I've been doing paranormal investigation for many years, and in many different scenarios and approaches. I've had to hone in my skeptical abilities, as well as open up to more possibility. (Yes, I can hear some of you giggling at that notion right now! lol) Overall, I've experienced a great many things that have been definite instances of paranormal/supernatural phenomena...and I've also had those that could be explained normally with a little more investigation and/or technical devices being brought in - even to the point of calling up experts in the field on certain cases, just to have more opinions and evidence. It's very tedious work, especially since this is a newly developing branch of science...great, great care must be taken by those of us in this field to examine all possibilities and facets without jumping to conclusions prematurely.
As far as orb pictures are concerned, there is a LOT of effort and work that goes into discerning *true orgone/etheric energy orbs* from dust, moisture, or other particles afloat in the air. I've seen pictures that looked very much like apparitions have evidence mount up which shows that what was captured in the picture was merely dust in sunlight (per Wendy's story, too). Then again, I have some rare captures that NO expert could explain, the conditions could not be recreated in any way to debunk what was apparently paranormal, and we had no other choice but to label it an authentic, paranormal capture.
Much luck to those of you venturing into this awesome world of attempting to photograph energy in any non-physical form - it's a great rush, it's exciting, and it's also a lot of work to make sure that what you're photographing is authentic, or if it can be explained in non-paranormal terms.
(and yes, I DO get a bit disheartened when I have an INCREDIBLE capture debunked! lol)
I've attached a couple of photos here that have been reviewed, time and again, for authenticity and have been labeled by several experts in the field as "authentic paranormal phenomena."

Background on the photos I'm attaching:
This was taken at a historic cemetery out in my county, reportedly VERY haunted by the first caretaker/gravetender and other people who had passed away on the premises. Through the years, the church that sits on the property has had some pretty disturbing phenomena reported (over 70 years' worth), there are unexplained, unnatural deaths that have taken place there (death records were dug up and examined for related incidents *causing* paranormal phenomena), and we did have experts come in and work with us on this case. The photo shows many strangely-shaped orbs, but it's the apparition behind one of the gravestones that had us all excited. Compared to the original caretaker's photo, hanging in the church worship hall, it appears we have an authentic capture of the gentleman's apparition as he's going about his nightly walk, checking the locked gates, with his lantern in hand. At the same time this photo was snapped, we were doing an EVP session as well, and during review, the time of the picture and the time stamp of the recorded voice matched up. On the tape, we asked "what is your name?" to be given an immediate reply of "William...William Blankenship." This was the man's actual name. Then, this same voice goes on to whistling to himself, which he was known to do by the church elders' testimonies. Mind you - we do NOT talk, whisper, whistle, or even MOVE when holding one of these EVP sessions, and no one else was around except for our group (the nearest residence is 1/4 mile up the road, this is COUNTRY lol). We want as controlled a setting as possible, so that we remain credible as a team in this field. So, take a look, decide for yourself what you see, or don't see.

KRPS_Salem_CloseUp.bmp (39 Kb, 74 downloads) Salem Cemetery Authentic Capture of Apparition

Here is the original photo. I had to resize both photos in order to have them fit on here in an attachment, but if any of you have MS Picture Manager or Adobe's PhotoShop, you can resize it to a larger size if you'd like, once you save it to your computer's picture folder.

KRPS_Salem.bmp (217 Kb, 90 downloads) Salem Cemetery, original

Very interesting post. But the photo only displays about 1" X 1.5". Too small to know what I see.

Cris, you can right-click the photo in the opened attachment and save it to your computer. If you have some type of photo software that allows you to resize the photo, you can resize it up to large document standards with no quality being lost. The originals were too large to attach here, I'm sorry!

Hey there Ash, why don't you post the original full size on flickr (I know you have an account) that way people can look at something bigger?

Hi by the way!

Ooops, Ashley....I looked at your first photo and clicked on it to see if I could make it bigger...I clicked on "set as background", thinking that it would just be background for that particular page....but now I am stuck with that spooky picture on my desktop..eeeekkk!!!

Now I have to figure how to get it off my desktop!

Love and Light,
Laura

P.S. I just phoned my computer expert son and he told me how to easily remove that picture. whew, what a relief!!! It was freaking me out, lol

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Winder,

quote:

Originally posted by ~Ashley~:
If you have some type of photo software that allows you to resize the photo, you can resize it up to large document standards with no quality being lost. The originals were too large to attach here, I'm sorry!

Ashley;

I'm sorry to have to jump on you about this, but being somewhat a computer geek as well as a ex commercial photographer, I have to correct you...

The way digital images are reduced in size is to create a "grid" (think checker board) then to remove squares from the grid, with the number of squares being removed equivalent to the amount of the reduction. This is not exactly how it happens, but close enough to keep the explanation simple. The reason this works is the squares, which are actually called pixels (picture elements) are so small that even with so many of them removed, the overall picture is still understood by our brains.

However, going in reverse and resizing a digital picture larger is another matter entirely. Because there is no way to know what was actually there, when you size a picture up, the software just duplicates the existing pixels until the requested size is reached. That is why it looks blocky or pixelated.

Bottom line, you can make an image smaller by removing information, but when you make it larger you are just magnifying what is already there, not adding back in the information lost by reducing it.

Believe me dear, if you had a formula for dramatically changing the size of pictures without data loss, you would NOT have any financial worries as you would be a multi-millionaire.

As John has suggested, please post them to a photo sharing site so we can see the full size images. I too am very interested in viewing them.

I lose quality with PhotoDraw. Looks like a person but it could be Miss America or it could be the Hunchback of Notre Dam.

Ashley,

I'd like to see the full size original, but it looks credible to me. Thanks for sharing it with us.

It'd be nice to see the photo of William in the worship hall too...

John

Absolutely awesome picture! It looks extremely clear to me. Congrats on a great picture!

My Flickr Account

Here they are. I've uploaded the original documents in the size I had received back from the gentleman who gave our second opinions/authentication. Hopefully this will help

I can assure everyone there was no rain or moisture present...the dew point was only 39%, very, very dry December evening. All the weather stats and others are listed in the description under the original photo.
That's another point I wanted to make - when doing this kind of work (and doing our best to be as scientific as possible), EVERY factor is taken into account. NOAA is contacted to bring up weather, wind, sky condition, moon phase, dew point, precipitation totals, etc. for the coordinates we give them on the GPS for the location. They are able to lock onto those coordinates, run it through their database with a few keystrokes and clicks, and we get our stats. We do whatever we can to document ALL factors, especially while in an outdoor setting.

Norman, I totally understand what you're saying. I had to minimize the picture size from a copy of the original to get it to fit here - thank goodness I didn't permanently change the original file sizes, or else I could have seriously lost some quality. I greatly appreciate your insight with this!

I truly wish I had a copy of the photo of William from the church. Unfortunately, no one took one, as the glass over the photo would have caused such a reflection from the flash that it would have been very difficult, at best, to make out the actual picture (there is very little lighting in the building to utilize for a non-flash photo to be taken). William had very dark hair, parted down the middle, and slicked back. He had dark eyes, sunken in a bit from age. He often wore a very heavy tweed long coat, and was always seen with a lantern out on his rounds.

I will add more to my Flickr account in the next few days from my HUGEEEEE folder of photos from investigations. Any that I load have already been through the checks and balances system most paranormal investigators have to put them through before they can be accepted as any type of "evidence" for or against a case.

Glad you all are enjoying them! (and Laura, I'm SO SORRY you got one of those stuck on your screen!!! Thank goodness you had help!)

Love to all~QJ, it's LOVELY to see you back, bro! How's the family doing???

Kweden,
I truly appreciate your suggestion on adjusting the photos, but I need to keep them in their original size. If I open the file and crop and adjust it, the photo not only loses its original "capture" size, it loses its authenticity in my field.
As far as the analysis of the drizzle, I'm terribly sorry again - this was captured on a cool evening in December, where there was NO moisture present...not even hanging in the air. The dew point was a mere 39%. That is a fact, supported by NOAA documentation per the coordinates, time, and date we submitted for a data printout for the case file.

Interesting that you bring up a pagan connection...

Many locals have "heard tell" about the days when the graveyard and church building site (not the church building that is there, but the land it sits on) was used for satanic rituals (I'm going to add here that there are few pagan followers who are satanist). Creepy? You betcha. Factual? No. We've yet to find ANY supporting research material that proves - or disproves - that theory. As with any other branch of scientific study/observation of theory, we have to have evidence that serves as a checks & balances system to back each other up in order to debunk the phenomena as normal, or prove that it is truly paranormal in nature.

Thank you for the insight - I'll have to mention to the others that were present when that photo was captured that someone here picked up a pagan-type connection. They'll be surprised!

Kweden, the only resizing this photo has had was in the zooming process to get that apparition by itself. As far as the grass, the grass always stays greenish in Kentucky, no matter how cold it gets. It's called Kentucky bluegrass for that very reason. Our weather patterns here are very unsettled, and sometimes we do have milder winters than others. We happened to have a lot of rainfall in October of that year here, and a balmy November beforehand - which contributed to a longer blooming season for many bushes and shrubs in our area. We didn't see snowfall until that following February. Hope that helps you understand our climate here a bit better.

Also, I was not suggesting that you were a "seer" or "reader" - yet in many posts you do seem to project the ability to do so, even if unknowingly. I just found it eerily synchronistic that you were suggesting what you saw in the photo, versus what the rumors have been about the area.

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to dig in a graveyard here. We'd be arrested. I'd doubt highly that the authorities would give us permission to dig down the depth of an actual grave to "look" for some type of trinket or treasure supply. It's a suggestion, but we cannot do that here under any circumstances. There has to be a long legal chain, and some pretty serious concerns about an actual body laid to rest, before any type of excavation is done in a graveyard. In most cases of planting trees, shrubs, or bulbs, the caretakers or landscapers will either do it for the families, or will keep watch over what is going on while the families plant them themselves.

Fascinating stuff.
I have had some orbs show up on photographs which are most definitely not dust or moisture.

There is a book by Dr Klaus Heinemann PHD and Michel Ledwith DD called The Orb Project. Dr Heinemann has studied orbs for over 20 years and he certainly supports the theory that orbs are a spiritual manifestation. Worth looking at with some excellent photographs.

Love and light and lots of orbs
Faune (also soon to be Certified QT Practitioner)

Thank you Faune! I've not read the book, but have heard of them and the book.

I, myself, have always found orbs to be a pocket of electromagnetic field energy that gets denser, and therefore manifests just enough density to be captured on film or by the naked eye. Many people see them physically, too. It's been proven that the human body emits some level of electromagnetic field energy - it would only make sense and be aligned with what has been proven to say they could be some form of "spirit" or "soul" in energetic form, too.

They fascinate me! And CONGRATS on your Practitionership!

And Kweden, I've emailed the professors and the skeptic authenticator that originally tinkered with the original photo before sending it back to us. I've asked them to either forward me the actual ORIGINAL photo, in its 7.2 mp size, or to restore the file I have to its original size. I'm doing that so I can keep things on the "straight and narrow." There's so much red tape and so many rules/absolute guidelines to this field of research to keep it moving in a credible direction. I'll reply here when I get a response from them about the original file being restored. I have no idea about the red and green pixellation - although I have seen several digital photographs from different cameras that, when zoomed in, they show red, green, and blue pixellation. It could be this is the case with this one, too. I'll have them check on that as well and give me some explanation as to what's going on there.

Also, a good point was brought up by another fambly member here - even though our printout from NOAA has the dew point expressed as a percent, it would've been the relative humidity being expressed as a percent, not the dew point. After she messaged me, I called our EOCC office here in town and got some direct answers as to how we should be interpreting that printout. Many thanks to Ali for directing me to finding out what was going on!

Much Love always,
Ash

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