Photographer's position

Kentaro Mori, December 2nd, 2003
Revisions:
12.15.2003
01.13.2004

This is a panorama of the four Barauna photos (built from eight first print scans, from two different sources):

(Click to enlarge - 327Kb)

The features of the ship which can be seen on the series of photos suggests that all photos were taken with little or even no movement of the position of the photographer, Almiro Barauna. He changed mainly the direction to which he pointed his camera. In the third photo, besides changing the direction to which the camera was pointed, he may either have taken a step to the left, or moved the camera to a higher position. This is all suggested by the fact that the ship's features, mainly the handrail, are probably the same:

The fact that he captured these features of the ship is in itself curious. They can be seen on this other photo, of the Icaraí Club on the ship:

Barauna can be seen at the far right. The height of the handrail, estimated from the ship's plans, are around two and a half feet. The distance between the "nodes" (the ball on the handrails) is around more than three feet of around 1.1, 1.2m (correction suggested by Steuart Campbell). Below is the ship plan:

(Click to enlarge - 178Kb)

If Barauna's Rolleiflex model E was held between the height of his waist and chest, this would explain why he captured the handrail. Otherwise, if it was held close to his eyes, he must have been at a certain distance from the handrail to capture it. Probably, the former suggestion is correct (his camera was around his chest height).

The handrail can be seen on photos 2, 3 and 4. We can suggest the relative angle to the ship to which Barauna pointed his camera based on this. First, assuming the handrail captured was parallel to the ship:

fig1

fig2

fig3

As can be seen, the suggested angle would be the one represented on figure 3. Barauna would be pointing to the stern on all photos if he was on the port and the handrail was parallel to the ship.

On the other hand, if the handrail was inclined, as in say, the stem of the ship, port, things would be a bit different:

figA

figB

FigC

As can be seen, the suggested angles would be the ones suggested on figures A and B. Barauna may have pointed to the port and/or the stern if he was on the stem (at port). If he was on the stern (and at port) and the handrail was on an opposite inclined angle, then the contrary would be true: Barauna may have pointed to starboard and/or the stem.

The drawing below was published on "O Globo" on February 26th, 1958:

According to it, Barauna was on the stern of the ship. But the drawing above, much circulated on many forms, has also many problems. See Ship's position, for instance. Also, it implies that P3 was taken before the UFO was obstructed by the Island, which doesn't seem to be correct according to the reports.

This is a suggestion of the approximate location of the ship when Barauna took his photos (See also Ship's position). The angles of the UFO on this diagram are also just a suggestion, they have no accuracy value. The legends P1, P2, P3 and P4 are not a suggestion as to the position of the UFO.

(Click to enlarge)

Dec 15th: The above suggestion may be revised soon. The orientation of the ship may not be correct.

END