07/01/1990 - Inaja UFO Photograph

Birmingham UFO Group Report

In July 1990, Mike Orrell took a photograph at the Inaja Memorial Park, near San Diego, California. This photo appears to show numerous UFOs. It has been analyzed by a number of experts, and both Mike and others believe it to be good evidence for the reality of extraterrestrial visitation.

Incident Details

On the 1st July 1990, Mike and two friends decided to go hiking at the Inaja Memorial Park. It was about 4.00pm when they reached scenic spot 7 on the loop path around the park. The sun was starting to get low in the sky, and the view of the San Diego river valley was fantastic, so Mike decided to take a photograph using his Canon EOS 650 camera. He did not have a tripod with him so he put the camera down on a memorial rock wall to steady it. Setting it to maximum zoom he then took a single photograph. As it was getting late in the day, the hikers decided to head onward to the exit of the park.

A recent photo of Mike at Scenic Spot 7:

A week later Mike got his photographs developed. When he looked at the Scenic Spot 7 photograph something in the upper left corner caught his eye. He could make out what appeared to be nine small flying objects that appeared roughly triangular in shape. On the right of the photograph across the valley, a tenth object could also be seen. At first he thought it was a fault on the photograph, but checking through the others he found no similar anomalies. When he showed the photograph to his friends, one of them suggested that the objects may be a flock of ducks. Mike was not convinced, so he decided to get the photograph enlarged and professionally analyzed.

The Inaja UFO photograph:

Zoomed view of the formation:

In an amusing coincidence, two weeks after taking the photograph Mike also found a rock that bears an uncanny resemblance to an alien face in close proximity to Scenic Spot 7. He knew this was a natural formation, but was still interesting.

A recent photograph of Mike next to the “alien face” rock:

Photographic Analysis

Analysis of the photograph was performed by experts at Chrome Photo Labs in Sorrento Mesa. They first took a look at the negative, and were able to rule out dust in the lens and mechanical defects.

When the photograph was blown up, Mike worked out that the nine objects were moving to the right and appeared to be reflecting the setting sun, suggesting that they were metallic. The individual object was moving to the left, as if to join up with the main group. The objects were of a similar size and density, and are irregularly shaped, though roughly triangular. They do not appear to have any appendages or wings sticking out. It was confirmed that the objects were real, but they could not be identified. The individual object appeared to be acorn shaped and has a spike shaped projection on the left side.

Close up of the formation:

Close up of the individual object with line added to show shape of left side:

Revelations

Mike was convinced that the objects he caught on the photograph were physical craft of unknown origin. Over the following three months he searched for links to his photograph in other UFO sightings, historical artefacts and ancient symbols. He discovered that the acorn shape of the individual object (and some of the others) was similar to the craft seen in the famous 1965 Kecksburg UFO incident.

Various images depicting the acorn shape of the Kecksberg UFO: