Top 10 ghost photo's. Eva!

[Demigorgon]

http://duggmirror.com/offbeat_news/Top_Ten_Best_Ghost_Photographs_Ever_Taken/

If these are the top ten, i'm afraid there isn't really much of a case for ghost. I'll admit, some of the old ones are cool looking (meaning the right conditions provided for an interesting looking photo), but the author of the page immeadiatly loses any credability with number #9, which I could have sworn was debunked all to hell (excuse the pun).

You can post comments at the bottom of the page. Any Jrefers want to do a pic by pic rebuttal? This site was linked from the Coast to Coast web site, so there might be an opportunity to change some woo's minds if done in a scientific (i.e. not condecending) manner.

 

[Mercutio]

A ghost closer to home...

 

[Ersby]

#4 has been tampered with. I remember this from when I was young, and the scene in the back seat was much lighter. The person in the back seat has an unusually broad shoulder which passes in front of the door frame of the car. You can't see that here.

 

[Starthinker]

I have a book at home called Mysteries of the Unexplained (redundant title?) that I got when I lived in the U.K. It's a very cheesy book that deals mostly with the priory in England that is supposedly the most haunted place on the whole isle (I can't recall the name of the church and the book is at home at the moment) In it they showed a picture that was faked to demonstrate how to do a double exposure. It was an example. A fake. A how-to. That picture shows up as #8, the Newby Church Monk!

 

[Ersby]

It's a very cheesy book that deals mostly with the priory in England that is supposedly the most haunted place on the whole isle (I can't recall the name of the church and the book is at home at the moment)

Borley?

 

[Starthinker]

Borley?

Yes! Thanks. That would have driven me crazy all day. I was going to say Butley but that just didn't sound right. I even went there and took a bunch of pictures myself but alas, the ghosts weren't playing that day.

After looking at the rest of the pics on that site I see that many were in that book. I'm going to have to look for it when I get home to see what the captions were and see if they match.

 

[Big Les]

Regarding "Freddy Jackson", "mechanic in the Royal Air Force in World War I", it's worth pointing out that Goddard, though high-ranking and a respected officer, was somewhat of a frootloop.

A group photograph clearly showing the face of a dead man, a terrible airplane flight through a storm into another reality, and a frightening, death-predicting dream were for British Royal Air Force (RAF) officer Victor Goddard glimpses into the mysterious world of the unexplained.

Much more detail here.

Minor point, but "HMS Daedalus" at that time was not a ship, but a Royal Naval Air Station under joint RAF control.

ETA: woah, Goddard was in deep with the woos:
http://urantiagate.com/conspiracy/short-timeline.html

-- Sir George Trevelyan, in England, gathers together "all of the [British] New Age groups under one roof for the first time," with Air Martial Sir Victor Goddard, former chief of British Air Intelligence, in attendance. Peter Caddy (ex-Royal Air Force), who was uninvited, "gate crashes" this event to announce the beginning of Findhorn. Following Eileen's intra-cerebral voice he and Eileen (the ex-wife of Peter's RAF Base Commander, who himself was a member of CIA-corrupted Moral Rearmament) had located their community-to-be adjacent to Kingloss Royal Air Force Base in Scotland.

 

[Luke T.]

I have a book at home called Mysteries of the Unexplained (redundant title?) that I got when I lived in the U.K. It's a very cheesy book that deals mostly with the priory in England that is supposedly the most haunted place on the whole isle (I can't recall the name of the church and the book is at home at the moment) In it they showed a picture that was faked to demonstrate how to do a double exposure. It was an example. A fake. A how-to. That picture shows up as #8, the Newby Church Monk!

Your memory may be playing tricks with you. The photographer of the Newby Church Monk never said he was committing a hoax. He always claimed it was genuine.

 

[Luke T.]

For the purists, the OP link does not show the entire Newby Church Monk photo.

So here you go:

 

[Luke T.]

Well, even that photo is not the whole thing. It's missing the bottom.

Dang it.

 

[richardm]

His #1 picture has most definitely been resolved, thanks to some fire-fighter's video that was taken from a slightly different angle. The face - and it certainly does look like a face - is actually the end of a burning beam. I've never heard of Jane Churm before; probably that bit was invented to make the story a bit more scary. I don't think the picture needs it - it's a creepy picture, but definitely no ghosts here.

The Newby Church picture genuinely astounds me. It is so clearly a deliberate hoax - a double exposure - I'm constantly amazed when it's regularly trotted out to astonished gasps.

 

[Starthinker]

Your memory may be playing tricks with you. The photographer of the Newby Church Monk never said he was committing a hoax. He always claimed it was genuine.

I'll see what the book says when I get home, but I'm certain it said this was set up to show a double exposure. The story itself may be repeated in other sources, but this one source said it was an example. Note it doesn't say it's a hoax, but an example.

Like you said, my memory may be playing tricks on me so this will have to wait until tonight. I do remember most of those pictures from that same book, though, all grouped together so maybe I got a caption mixed up or something.

 

[Luke T.]

Yet another copy of the Newby Church ghost. Just want to show all possible aspects. The very bottom of the ghost is of interest to me. The way the "gown", or whatever it is, looks nearly painted on the steps.

 

[Overman]

The only thing that is spooky to me here is that I once believed in crap like this when I was younger...

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I find this a bit suspicious about #2.

Captain Keith Tracy bought a camera and the ship was soon underway again. Sure enough, the faces appeared, and Tracy took six pictures, then secured the camera in the ship's vault. The camera was not removed until it was taken to a commercial developer after docking in New York City. Five of the photos showed nothing unusual, but the sixth clearly showed what was said to be the faces of the two dead crewmen.

What's the odds that the picture with the faces is the first picture on the roll? This is a 1924 camera we are talking about -- very easy to do a double exposure on the first "frame" at anytime before the camera is first "used" as this does not require rewinding the film. Much more difficult to do for later "frames" as you have to rewind the film and reposition it properly.

Show me two pictures from the same 1924 film and I'm a believer. (Exception to sig.)

The one with a one hour exposure that finds a ghost in the chair has been reasonably explained as someone walking into the room, sitting in the chair, getting up and walking out. "No one in the house" does not really cut it.

This all reminds me of the "10 Best UFO Photos Ever" that Popular Science (Mechanics?) ran some years ago. My son and I both looked at what ISTR was number 2 and said, "Lens flare".

 

[Zygar]

I'm just disappointed. I thought this thread was about Neon Genesis Evangelion.

 

[Starthinker]

What's the odds that the picture with the faces is the first picture on the roll? This is a 1924 camera we are talking about -- very easy to do a double exposure on the first "frame" at anytime before the camera is first "used" as this does not require rewinding the film. Much more difficult to do for later "frames" as you have to rewind the film and reposition it properly.

As stated above you don't have to rewind the film. In many cameras of that era you flipped a lever to reset the shutter and had to wind the film seperately. Hence you can take any number of pictures or double exposures without rewinding or repositioning the film. On a steady tripod you can snap a pic, reset the shutter, put your ghost in, and snap the pic again. Viola! A ghost!

 

[Jorghnassen]

I'm just disappointed. I thought this thread was about Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I think NGE is disappointing. And so is that top 10.

 

[RSLancastr]

I'll admit, some of the old ones are cool looking (meaning the right conditions provided for an interesting looking photo), but the author of the page immeadiatly loses any credability with number #9, which I could have sworn was debunked all to hell (excuse the pun).

He lost all credibility when he said he was impressed with the people from TAPS.

 

[BillC]

I have heard the theory that number 5 is probably one of the household staff who came in and sat in the chair before noticing the camera and getting up hurriedly.