 2 megapixels in size. The latest SLRs shoot images of up to 25 megapixels in size. Granted, some of these cameras may be prohibitively expensive for the average person, but even a very moderately priced SLR such as the Canon Rebel shoots 12 megapixel images.

Video cameras have another serious weakness. They do a very poor job of stopping motion. A still camera image, on the other hand, can stop an animal in its tracks, no matter how fast it’s moving. Shooting at a shutter speed of, say, 1/250th of a second or faster, the image can be blown up to enormous size and still retain detail.

“Sure, that’s fine if you’re a pro photographer,” I can hear you say. Let me confess right here that I made a career of photography with only very basic technical skills, and that was in the era of film. With today’s high-tech digital cameras that do everything for you except brush your teeth, still photography has been made infinitely easier. Anyone can be a photographer with a decent camera and a basic knowledge of how to operate it. Should you decide to go this route, here are a few tips I can offer:

(1) A telephoto is recommended, if not a must. A 70 to 200mm zoom would be a very good choice. In fact, if I could only have one lens, this would be my choice. An f4 is adequate. Don’t bother with f2.8 as it’s more weight to carry. A second smaller lens would be good for recording your travels and documenting evidence. Very long lenses tend to be prohibitively expensive and would not be useful in the forest.

(2) Use shutter speed priority. That is, you manually set the shutter speed and allow the camera to automatically work out the aperture. Remember that you need a crisp image in order to be able to blow it up. I recommend a 1/250th of a second or higher when possible and leave your tripod at home.

(3) Always be aware of your ISO and change it according to the light. It’s far better to be higher than you need, than to be too low.

(4) When the light is so low that even your maximum ISO setting does not allow shooting at 1/250th of a second, lower your shutter speed and brace your camera. Even with a telephoto, you can shoot as slow as 1/30th of a second by holding the barrel against a tree. Slower than that, and you will have to place the camera on a stump or rock and hold it perfectly still. If the subject is not moving, you can shoot at one full second or longer.

(5) Unless you are shooting in the open, you are better off setting your lens on manual focus. Trees and bushes just tend to interfere with the autofocus which can cause you to miss your shot.

(6) While driving, and particularly when in the field, have your camera ready for action at all times. That means setting your ISO and shutter speed ahead of time. You may have only seconds to get that shot.

(7) There are numerous settings on the camera menu. Most of these are unimportant. But under Quality (as in image quality) make sure you are shooting “Large.” For the rest, you either learn them from the instructions manual or consult an experienced photographer who can set you up in a jiffy.

(8) The rule is, keep it simple. When an opportunity arises, if you have pre-set your ISO and shutter speed, you simply turn on the camera with your thumb, focus and shoot. This can be done in as little as 2 or 3 seconds. Keep in mind too that these cameras can fire off 3 to 5 or more frames per second. A single sharp photo from an SLR could outdo all the video and film footage shot so far and electrify the world.