The subject is just a little joke, but the pictures are serious.

As you may or may not know, teen singer Avril Lavigne just kicked off her "Live and By Surprise" American tour. She and her guitarist Evan Taubenfeld are staging acoustic performances in various malls all across the country, announcing their visit only 48 hours before each concert. On March 4th, they did their first concert at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. Bandaids (an Avril fansite) posted some pictures from the performance.

These pictures are incredible. There are orbs EVERYWHERE. Of the 39 pictures on Bandaids, almost all of them contain at least one orb. I saved the best pictures and brightened them in Paint Shop Pro so the orbs would be even more apparent. Otherwise, I've made no changes to the pictures whatsoever. You can see all of the originals here: http://www.avrilbandaids.com/members/Pictures/minneapolismar4.php[/URL]

Here are my brightened versions of the pictures, with commentary:
Note that in almost all the pictures, there are little white specks. These are probably just bits of dust. Also, I'm only commenting on the most (and sometimes, least) noticeable. You'll notice tons of orbs in each pic that I won't mention.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs1.jpg[/URL]
The orbs are obvious in this one. There are some very bright ones hovering above Av's head, on her left knee, a dimmer one in front of her guitar, and dimmer ones of various sizes floating around her and Evan.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs2.jpg[/URL]
There are two easy-to-see ones directly below the people watching from the second floor. There are also some pretty big ones floating between Evan and Avril. I think there might be one directly in front of Avril's right shoe, but that may just be the light.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs3.jpg[/URL]
There's an especially bright, light blue one that appears to be in motion in the upper left-hand corner of the frame, followed by another translucent white one. Three or four rather large orbs (one of which is blue-tinged) float above Avril's head. Two float near Evan's head. And there are more around Avril's mid-section and feet. Check out the small one next to the blonde audience member's head.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs4.jpg[/URL]
HUGE orb at Avril's waist!! It's impossible to miss. There are also much smaller ones nearer to Evan.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs5.jpg[/URL]
There's a bright white-blue one just below the mall's second-floor balcony. It's either three orbs right next to each other, or one that's moving. And, of course, there are various small orbs floating between Avril and Evan. A bigger one can be found just above the second "L" in "Mall of America" in the upper right-hand side.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs6.jpg[/URL]
Tiny ones scattered throughout the picture. Check out the one on the security guard's head!

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs7.jpg[/URL]
Various small ones floating around Avril; all the big ones are closer to Evan this time. Check out the green one next to his guitar and the large one in front of his right shoulder.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs8.jpg[/URL]
Brightest ones are by Evan's head. There's also a bluish one in the upper left-hand corner, and a seeming archipelago of orbs stretching down between Avril and Evan. Small one in front of Avril's right inner thigh. There are also a few in front of the speakers.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs9.jpg[/URL]
There's a huge, but faint orb above Avril's head. There is also one in front of her left arm, and an intensely clear one at her feet, in front of the left-hand speaker.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs10.jpg[/URL]
ANOTHER ONE above Avril's head!! This one is large and crystal-clear.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs11.jpg[/URL]
They surround Avril in this pic - not many by Evan. Note the small but particularly clear orb at the very top of the pic, near the Mall of America banner.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs12.jpg[/URL]
VERY large, clear one on the end of Avril's guitar. There's also a greenish one in front of her crotch and a blue one in front of her right leg.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs13.jpg[/URL]
Between Avril and the man handing her the guitar are two orbs, one much smaller and brighter than the other. There are also either three in a line or one moving orb between Avril and Evan.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs14.jpg[/URL]
Scattered orbs of various sizes... there's one between Evan's knees, one in front of the right-hand speaker, one to the left of Evan's right leg, and a teensy purplish one between Av and Ev.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs15.jpg[/URL]
HUGE translucent one in front of Avril's left leg. Below it is a smaller, swiftly moving whitish-blue one.

http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v59/anyamatopoeia/avrilorbs16.jpg[/URL]
There's a blatant red orb in front of the hole in Avril's guitar. It is NOT just part of the paint job; look at the same guitar in other pictures and you'll see the red orb missing. There are five others that I can see (maybe six), one on her knee and one on another part of her guitar.

These orbs may be generally haunting the Mall of America, or this may have something to do with Avril. If you'll look at all the pictures on Bandaids (you may have to be a member to view them), you'll notice that the photographer takes two pictures of the stage before Avril and Evan come on. As far as I can tell, both of those pictures are devoid of any orbs. But as soon as Avril comes onto the stage, WHAM! You see a big ol' orb directly in front of her.

What do you guys think?

Cool pic's. It seems that either Avril or her music is definitly attracting some spirits, there some really good photos there, of both the orbs and Avril.

[ March 08, 2004, 10:49 AM: Message edited by: greenfaeriequeen ]

Wow, either the spirit world has a lot of Avril fans, or Avril is kicking up a lot of dust. Or the mall is haunted with live music fans!

It could be a combination of dust and orbs, as well.

Question: I've seen dust and moisture used as an explanation for orbs, but never light refraction. However, that's the explanation other people keep giving me for these particular pictures. What do you guys know about this?

I haven't looked at all the picturs, but other than some of the brighter ones near the corners, I don't think they're refraction or lens flares. Flares are more common where there is bright light, e.g. outdoors in sunlight. Dust is a more likely explanation for a lot of them.

I take a lot of photos at sci fi conventions,and the first time I thought the same thing, lots of orbs, this place or person is totally haunted! Then after going to a few more and having the SAME thing in different places happen, I realized, when lots of people are taking pictures at the same time, you're going to get some reflections that look a lot like orbs!