|
Paranormal blog |
| Investigations |
|
|
8 May 2008: More strange floating objects near trees
Here are some more photos of strange objects floating around in front of trees. They are from the same batch as yesterday's. The photo on the left is particularly intriguing as it looks like a strange white 'bow' shape, possibly resting on a tree! Some people would no doubt dismiss it as lens flare but, in fact it is a real object floating in the air. It is not, however, paranormal or extra-terrestrial. In case you haven't worked out what it is yet, look at the same object shown in the photo on the right. It should now be clear that both photos are, once again, of large soap bubbles floating through the air. Note how, in the photo on the right, part of the bubble at the right hand end is barely visible against the white sky. In the photo on the left, most of the bubble is missing for the same reason. The bubble is there but it blends in against the white sky. This is an example of the comparative lack of latitude in digital photos compared to film. This means that there are fewer possible 'shades of grey' between pure black and white. This, in turn, makes it difficult, sometimes, to see translucent objects against strongly coloured backgrounds. This is the reason why some orbs appear to be behind other objects. I expect you're thinking, this is all very well but how often are people going around taking photos of soap bubbles that they haven't either noticed or recognised. The answer is, I've no idea. However, I know that millions of photos are taken around the world every day and so it's almost bound to happen somewhere, sometime. If you ever see a photo like one of these you'll now have a good idea what it might be. 7 May 2008: Multicoloured daylight orbs
You will probably have already realised that they are, in fact, soap bubbles! They are slightly out of focus, giving them more of an orb look than they might otherwise have. The colours present are produced by iridescence in the skin of the bubbles (where light reflected from the inside and outside of the bubble skin meet and 'interfere'). The rainbow effect is obvious when you see bubbles close up and in focus (see lower photo). However, at a distance the dominant colour, whatever that happens to be, tends to take over the whole bubble. So in the upper photo you can clearly see orange and blue bubbles even though, close up, they were all rainbow coloured. The bubbles are too close to be in focus because the camera is focused on the real subject of the photo - the trees.
If someone found either of these images on a photo, having not noticed any soap bubbles at the time of exposure, they might consider them anomalous. The smaller bubbles might appear to be daylight orbs. There are similar photos of coloured orbs taken at night (though it is unlikely that those are caused by soap bubbles). The larger bubble could even be interpreted as some kind of UFO, particularly if it wasn't so obviously close and the photos less clear than this one. It might seem unlikely that anyone would not recognise these objects as soap bubbles . However, people report all sorts of fairly obvious things, like birds, balloons or planes, as UFOs, and almost anything circular is a suspect for an orb these days. I'm sure someone will report a soap bubble as a photographic anomaly at some time, if they haven't already. 1 May 2008: More problems with dark vigils
Your sweeping torch light may also catch reflective surfaces. This will produce momentary lights on the opposite wall. This too may give rise to apparently paranormal 'moving lights'. Reports of apparent object and light movement is quite common on dark vigils. These visual artifacts from torch light are just a couple of the many misperception problems caused by holding vigils in the dark. Night vision equipment is often used on dark vigils to overcome the problem of low illumination. However, night amplification technology produces low detail images compared to normal daylight photography. Though such equipment amplifies low light images to make scenes visible, the lack of light still limits the detail that can be captured! Since most night vision equipment is also sensitive to infra-red, this allows the use of 'invisible' illuminators which help to some extent. However, night vision equipment also usually has a limited field of view and, being usually monocular, can cause problems with depth and size perception. Infra-red video cameras are better that night vision equipment as they use illuminators and provide a standard of picture approaching normal video cameras. Their range is, however, limited by the illuminator and the images of distant objects lack detail. You can also get the 'moving shadow' and 'moving reflection' effects described above with illuminators. The alternative to night vision/infrared is the very expensive thermal imager. These cameras are the 'most wanted' bits of kit for many paranormal research groups. However, since they use the far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, their images require careful interpretation. Again, the image is not as good as normal daylight video cameras. So, even with night imaging aids, there are serious problems with dark vigils. With or without technical aids, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that much of what is 'experienced' on such dark vigils is the result of misperception. People may be fooling themselves while discovering nothing paranormal. NB: For an explanation of the picture of a 'face', see the April blog.
© Maurice Townsend 2008 |
| About us | ASSAP News | ||||||||
Welcome to the ASSAP paranormal blog! Though this blog is aimed at anyone interested in the paranormal, it will be of particular interest to the paranormal research community. Updated frequently, but not regularly (don't expect something new every day!), it covers any paranormal topic, as well as highlighting recent changes to the ASSAP website. You may not notice it but this site changes on an almost daily basis. 
I caught some daylight 'orbs' recently (upper photo). They are multicoloured but surprisingly well defined. Most daylight orbs tend to be white, difficult to make out and fuzzy around the edges. But not these. They did not even require the use of a flash. 
In the second (lower) photo, you can see a larger bubble in focus. Now it is possible to see the multicoloured rainbow effect typical of bubbles. Note, also, the distended shape typical of larger bubbles. The spherical shape of bubbles is caused by surface tension. However, with bigger bubbles, the surface area is large enough for air currents to play a more significant role, distorting the otherwise typical spherical shape.
Take your favourite torch and use it to light up the objects in a darkened room, using a narrow beam. By sweeping across the room slowly with the light, it is obvious what most things are. When you sweep quickly, however, you may notice what appears to be slight movements in the objects in the scene. Obviously, they are not really moving. What you are seeing is the effect of rapidly moving shadows, caused by the light source movement, caught by the rod cells in your eyes. The shadow movements are particularly pronounced if you see them in the '