I got into a bit of an argument with the inlaws who had some "unexplained pictures" they liked to pass around. I made a side comment to my wife about one of them at first, but it got picked up and I quickly got flak from several relatives who were convinced there were odd things afoot in the snapshots. I repeatedly tried to back out of the argument, saying I didn't really care what they believed (although in nicer terms) but it was really a wierd scene. I think most of them were happy to hear my side, and probably believed me... I just aggravated a few of them.
The people with the pictures are smokers. Heavy smokers, in fact. One has since quit, but in two pictures the "odd ghostly images" were clearly smoke, probably exhaled by someone just to the side of the cameraman, or by the cameraman himself. Close up shots of smoke + flash = ghostly shapes. That was widely accepted, but a few hardcore ghosties wanted me to look at the others, demanding I identify instantly what the source of several artifacts were.
One was the camera strap. Everyone was dubious until they looked carefully at the picture and could clearly see the difference between the nylon strap and plastic widget that modifies the length. I think if you could have seen "Kodak" stamped on it the ghosties would have still argued, though.
Another was probably also the strap, although it wasn't as clear. I didn't win too many people over on that one, but the one from above made them pretty skeptical that it was paranormal rather than just unexplained.
After the smoke and strap pics got passed around, I got a little backup. A couple people excitedly passed pictures back and forth, putting out suggestions as to what they might be. They wanted me to be a judge of their ideas, much to the annoyance of a couple ghosties. It got pretty spirited (sorry) but in a friendly "that's not a bug! yes it is!" sort of way.
Thumbs, dust orbs and a sleeve (or curtain) killed off a few more ghosts, and one seemed to be a double-exposure. There was a cool effect on one side of the picture that I pointed out looked like a picture of a house (window and porch laying over the people) and that got picked up since the shot was taken inside, and the layout of the window+porch matched the house the shot was taken in.
Anyway, the upshot was the different reactions. A couple people wavered on different shots, but more between "thumb" and "bug" than "ghost". It sparked some interest in testing the picture effects, too. A digital camera was used to test the dust orbs, and we got a fair ones. The only downside was that some of the picture-owners are now less friendly, having had their prize ghosts demoted to camera straps and badly timed smoke rings. The few who refused to back down continued to fortify their position all night, regardless of the obvious sources of the ghosts. Ah well.
