'Ghost' captured at soldiers' cemetery

[Still Waters]

Dusk had settled and night was closing in on Beach Cemetery at Hell Spit, on the old Anzac battlefields of Gallipoli, when Fairfax photographer Joe Armao opened the shutter on his last series of pictures for the day - and captured something inexplicable.

http://www.illawarra...emetery/?cs=300

South Coast ghost hunter's take on Gallipoli 'soldier' -

http://www.illawarra...-soldier/?cs=12

[Rafterman]

I'm not seeing a "wide brimmed hat" and, is it just me, but does the shadow look very similar to the general shape of the flower?

[Taun]

My thought exactly Rafterman... Perhaps some form of "bloom" caused by the relative brightness of the flower and the haze of the background...

[rashore]

The shadow does mimic the shape of the bloom awfully well... Maybe changing the angle made for an odd exposure? Maybe another bloom that was hidden in the first pic, but shows up in the second? Meh, I dunno, I'm just guessing here

[Purple Octopus]

So, they think the shadow of the flower is a ghost?

[Davros of Skaro]

Um? The Flower???

[Perceptivum]

The picture seems trivial and marginal at-best.

[rashore]

So, they think the shadow of the flower is a ghost?

I thought shadow of flower at first too. But if you look on the left gravestone, a clear shadow of a different flower changes shape with the camera angle. What would be behind that upper part for a shadow to be cast onto?

[Purple Octopus]

I thought shadow of flower at first too. But if you look on the left gravestone, a clear shadow of a different flower changes shape with the camera angle. What would be behind that upper part for a shadow to be cast onto?

Yep, going back I can see that there is nothing to cast a shadow on. However, due to the long exposure time, I'm not ready to say "ghost!" quite yet

[jamesjr191]

It appears to be a human type shape, but I see no reason to cry ghost. its dark and their could have been a person(s) there.

[JesseCuster]

I dunno what the cause of the silhouette shape is but it's definitely worth considering that it's the same rough shape as the flower its behind.

The exposure time was 2.5 seconds and there's definite evidence of camera movement, lots of things in the photograph have a ghosted version offset from them indicating the camera moved during the exposure (either a handheld shot or possibly a tripod shot without using a cable release or remote where pushing the button caused a brief movement of the camera at the start of the exposure that caused the ghosted image) but I'm not sure how that would account for the dark shape which doesn't appear at first glance to be replicated anywhere else if it was indeed caused by camera movement during a long exposure. And I don't it's a shadow as there's nothing apparent behind the flower to cast a shadow upon.

Also, there's nowhere near enough detail in what's being shown in the pics shown to describe it as being a human with a wide brimmed hat. The shape is far too fuzzy and out of focus to determine anything like a "wide brimmed hat".

Edited April 23, 2014 by JesseCuster

[JesseCuster]

Upon further looking at the pic, other flowers that are against the sky background do in fact have similar ghosted silhouettes against the sky offset to their right. No ghost here.

[Still Waters]

I've just found a video. In that they've zoomed in more on the image and you can see the two black shadows a bit more clearly. The shadow on the left, you can see where they got the 'wide brimmed hat' from.

http://www.watoday.c...0423-372w7.html

[coolguy]

It could be a ghost but to me it looks like a building in the distance

[theotherguy]

Okay, I was looking at the wrong thing. I think. The "wide-brimmed hat" directly behind the flower does look like an upward transposition that all of the brightly lit flowers have. Is the much darker, clearer person shape to the right the ghost? Or is that a confirmed living person?

Edit: Living person. The source article says that it's Celal Boz, local author. So, unfortunately, I have to call this one ghostless.

Edited April 25, 2014 by theotherguy