Hugh Gray's Loch Ness photograph
On 12 November 1933 Hugh Gray photographed something in Loch Ness at Foyers, the first picture said to show the monster.
On Sunday 12 November 1933, Hugh Gray was out walking at Foyers, on the east side of Loch Ness in Scotland. The Conversation describes it as his usual walk after church. British Online Archives adds that his dog was with him, and Wikipedia says the dog was a Labrador.
Gray reported a shape afloat at the surface, two or three feet away, and he took a photograph. Wikipedia calls it the first photograph alleged to depict the Loch Ness monster. It came out slightly blurred, and the original negative was lost.
Later writers offered other readings. Wikipedia says that a close look shows the head of a dog, and that it is suspected the picture shows Gray's dog fetching a stick from the loch. British Online Archives repeats that suspicion. Others have proposed that it shows an otter, or perhaps a swan.
"Hugh Gray's photograph taken near Foyers on 12 November 1933 was the first photograph alleged to depict the monster. It was slightly blurred, and it has been noted that if one looks closely the head of a dog can be seen. Gray had taken his Labrador for a walk that day and it is suspected that the photograph depicts his dog fetching a stick from the loch.[35] Others have suggested that the photograph depicts an otter or a swan. The original negative was lost."
- Why the search for the Loch Ness monster continues 90 years after that first blurry photograph, The Conversation (2023)
- 90 years: The first photo of the Loch Ness Monster, British Online Archives (2023)