Hi All,

In a previous post I provided some comments regarding this graveyard along with a pic of a large orb taken in an area that both hubby and I noted a change in atmosphere & temp, camera acted up etc. A number of the pics turned out dark as the flash did not go off or the flash only provided light to the front of pic while the background remained dark. In effort to clean up my files I was going to delete these but opted to take a closer look first by adjusting, zooming in etc. To my surprise I found a couple of pics that I missed proviously that had something interesting in them. Below is one of them. The first pic is the original pic which at first glance appeared to have nothing odd in it, but take a look at the bottom right there appears to be something circling the lone tombstone, possibly a moving orb? I have also included two cropped enlarged close-ups with two different contrast levels. This area is in behind the location that we later obtained the larger orb. Looking forward to hearing your opinions. =)

That is an interesting pic, Cat. I've had similar things happen with my camera in graveyards. Could this have been an orb in the midst of transforming into a vortex? I'm interested in what some other folks think of this.

Hi Carrie,

I was thinking it may be an Orb with a trail or some sort of mist? Orb transforming into a vortex may also be a possibility? It almost appears like it is circling the stone, whatever it may be? I too am interested to hear a few opinions on this. Thanks for giving me your thoughts on the pics. =)

I don't think it's circling the stone since both "sides" of the trail are visible (not blocked by the stone). It's either circling over the grave in front of the stone, or it simply reversed direction while the shutter was open.

Do orbs transform into vortexes? That's a new one on me. =) But then I guess anything's possible with a phenomenon we know so little about. Maybe it's just ecto mist along with an orb.

I have no idea if an orb could transform into a vortex, but I suppose it might be possible. I've heard before that orbs are theorized to be on the bottom rung of the ladder for spirit energy, followed by vortices, mists and then apparitions. That is just one theory I've come across, so who knows! Typically, the pics of actual vortices I've seen have been somewhat vertical. You may be on to something about it being ecto mist trailing the orb.

Kevin I agree it's not circling just almost seems to be. Carrie I have read theories like that also and a few of the pics exampled had an orb (even if very faint)in the pic on, near or within the vortex, but your right vortices are usually vertical. Anything is possible, I agree Kevin much yet to learn on this. It's hard to tell/know if this is the the very start of something or the very end? I had taken a few pics in this area but this is the only one that has the stone in it. It's to bad a pic just before and after may have shown something more or different. My first inclination as noted was an orb with contrail or with mist (ecto). Thanks for your thoughts on this Kevin and further comment Carrie. =)

Hugs, Cat

Side note: Given the vortex comments here I thought I'd make note: My post in Cool links forum. I'm curious what others think of 4 pics that caught my attention (fr CtoC) but so not to confuse comments with this thread I'll just make mention of it here, leaving further comment for that thread. Take a peek, one pic if not false positive, has 3 remarkable vortex in it and a faint orb - pic is from the 40's. =)

to me it just looks like its just the stone, the whiteness being just the white streaks (for lack of a better description) in a granite headstone. if the white would be off of the stone and contrasted by the dark background i might have a different opinion on it.

[ January 17, 2005, 05:47 AM: Message edited by: damien99 ]

I believe you definitely have an orb moving from left to right, and then from right to left above the first trail, Cat. I did a little playing around with this pic in Photoshop, and here is what I have some up with:


Pic 1: By adjusting levels only, we can see the orb trail a little better, and also, it is picking up some of the tombstones in the background. It is very clear that the orb moved beyond the sides of the stone on both sides, and I must respectfully disagree with Damien99 about this being only something within the composition of the stone. That does not explain the trails visible on both sides.


Pic 2: This was the above Pic 1 that was cropped and then inverted. The orb itself is outlined with a kind of glow, and the trail left by the center of the orb is very distinct in the upper left portion of the orb movement in it's pass from right to left.

Anyway, these are my observations. It isn't just about the stone, or any markings or properties of it. It is about the trail that passes by the stone, and overlap the stone on both sides.

Hope these pictures are helpful. =)

Mare

[ January 17, 2005, 07:50 AM: Message edited by: azspirit ]

Cat, that is a very interesting pic. I have to admit that at first I was having a hard time seeing the orb and trail. To me it looked like there was something infront of the head stone, possibly on the ground, like another stone or what not. Then I realized that that wasn't infront of the stone but around it.

I definitely have to agree that it looks like you've captured something here. Mare, the inverted pic was very helpful because that's what made me realize that I was looking at the wrong thing.

Could definitely be ecto mist trailing the orb, as Kevin said. At any rate, like I said before...great picture Cat! Thanks for sharing! =)

I know, I know... I said I wasn't gonna give my opinion on pics so readily... lol To be honest, when I first looked at the pic, I thought it was a flat stone marker on the ground, several feet behind the headstone. It's because the color of the trail is so similar to that of the headstone. I musta been playing with this pic, when Mare was posting hers. In Mare's edit, you can see it much more clearly. Here's an inverted edit I was messing with... this is what I see.

To make this show up more clearly, I might mention that I increased the 72 dpi to 600 before I did anything else. That seems to prevent some of the digitizing effects that can make things unclear. After my work was done, I returned it to 72 dpi for the web. This was a great pic, Cat!! It was fun to work with, too! =)

Mare

it would help a lot better if there was a before and after shot.

Hi All,

Thanks Mare the work you did with the pic gave a better look at it. =) I had only cropped, enlarged and gave slight contrast both ways but did not do the change with the dpi, great tip, thank-you. I also like the pic you did as well Pate adding the pointers also helped. =)

I looked again at the before and afters but the befores are off to the left a bit and the after is in a different spot. Even if I can locate the stone in a darkened area by chance, it would not be the exact angle etc. What is interesting is that by doing so I noticed another possible moving orb near the top of the trees that again I missed when going through these. I'll post it for opinion. Damien I'm not sure I understand what you mean that this is part of the stone? The trail extends out on either side of the stone, how can it be part of it?

Thank-you for the comments everyone, I appreciate your feedback. =)

Pate, your explanation is great... this lets everyone know the exact areas of the photo you are talking about. Cat, this was indeed a terrific pic. =) I believe it clearly shows a trail in front of the tombstone.

Damien, I would really like to see some of your pictures. With the before and after shots and all, it sounds like it would be quite informative. If you need a place to post them, just let us know, and we will put them up for you if you want to send them in e-mail. =) Are you using a digital camera, or are you using an SLR and bracketing your shots, etc? Just curious. I have done a great deal of night photography of wildlife, and the bracketing can be useful, if the varmint stays put long enough to allow you time to do this. LOL

I know that SLR photographers often "bracket" their shots by changing the ƒ-stop on each picture, taking one at the best setting per the camera's computer or that they can identify using light meters, etc., and then taking two more pics, one an ƒ-stop above and one an ƒ-stop below the first picture. The bracketing is often useful when you are photographing something in a tricky lighting situation, such as very bright sun or extremely dark conditions. Is this what you were referring to by "before and after"?

Mare

[ January 17, 2005, 11:33 PM: Message edited by: azspirit ]

I don't think Damien was referring to bracketing in terms of using different ƒ-stops (which is just a method of increasing the chances of getting a decent pic under tricky lighting situations). Instead he's referring to taking the pics one right after another to get a "time lapse" of the phenomenon. Doing so would glean more information than a single still pic, such as if the object was moving or staying still, what direction it was moving, how fast, is it dust near the lens or a more distant object etc.

I know some of the fancier cameras have multi-shot modes which usually take 3 shots in a row, with or without ƒ-stop bracketing, which would be a useful feature in paranormal photography. The only drawback is most cameras won't fire the flash for all 3 pics due to the time needed to recharge the flash. But it'll work well for no-flash pics.

Another thing I thought of that would be useful when posting pics is to post the camera settings used to take the pic (e.g. aperture and shutter speed, whether a flash was used, distance from object being photographed, etc.) In particular, when a photo shows apparent movement, knowing the shutter speed can help estimating how fast the object was moving. Some/most digital cameras record this information as metadata within the image, and can display this information when viewing the picture.

i use a digital camera

here are some i took i dont have many before and after shots because usually if i dont see anything on the camera after i take a pic i usually delete the picture to save space on my memory card.

taken at the kutztown historical society

[URL http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/srdamien99/ghost%20pics/stevespicsforspiritkeephousecamaroang091.jpg]not[/URL] sure what this is[/URL]

[URL
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/srdamien99/ghost%20pics/stevespicsforspiritkeephousecamaroang090.jpg]notice[/URL] on the guys shirt there were no reflective surfaces on his shirt[/URL]

[URL
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/srdamien99/ghost%20pics/stevespicsforspiritkeephousecamaroang089.jpg]we[/URL] could not reproduce this pic to save our lives notice it emits its own light[/URL]

[URL
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/srdamien99/ghost%20pics/stevespicsforspiritkeephousecamaroang088.jpg]again[/URL] emiting its own light and in motion[/URL]

a local cemetary

[URL
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/srdamien99/ghost%20pics/stevespicsforspiritkeephousecamaroang004.jpg]before[/URL][/URL]

[URL
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/srdamien99/ghost%20pics/stevespicsforspiritkeephousecamaroang003.jpg]after[/URL][/URL]

now before anyone says anything about the last pic yes it LOOKS like an awsome orb pic but in all actuallity it is nothing more than a finger in front of the flash.

*EDIT* to the mods please do not put these pictures anywhere else other than this forum (ghostly photos and evps) when the new BLPA website is up and running they will be posted on there. all photos posted here were taken by steve rhoads of the berks lehigh paranormal association. thank you.

**EDIT # 2**

i changed the links until i can get them copywritten. thanks for the comments =)

[ January 20, 2005, 06:33 AM: Message edited by: damien99 ]

Damien, do you know if those orb pics were taken with a flash or not?

yes they were and we tried to recreate every one of em but couldnt do it.

[ January 18, 2005, 08:16 AM: Message edited by: damien99 ]

A couple of nice orbs, Damien. Nice bright ones, and the moving ones were special! Thanks for sharing these shots with us.

I do have one question, though.... how would you ever recreate these very same pictures if the orb in the photo is moving? It would be long gone while you were snapping another shot or two... especially if you take time to examine what you got on the first shot to see if you want to delete it, or take more.

Also, putting fingers (or anything else) in front of the FLASH will not give you a blurred pic of your fingers.... they have to be in front of the LENS for the fingers to appear in the picture. At least that has always been the case in my experience with my 2 Nikons and 2 digital cameras... and close to 40 years of photography. Fingers in front of the flash will merely cause an uneven, poorly lighted shot.

----------------------------------
QUOTE from Damien:
"*EDIT* to the mods please do not put these pictures anywhere else other than this forum (ghostly photos and evps) when the new BLPA website is up and running they will be posted on there. all photos posted here were taken by steve rhoads of the berks lehigh paranormal association. thank you."
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*PLEASE NOTE*: SpiritKeep nor its Moderators steal, use, or otherwise post ANYTHING anywhere on SK without express permission of the Copyright holder, and that includes your photos or any other pics that we do not legally own. We aren't "website content thieves" here, and I am a bit taken aback that you would suggest such a thing. We aren't THAT lacking for pictures, and we have NEVER done such a thing. And, we have no desire to start with your photos. =) That is not how we operate here.

However, YOU are leaving the photos wide open for anyone who comes by this site to take and use them anywhere on the web, especially since you have not placed a visible copyright on the photo itself. If your copyright on these pics is important to you, I suggest that you begin using a visible copyright. I notice you have not embedded a watermark copyright in the pics, either, and I would suggest using Digimarc or other type of embedded copyright software. Digimarc is a bit pricey, but well worth it if you have valuable pics that you don't want used by others.

Mare