Ghost/Demon/Tricks of the Eye

[AgentDrex]

I went to visit a few friends in Alexandria, Minnesota a few weeks ago or so and one of my buddies mentioned an area of land that is supposedly haunted. Being into the paranormal (I have a buddy who was the president of the now-defunct paranormal research group Darkness Falls Paranormal Society), I was excited about going...

A little story behind the "haunted" land: The land is old farmland and being farmland, the family had a lot of children, twelve. The man came home one day, murdered all the children, murdered the mother and then burned the house down.

When we got to the place (at night of course), neither of us had been able to get a flashlight and so we used the lights from our cellphones to illuminate the way through the woods...

I didn't feel anything for a good part of the walk until we got to one spot and I felt a strong chill/hair raising, up and down my spine.

I had been taking photos (with the flash to help illuminate the way as well) and was getting nothing. But when we were at that spot that made me feel slightly uneasy, I asked if there was anyone there with us and if they would please allow me to photo them and I pressed the shutter button:

#1 Orb (obviously could be dust, but in my experience, OOF dust is circular with rings in the middle)

After seeing this "orb", I asked if it was one of the child, shot a photo and got nothing. I asked if it was the mother, took a photo, got nothing. I asked if it was the father, took a photo, got nothing. I then thought to myself, why would the father murder all these children, his wife and burn the house. So I asked the next question, are you a demon?

#2 Demon?

Seeing that freaked me out a bit and so I lit a cigarette (yes, I'm a dirty smoker). I decided that people may think the photo was of smoke so I took a photo of smoke to compare with:

#3 Cigarette Smoke OOF

Hearing footsteps getting closer to us, we decided to find our way out of the woods...

When I got home a few days later, I opened the dark photos and lightened them a tad, most showed nothing but three did show some things I hadn't seen on the preview as I was taking the photos...

#4 Figure or trick of the eye

#5 Fog or Ectoplasm

#6 An orb from earlier in the walk or dust (one of the two)

Anyways, thought I would share these with you all. I am going down there again to face whatever it is/isn't....wish me luck...

 

[RauschPhotography]

Sounds fun! Can't say that I can identify anything in these pictures, but sounds like an interesting adventure!

 

[480sparky67 66]

#1 Orb (obviously could be dust, but in my experience, OOF dust is circular with rings in the middle).............

Depends on the focus point of the lens, the aperture & focal length used, and how far from the lens the dust is.

 

[AgentDrex]

I did some OOF dust tests at home as well...notice how most of the dust you see in your photo 480sparky is round with a ring toward the outside and a darkened circle in the middle?

Now we have to find out, if my photo of an orb is actually dust, how far away/close to/from the lens the particle has to be before it stops resembling a normal OOF dust particle and more like the one you see in my photo...

I have the original that can be zoomed in on...but its around a 5 meg image...it has no concentric circles, does not look like normal dust photos...obviously could be...but I'd like to think I caught something we have yet to explain away....

 

[AgentDrex]

I guess the fog could have been just that, fog. But it would have been a very small patch of it...smaller than I have ever seen as #5 was the only one that included it...all the other photos around that area had no fog in the photo...very excited to go back around the 15th of June...

 

[AgentDrex]

This is the full size photo of #1:

and a cropped version:

It could be a reflection from a tree branch in the background as well...that's why I really need to go back...I want to figure out if these photos are really proof of something paranormal or something easily explainable...

 

[burdock87]

Creepy! I wish I had the guts to go shoot pics in the woods at night! I don't think I would have asked if it were a demon and then shot a picture...I would be too scared to see what it showed! In pic 4, I definitely see a vague figure with eyes. Yeah...That's why I don't go outside at night...lol

 

[AgentDrex]

Its so faint...it could be just a trick of the eye...but I see a hunched over figure...two eyes...helmet on...but like I think...it may be just nothing...I have no fear of the paranormal...if it exists..I have control of my reality and they have no power over me...and if nothing paranormal is real then there is nothing to be afraid of...there were footsteps coming toward us after asking about the demon...it came from far away and was getting very close...could have been a neighbor investigating the light of my flash going off...an animal (considering its the heavy woods after-all...not a couple groves...but a real thick forest....), someone out there living in the woods trying to get us to go away...a ghost...a demon...I'm more scared about someone shooting at us...but still....I am going to go back and if it is a demon...I'm going to phuck with it...piss it off...whatever...so if I don't come back here to TPF after a week from the 15th of June...something may have happened and most likely not good...this is my home after-all....

I LOVE TPF! My school...my community...my friends...my life at the moment...thank you all for having me...I cannot believe you all have put up with my presence here for over three years...very kind of you...

 

[grantjames]

I don't believe in the paranormal (although it still freaks me out, so maybe I do at the back of my mind), but reading this post sent a chill down my spine.

So whether you believe in this or not, it was really fun to read Thanks!

 

[KmH]

I want to figure out if these photos are really proof of something paranormal or something easily explainable...

Good luck!

No paranormal phenomena of any kind, has ever been 'proven', and people have been trying to do so for a looooong time.

Including people trained in using the 'scientific method': Scientific method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Many normal events, like some of those associated with quantum mechanics, are even stranger than the pseudo-science of the paranormal.

 

[AgentDrex]

I do choose to believe that there is a level of reality we are not privy to. I also believe that these "realities" can inter-twine with each other...

 

[CForr]

Here's my two cents:

#1 & #6: Orbs have been debunked so many times before. Consider: why would anyone want a camera that recorded frequencies of light invisible to the human eye? Every picture you took would have things in it which you were unaware of when you took the picture. Hence sensors are designed to capture as much of what the human eye sees and NOT be receptive to much else.

[Some cameras used by police forensics are sensitive to IR and UV].

Now with that being the case... did you see these orbs? No? Then what you are presenting is a situation where something only became visible when your flash activated, illuminated it, and not before or after that point. Since reflected light is a physical interaction there was obviously something there to bounce the light back. (Doesn't have to be spots of dust - flies at the right distance can create this effect)

#2 Notice how the 'tendrils' seem to be highly illuminated at the middle-top of the picture? Right where your flash is? It's amazing how often paranormal things perfectly mimic natural physics. As for what is being illuminated... can't say since I wasn't there. Threads from your jacket? Fine overhanging growths you were unaware of at the time? I don't think it's much to pin a belief in demons on.

#3 Cool. If you wanted to test that again, maybe put the cigarette nearer the top of the camera close to the flash, and see if you can get a blown-out highlight. You didn't say if there were any other smokers with you.

#4 Knowledge is the key to guarding yourself against Pareidolia

#5 Fog.


[soapbox-on]
I don't mean this personally, but is it likely that after the long and extensive history of photography, only a select few paranormal believers across the world understand how cameras can be used to capture evidence of the paranormal? Orbs and aberrations have been doing the rounds for a looong time. I hope more people who believe they have 'captured' or 'discovered' something also have the humility think that this is not new in the history of photography.

Being open-minded to new possibilities does not mean having no standards; it's important to bring those critical standards even to those things that we think we are balanced on. I mean, I lurked on this forum a wee bit before I joined so I know that you're knowledgeable on photography AgentDrex. Can you see that from a skeptic's point of view (me) it seems as if you switch into a more credulous frame of mind when it comes to the paranormal?
[soapbox-off]

Good luck on the next outing. Oh and how about a nice star-trail shot with trippy smoke effects wafting over? Oh and different coloured torches/flashes lighting the smoke from the side? Saves me having to go out into the cold night and do it myself

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I do choose to believe that there is a level of reality we are not privy to. I also believe that these "realities" can inter-twine with each other...

Duh! TPF is proof of that.

 

[480sparky67 66]

​

 

[AgentDrex]

Ha Bitter, right?

CForr, I do sometimes have a skeptics mind. It could be dust, it could be a fly, I'm going to go back to find out which. You bring a lot of points to the table I hadn't thought about, so thank you. I'm a skeptic to almost everything, even my own thinking as I know it is highly fallible. Thank you for keeping my mind-gears turning, much appreciated.

I will try the star trails, I haven't really done one yet....maybe a 1 minute exposure with a rear curtain flash to catch the smoke...