Ok, I'm still fairly new and hope I'm not crossing any boundaries in this group by asking this, but does anyone have any thoughts on orbs?
I've just always thought they were demonic, but am just kinda questioning this now. I saw a picture yesterday that was in a church (not non-denom) and in sequence the orbs streamed down from the cross and were on two family members at a christening.
I can answer this one.
First, no they are NOT demonic, and contrary to what sensationalists may say, they are not ghosts either.
ORBS are a relatively new phenomenon. They are new because they have only started appearing in photographs since the advent of plastic polymer lenses and the combination of the built in flash that is seen on most 35 mm point and shoot cameras. Prior to this, there are fewer and fewer orbs photos because of the use of ground glass lens elements and the comparative weakness of the built in flash.
ORBS occur when a flash, firing very close to the plastic lens, causes light to bounce off of anything in the air and the anomaly appears from a flash of reflected light touching the lens. Orbs can also appear when a flash is used at night, and the resulting flash bounces off flying insects or even raindrops. It can appear from direct light from the sun, through a window, from any metallic refelctive surface reflecting back into the lens. To demonstarte this, go out on a sunny day and take a photo into the sun (DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN OR POINT YOUR CAMERA DIRECTLY AT THE SUN, as that would be dangerous. But as you turn your camera away from the sun, you will notice a change in the fogging and clarity of the lens. If you were wanting to make a GHOST photo then have your friend stand in the picture and when the photo is adequetly fogged up, take the photo and tell everyone that you wre taking your friend's picture and a ghist came and surrounded him LOL.
Now many will disagree, especially the most avid ghost hunters, but as a pro photographer I can tell you that is what it is.
Now I don't want to suggest that ALL orbs are accidental. Certainly there is ample evidence of people in our society who seem to have either too much time on their hands or too many prankish ideas. (You know, the ones who make crop circles and plant bigfoot tracks outside the city limits?)
There are many ways of hoaxing a ghost photo, including an orb, and there are many people who enjoy the challenge of trying to create a most convincing ghost photo.
Again, someone is going to EMail me or openly disagree with me and say yes ghosts are real and yes they photographed one . Well maybe they did...
But I am just saying I know that there is a great number of accidental and hoaxed photographs out there. Sure it would be more sensational and interesting if orbs were ghosts appearing on our film, but the fact is, there is too much evidence to suggest otherwise.
