Hi,
Looking at the photos attributed to Zolotarev's camera, which was still around his neck when he
was found dead in the ravine, it occurred to me that what I saw reminded me of a tent.
These photos were studied by Yakimenko, who was reminded of a Lynx instead.
I attached a figure with the possible outline of the tent indicated (solid lines correspond to
visible and dashed lines to invisible sections of the tent). The dimensions of the tent
are realistic. It would be seen at an angle of roughly 50 degrees where zero degrees means facing
the tent from the side (like on the investigation photo from Ivdel). Normally, when one adds
such indications, figures become much more suggestive. To me, this is not the case here. I find
the original more suggestive.
While I found some kind of a scale for many other pictures, I could not find a specific
explanation as to the scale of this one. It could be a tiny fraction of the image, which
would render the tent hypothesis weak. Also, there must have been some kind of illumination
(from inside or outside) to make this plausible.
While this image is certainly vague and could show many things, I find it plausible that Zolotarev
would have tried to capture any extraordinary event related to the tent on film. This would mean
that he was outside and possibly also that the tent was not the actual target of this shot.
At any rate, what do you think?
cz