The Story of the UFO over Santa Monica
I was on a trip to Southern California recently when I found myself abandoned by my dinner date fairly early in the evening. Now what? I always have my camera with me, so I decided to start trawling for interesting lights. It is after all what I do. Reflections are a great love of mine so I headed for the ocean in the hopes of capturing something unusual. It was an incredibly still night. The water was as flat as a pancake. I wandered down the beach to what turned out to be a beautiful pea green boat. Oddly enough it wasn’t tethered to anything. Perfect. I scribbled a quick note in the sand in case the owner came by and quickly pushed it into the water. I paddled as fast as I could out to sea, just like the owl and the pussycat. A good distance from the shore I set up my tripod. The coastline looked wonderful from there. I was preparing to take my first shot when I heard an extraordinary noise. Glancing North I could see a bright blue light approaching fast above the water. My heart started racing. Should I try to reach shore before whatever it was hit me or do I stand firm and try to get the shot of a lifetime? The object made up my mind for me. It was going way too fast. I hunkered down in the boat and sat very still, my eye firmly pushed against the viewfinder. The noise quickly became a roar and I could see then that the light was going to pass right between me and the shore. Relief. I began snapping furiously but to my horror, as the spinning thing reached a point somewhere in front of me, it seemed to sense my presence and veer towards at me. I dove for the floor. With a screeching whoosh but oddly enough no buffeting wind, it shot overhead and was gone. Nowhere to be seen. Shaken but not stirred, I grabbed the oars and hurriedly made my way back to the beach. I ran back to the car and checked the camera. This is what I captured in the light of the silvery moon. Call me crazy, but I don’t think it was a weather balloon.
