Curious Images

Last Friday evening, some friends and I went to Chillingham Castle on an organised ghost hunt. I've got to be really honest and admit that I was looking forward very much to going. While we were there, I got into the habit of just snapping pictures rather than composing them. I felt the best was to potentially catch anything that may be there was to point and press to see what I came up with.

At the time of taking this photograph, I was not aware of anything out of the ordinary. You'll see that there were several other people in the room and no-one reported seeing anything. Although I'd looked at this image myself more than once afterwards, it was only late last night that the smoke or steam or mist or whatever you want to call it, came into my vision. There was no fire lit in the room and there was no-one smoking. I can also promise you that it's not a hoax.

Hardly hugely dramatic, I know, but nevertheless it wasn't visible to anyone there. I've also discovered a few other things on other photographs taken that night.

So, presuming that it could be something that's not paranormal, what could it be? Could it be some smear on the camera lens? Possible but very unlikely as there were no smears on the preceeding or following images. I realise that there is someone just in front of the lens (you can just see the top of their head) so maybe it might be their breath as it was quite a cold night. Possible. However, why was no breath visible in any of the other well over 100 images I took that night? I guess the skeptic might argue that if there were that many images taken that evening it was easily possible that there would be a problem with at least one image despite it being modern digital photography.

What do I think it is? Genuinely, I'm just not sure. All I can say is that the first time we went into that room I took a picture (I'll post later) in the same spot but looking in a slightly different direction and also had something slightly unusual appear on the screen. The hopeful and enthusiastic ghosthunters out there and those with the inclination to believe would call it 'an orb'. You'll see what I mean when I post it later.

I do have one or two reservations regarding orbs though. They could easily be dust particles reflecting the flash back when a picture is taken or, as I showed outside that same evening with the picture below, it could even be a drop of water.

If I chose to, I guess I could say that the light anomalies in the image to the left here are all orbs, they're not. They're simply raindrops reflecting the light from the camera flash back at the lens. Looks really spooky though!

It's interesting to think that in a setting with a castle that's internationally acknowledged to be VERY haunted, that a photo as simple as this one could be interpreted by the hopeful believers as being irrefutable proof of the afterlife or paranormal or ghosts or whatever you'd like to link it to. I'm using this particular image as an example. We know that rain exists. We see it happen all of the time. If someone takes a photo of rain and says it's something else, are we obliged to disprove or are we just obliged to take their word on it being fact? We're hurtling towards theology here... Do you have enough faith in the photographer to believe that he says it's paranormal? Do you have enough faith in your understanding of the world as it's seen to believe that the paranormal doesn't exist? Deep, eh?