...Dick Raynor's comments are in green italics...
"Don´t
believe Mr. Raynor, check his claims for yourself...", wrote a GUST visitor
DICK´S
CLAIMS DON´T HOLD WATER
One of our subscribers wrote to GUST to complain we had drawn to hasty conclusions in the Roy Johnston Case, and dismissed his pictures on the wrong assumptions.
I CHALLENGE GUST TO TELL US WHO THAT WAS!
The reader wanted us to check Dick Raynors claims for ourselves and as we did, it now appears he has no case at all and that Mr. Johnstons pictures could be the real thing!
DICK RAYNOR CLAIMS: The Nessie Sequence is stated to have been taken on August 21st. Unfortunately it was flat calm on that day - the snaps show a Force 2 or 3 wave scene.
THE FACT: Neither the BBC weather site for Scotland nor the CNN weather site for Scotland could confirm this, when GUST asked them by email.
THIS IS MEANINGLESS...JUST BECAUSE SOME DISTANT THIRD PARTY CANNOT CONFIRM SOMETHING IT DOES NOT FOLLOW THAT THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE!
REGULAR READERS OF THE INVERNESS COURIER WILL RECALL THAT THE 23RD AUGUST ISSUE CARRIED A PICTURE OF ME ON THE FRONT PAGE - AND THAT PICTURE WAS TAKEN BY THEIR PHOTOGRAPHER ON 21ST AUGUST!
Photo by Northern Exposure
which appeared in Inverness Courier
IT LOOKS CALM TO ME...
A Force 2 to 3 means waves as high as 2 meters or more and anyone can see from the published picture, that this is not the case.
GUST LEADER MR. SUNDBERG ONCE AGAIN DISPLAYS HIS COMPREHENSIVE AND COMPENDIOUS IGNORANCE. A WIND OF FORCE 2 HAS A SPEED OF 4 TO 6 KNOTS, AND IS TERMED A "LIGHT BREEZE". A WIND OF FORCE 3 HAS A SPEED OF 7 - 10 KNOTS AND IS TERMED A "GENTLE BREEZE". ( SOURCE - REED'S NAUTICAL ALMANAC).
ON
LOCH NESS, A SOUTH-WESTERLY FORCE 2-3 WITH A FETCH OF ABOUT 4KM WILL PRODUCE
SMALL WAVELETS LIKE THE ONES IN THE "JOHNSTON PICTURES".
There is no proof there
was flat calm on Loch Ness on August the 21th
IT'S
RATHER HARD TO TELL FROM THIS PICTURE...!
DICK RAYNOR CLAIMS: The pictures of Urquhart Castle at the beginning of the roll of film were taken prior to substantial landscape improvements which were completed in early July. I know traffic can be rather slow on the A82, but it shouldn't have taken over 50 days to travel the 20 or so miles between the Clansman Hotel and the place between Inchnacardoch and Invermoriston, where the pictures were taken.
GUST COMMENTS: All amateur photographers keep one roll of film in their camera for a long, long time. Even when they are traveling or in a scenic area, it doesn´t immediately strike them as convenient to use their camera. This is a phenomenon that every camera owner will recognize.
GUST IS MISSING THE POINT, AGAIN. THE PICTURES AT THE START OF THE ROLL WERE TAKEN BEFORE EARLY JULY OF THIS YEAR, 2002, IN THE AFTERNOON OF A WINDY DAY.
ROY JOHNSTON HAS NEVER SAID HE VISITED THE LOCH EARLIER IN THE YEAR!
THE "STORY" SAYS HE TOOK THEM IN AUGUST AND THIS IS SIMPLY IMPOSSIBLE - THE SCENE HAD CHANGED IN EARLY JULY!
THE "STORY" ALSO SAYS HE HAD THE CAMERA "ROUND HIS NECK" - HARDLY THE ACTION OF SOMEONE WHO LEAVES THE CAMERA UNUSED FOR MONTH AFTER MONTH!
IS GUST SERIOUSLY SUGGESTING THAT JOHNSTON TOOK A FEW PICTURES OF THE CASTLE ON A VISIT IN EARLY SUMMER, THEN DROVE ALL THE WAY HOME, SPENT A COUPLE OF MONTHS THERE, THEN DROVE UP TO SCOTLAND AGAIN, AND ONLY BOTHERED TO TAKE ANOTHER PICTURE WHEN HE WAS ON HIS WAY HOME FOR THE SECOND TIME...?
DICK RAYNOR CLAIMS: Roy Johnston is quoted as stopping in the lay-by to admire the view. There is no view of the loch from this lay-by - it is obscured by trees, as is the view from neighbouring lay-bys.
THE FACTS: Not true, we have stopped there ourselves and admired the view but took no pictures. The Danish couple stood there and the Inchnacardoch lay-by is a place where observations of Nessie has been done in the past as well.
GUST
IS OBVIOUSLY UNFAMILIAR WITH THE LOCATION OF THE PHOTOGRAPHY. THE PICTURES
WERE TAKEN FROM GRID REFERENCE NH 40377 12200 - GIVE OR TAKE A FEW METRES.
THIS IS APPROXIMATELY 2.6 KM FROM THE "INCHNACARDOCH" OR CHERRY ISLAND
LAY-BY WITH THE VIEW HE IS REFERRING TO.
THIS IS THE LAY-BY ABOVE THE CAMERA LOCATION - LIKE I SAID - "NO VIEW".
DICK RAYNOR CLAIMS: The pictures are remarkably steady for someone taking snaps of a monster only 45 yards away - and the shoreline is in the same position in each picture. I suspect these were taken using a tripod.
GUST COMMENTS: Some people are paralyzed by sudden, monstrous appearances but some are not and this might just be the latter. If you hold a camera and fires away, any shoreline or other landmark would be in the same position and as long as your hands don´t tremble, as they does in Dick Raynor unfortunately, you wont have a problem in the world to hold your camera steady. Nikon is also among the best cameras in the world and a Nikon automatic practically take its own pictures.
(DELETED PICTURES OF NIKON SLR AND RANGEFINDER
CAMERAS)
Nikon is a world famous
brand and the automatic a very serious camera
I HAVE HEARD NO CLAIM THAT THIS IS A SEQUENCE OF PICTURES TAKEN IN A FEW BRIEF SECONDS. ROY JOHNSTON SAID HE WATCHED THE OBJECT FOR SEVERAL MINUTES. AND WHY ONLY FIVE MONSTER PICTURES IN ALL THIS TIME...?
DICK RAYNOR CLAIMS: However, I do see a strong similarity between these pictures and those taken by James Gray, discussed above, both in the type of object photographed and the handful of professional quality snaps submitted.
GUST COMMENTS: This strengthens Roy Johnstons case, not the opposite as claimed here by Dick Raynor - the only reason he say´s what he say´s is that Dick Raynor (and Adrian Shine) does not want a "long neck" to be in Loch Ness, because this would upset their life long belief that the Loch Ness Monster is a just a hoax.
I DO NOT THINK "BELIEFS" HAVE ANY PLACE IN THIS SUBJECT. THOSE WHO HAVE THEM ARE FREQUENTLY MISLED BY THEM.
EVIDENCE
FOR "MONSTERS" EITHER STANDS UP TO SCRUTINY OR IT DOESN'T. IN THIS CASE,
THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION IS THAT THIS SECOND SET OF SIMILAR PICTURES ASSOCIATED
WITH THE SAME PERSON IN THE SAME AREA IN CONSECUTIVE YEARS THROWS SERIOUS
DOUBTS ON THE PROVENANCE OF BOTH SETS OF PICTURES, RATHER THAN REINFORCING
IT.
GUST
will return soon with a comparison between James Grays and Roy Johnstons
pictures and the animal or animals we believe are responsible, along with
some new and astonishing information how these animal lives and hide, not
only in Loch Ness.
DICK RAYNOR CLAIMS: James Gray moved back to London after his financially successful foray into monster photography, and now, according to the "News of the World", runs a professional photo lab in London. By a strange coincidence, this lab is the one chosen by Roy Johnston to develop his snaps, and James Gray is even acting as his agent!
GUST COMMENTS: "Like will to like" or "Birds of a feather flock together", is two famous expression for this which means that you would rather go to someone who´s been exposed to the phenomena before, as James Gray, than to anyone else and such a man as Gray would also 1) be more inclined to believe you and 2) be able to help you sell the pictures, which most people wants to, not in the least because it brings in a lot of money. (Dick Raynor doesn´t have to worry about money, his got plenty of that from his job as a professional photographer).
"Birds
of a feather flock together" seems to be an expression unknown to Dick
DICK RAYNOR´S CONCLUSION:
If, as seems inescapably true, the pictures were not taken in August 2002, then there is equally no reason to believe that they were taken by Mr. Johnston at all. Given the confusion about lay-bys, weather conditions, castle landscaping changes etc., one would be justified in dismissing them as a load of baloney, except for one thing. If they were not taken by Mr. Johnston on this visit to the area, who did take them? James Gray perhaps? And if these are fakes, and are similar to the pictures he took last year, are we seeing the emergence of a twenty-first century Frank Searle?
GUST´S CONCLUSION:
Neither the BBC nor the CNN can back the claim that the pictures were not taken on 21 August, and so we must assume they were.
THIS MUST BE SOME SPECIAL SWEDISH LOGIC WITH WHICH I AM AS YET UNFAMILIAR...
Dick Raynor and Adrian Shine has long criticized others for not quoting their sources but GUST´s checking on Dick Raynor now shows that he has no sources what so ever to his claims in the Roy Johnstons Case. Don´t believe Dick Raynor, check him out like GUST did and you will certainly arrive to a different view. For now we can rightly assume that both James Gray´s and Roy Johnston´s pictures are the real thing.
THEY CERTAINLY LOOK SIMILAR, AND THE LATTER ARE FAKES!
I DO NOT NEED TO QUOTE "SOURCES" WHEN I TELL YOU THAT THE CASTLE LANDSCAPE CHANGED WHEN IT DID, OR THAT THE PICTURES OF THE "MONSTER" WERE TAKEN WHERE I SAY THEY WERE, OR THAT A CERTAIN LAY-BY DOES NOT HAVE A VIEW OF THE LOCH.
PEOPLE WHO ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE AREA KNOW THESE THINGS, AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT CONTINUE, LIKE GUST, TO MAKE PUBLIC FOOLS OF THEMSELVES.
Text & Lay-by
photo Copyright © Dick Raynor 2002.
and there is more - here- and another response, here