BELTON CEMETERY - UNUSUAL PHOTOS

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The photographs below were taken at the Belton Cemetery on 2-4-2006, and are included in this section of the investigation report due to their unusual nature. Please read our detailed analysis of each photo before assuming that a photo is paranormal in nature. Click on any of the photographs below to see a larger version of the original photo. This first photo did not appear to have any anomalies present in its original state. I used Photoshop to raise the Brightness and Contrast, and numerous "orbs" appear. Take a look... This photo was taken with a Canon Powershot S1-IS 3.2 megapixel camera. If one takes the approach that every orb is a ghost or spirit energy...then we were definitely surrounded! But 99.9% of "orb" photos are not ghosts, spirits, or paranormal in any way. As we look at these "orb" photos, let's discuss the three completely reasonable and natural explanations for this sort of "orb" phenomenon one at a time. "ORB" CAUSE #1 - Dust particles (or moisture, or pollen, etc.) floating in the air very close to the camera can be lit up by the camera's flash. The light of the flash hits these floating particles, which are completely out-of-focus due to their close proximity to the camera. This results in a translucent whitish spot on the image of the camera. It appears to be "in the picture" when in fact the dust, moisture, or pollen causing the "orb" is within inches of the camera's lens. Click Here to see an excellent illustration of this natural cause of "orbs." When using a video camera, the light or IR beam of the camera can cause this same effect...except the "orb" moves through the video shot. This next photo was also taken with a Canon Powershot S1-IS 3.2 megapixel camera and had the Brightness and Contrast increased in Photoshop. An "orb" appears on the top right-hand side of the picture...while the big white shape on the left is actually me. Its unfortunate that "orb" photographs get so much attention on other paranormal sites. We have shown them here and fully explain their natural causes almost every investigation for an important reason. We believe the misplaced focus on "orb" photography that is still prevelant in this field undermines the credibility of paranormal research. Here are two more natural causes for "orb" photographs... "ORB" CAUSE #2 - Another cause for photographic "orbs" is refracted light. When the flash goes out and hits a reflective surface, it reflects back to the lens and causes a refraction of light within the lens. When the photo is taken, the film captures the dot of refracted light on the lens as if it is part of the scene being captured in the photo. "ORB" CAUSE #3 - Digital cameras, especially digital cameras below 5 megapixels, can "create" orbs in the photograph in low-light conditions. In low light conditions, the digital camera can cause errors when capturing the photo...and the errors appear as "orbs" in the photos. These digital orbs will often have an interesting pattern or texture to them. Dust orbs taken with a digital camera can also have an interesting pattern or texture to them. The really amazing thing about orb photos, is what seems to be a general belief among a fair number of paranormal investigators that these orbs represent either paranormal energy, spirit energy, or ghosts. If you do a web-search for "orbs" or "orb photography," you'll find hundreds of paranormal websites with pictures exactly like those shown here, except those websites will present them as spirits or ghosts caught on film. If only it were that easy to take a picture of a ghost! I think you'll find we are not going to show and explain as many of our "orb" photos as we have in the past. This next picture is a control picture of cigarette smoke. It was taken with a Canon Powershot S1-IS 3.2 megapixel camera, and was part of a quick experiment to recreate some of the "paranormal" photographs you will find on many websites. This photo is not paranormal in nature. We took this picture at the very end of the night. Dave Bryant lit his first cigarette of the evening and blew smoke in front of Shawn's camera as he took a picture. You can see the "ectoplasmic fog" this creates in the photograph. On a cold night a photographer's breath condensation can be so thick directly in front of the lens that it can create a similar effect. To prevent these sorts of false positives, paranormal investigators should not smoke during investigations...and should hold their breath for 3-5 seconds prior to snapping a photo. EXAMPLE ANALYSIS OF 3rd PARTY PHOTOGRAPHS I recently met with a man who said he had some interesting paranormal photos for me to examine. He told me that they were fairly dramatic and that I would definitely want to see them. I'm glad I checked them out, because I learned something in looking at them. Some of the photos had wild glowing lines squiggled through the dark photos of a cemetery and some had "ectoplasmic mist" present in the photo. Let's take each phenomenon one at a time... 1. GLOWING SQUIGGLY LINES - The lines were different colors, different patterns, and they were amazing to look at. I noticed fairly quickly that when their were mulitiple squiggly lines in a single photo, they all followed the same pattern or made the same glowing shape or scrawl. I asked what setting had been used to take the photos. They had been taken with a digital camera and a "Night" setting had been used on the flash. This "Night" setting leaves the lens open a little longer than normal to pick up as much light from objects and scenes in the background as possible, and then fires off the flash to get crisp well-lit images of objects or people in the foreground. A side-effect of this setting was that tombstones in the foreground were crisp and unblurred...but the objects in the background to were subject to any camera movements that took place during the extended exposure. This setting should probably be used with a tripod. The squiggly lines were points of light visible in the background of the photos. These points of light were lights on house or businesses in the distance. But as the camera moved during the extended exposure, the points of light would trace a glowing path on the digital exposure. Since all the points of light were subjected to the exact same camera movements, they all traced the same pattern or shape on the exposure. 2. ECTOPLASMIC MIST - Several of the photographs had what appeared to be swirling white mist in them. I'm always very hesitant to call these sorts of photos paranormal. For me, if mist looks like breath...then its probably mist. It an object in a photo looks like the photographer's sleeve, then its probably his/her sleeve. If an orb can be easily caused by dust, then its probably a dust orb. Etc. I confirmed that the pictures in question were taken when it was very cold outside and that the photographer was not following a protocol of holding her breath for 3-5 seconds prior to snapping the photos. I then observed that in every picture where the mist appeared, the mist was rising from out of the bottom of the photo. This was consistant with the theory that the photographer was breathing out condensation, which was curling up and in front of the lens as the photograph was being taken. The gentleman showing me the photos insisted their were ghostly faces in the swirling whisps of mist. I could see some of the shapes he was talking about...but others were hard to recognize even when he tried to point them out. It was impossible not to conclude that his mind was making faces out of the smoke, much as kids point out pirate ships, or monkeys, or even faces in the clouds. The term for this is Pareidolia. Having completed the examination all of our still photographs from the Belton Cemetery investigation, we can now say that we did not capture any conclusive photographic evidence of paranormal activity during our investigation. -Mark Stinson

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