Weird photos

[pokingjoker]

went with a few friends to a fire hall and did some investigating. The voice recorder as of yet has turned up no EVP's but when we placed a flashlight on the bar and asked yes no questions it was very interesting as to the results we got. the light was twisted almost on. One weird pic is this ribbon like object fyi there is no strap on phone or anywhere near me. There is a pic with a girl with her hand outstretched on the bar we asked for the entity to touch her hand i noticed the area on her other hand near her lap. the other pics i snapped and got the massive distortion followed with the consecutive pics and it appeared the object moves to the bottom right corner then the right center then faintly upper right corner. the object appears to me to be the same one that touched the girl, who did not notice anything. myself and 2 other people were touched all in the same place but wasn't known till end of investigation. the camera used for pics was my mobile phone 5 mg pixel camera with flash (htc wildfire) would love to hear opinions

pics are to large to be posted here, they are in the gallery under ghosts Light Anomalies

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/gallery/thumbs.php?cat=38

Edited June 25, 2012 by pokingjoker

[Brian Topp]

Hi and Welcome to UM.

Your photo's do look like it can be most likely to be a thumb or finger over the lens. Below is some examples.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Brian Topp

[King Fluffs]

Reflections from shiny objects perhaps?

[JGirl]

there is nothing compelling in any of those shots.

just bad picture taking.

[pokingjoker]

Now im a very rational person and not prone to jump to any conclusions but i will tell you this much the objects in my photo are NOT my finger(s) that was my first thought when i got the first pic with it all over the photo. So as i clicked away with the camera i ensured my fingers were no where near the lens, and the discoloration moved to the corner and then up.

[scowl]

The first series appears to be lens flare. The light in the back is already causing streaks in the first shot.

Second series again looks like lens flare.

Third series looks like something close to the lens lit by the lights in the background. Even a floating piece of lint can become a giant structure when close up.

Always consider that the camera may be defective. I took lots of similar pictures back in the 80's when the gasket around the back of my camera was leaking light. Most of the shots were fine but a strong source of light like a flashlight from the right direction would sometimes hit the film and have similar effects.

Back then we just figured something was wrong with the camera or the film. Now I guess everyone assumes these things must be caused by supernatural phenomena.

[wittyusernamefailed]

what sort of camera are you using? One with autofocus, or manual? If the former you can pretty much chalk it up to the camera spazzing out, not Casper

[ChrLzs]

I'd like to help, but you aren't the only one posting to this forum, and when I went to your link I found a LOT of rather uninteresting looking images with a range of faults...

How about being selective and pointing out the very best examples of whatever it is you are concerned about?

[pokingjoker]

to state again the camera used that night was my cell phone, an htc wildfire, has a 5 mg pixel camera with flash. i took in excess of 75 photos that night, and only the photos i posted in the link posted (8 pics accidentally posted 9) showed what appears to me to be the same distortion. the first one i noticed that night was when movement was being seen in the dark several times and i took photo 109, seeing the major distortion in the photo i thought it was human error, and i moved my hand to ensure it was no where near the lens and continued to take consecutive photo's 110, 111, and 113 which to me shows the same distortion in the corner then going up the right side. the photo 104 and 105 was a series taken when asked for the alleged entity to touch her hand the same distortion is seen in 104 on the hand in her lap, which i did not notice till later. image 97 which i think someone has claimed to be lens flare was again taken in consecutive shots and only that one photo showed the weird gray transparent line. I am Not claiming they were "ghosts" but when added in with the personal experiences that night i found them very odd. I did Not post 2 other pics that were taken random also showed the same light distortion. So anyways as i found the whole night interesting and odd photos i thought id share them..

[ChrLzs]

I'm afraid I'm finding it very difficult to follow the run-on narrative..

First up, pic 109 simply shows the inevitable flare from a bright light source very near the lens, possibly reflecting off something beneath the lens. That phone's own flash - being positioned where it is right next to and level with the lens - could easily cause that. Especially if the camera was laid on or near a reflective surface - even a tiny one like a drop of water/beer could throw a strong reflection back. A puff of cigarette smoke or foggy breath could also help - the images are so grainy it is hard to identify anything much. And in the OP you also referred to a flashlight..?

But please note - 'distortion' implies bending of straight lines, or perhaps blurring, at a stretch. But it seems all you are talking about is the flaring light. That's not a distortion.

In Pic 104, there is nothing I can see but more flaring - see those bright specular reflections off the bar and whatever is behind it? They are the (reflected) light sources causing the flare - being reflected back from your own flash, almost certainly.

Pic 97 is either a thin strap or could be something like a human hair - with that camera's very close flash, it would light it up and throw it way out of focus, hence making it appear wide.

I'd have to observe that either that camera is of quite low quality (very likely, I'm afraid), and / or the lens was smeared - both of those things make 'flaring' much worse. If you are serious about this stuff:

1. Get a decent camera. A small compact from the better makers (eg Canon, Panasonic, Sony, Nikon, Olympus, Fuji) at around $100 or so will get you something much more capable. Phone cameras with their tiny sensors and tiny lenses are generally quite poor. If you (or anyone) wants more specific advice about what sort of camera to buy, just ask and I'll bend you ears back..!

2. Learn how to use it. Point it at shiny things and use it in awful (dark) conditions and find out what happens ... BEFORE you get all carried away with 'special effects' you get .. that are really just camera and technique problems.

Please don't take all this in the wrong way - I'd love to see you come back with better images and a offer a bit more rigorous analysis, but in these images I can't really see anything unusual..

So keep snapping (and save, beg, steal or borrow a decent camera!)