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Let me share the reason for my current interest in ghostly photography with you. This past-time began many years ago, in the 70's, I took a photograph at a cemetery, I was with a friend and we were taking pictures for a photography project at school. I took some photos in this cemetery and only one came out with a strange mist like substance over a tombstone. I may soon post this one at my site, it is interesting. I developed the film myself so I know that this was not a light leak or chemical reaction as it is clearly on the negative. In fact, one of my teachers thought it was on the paranormal side. This was my first experience. But I never thought of going out "ghost hunting" until I came across the Ghostweb site owned by Dave Oester & Sharon Gill. That really fascinated me, looking at all their photographs, and seeing that they came from all over the world. I had made a recent trip to the Winchester House in San Jose, and although I didn't see anything, I distinctly felt cold spots in that house, I would say it's definitely haunted. Needless to say there are photos of it on the ghostweb. After viewing these photographs for several months I went to dinner with a friend at a local restaurant here, this was in July. He had a Minolta 35mm camera and we were taking photographs of the restaurant and of a vacationing couple from France who were also dining there. When the pictures came back I was surprised to see that one of them had a distinct orb, which looks like it's "sitting" on the floor in this restaurant. And the photo we took of the French couple has a clearly defined anomaly which I now know is called a "vortex." (Perhaps I should post these up too, I have to get the time to scan them in). This restaurant is probably 50 or so years old and was part of a resort, much of which is no longer standing. It is situated by a lake and has an adjoining hotel that is a little newer, built in the late 60's. After the above incident I decided that I should buy a Sony Mavica FD71 camera as they seemed to give good ghost hunting results and I could also use it for work. I work for a publication and the fact that these cameras save directly to a floppy disk it a vital time saving feature. Anyway, a friend and I began to visit local cemeteries. At first I didn't get very good results, then, it began to seem as if every other shot contained something! It really does help to casually walk around for awhile and talk to them. I guess I felt a little ridiculous at first, but now it's easier to believe they are really listening! After these successful ghost hunting outings, at the end of September, our dog, Arrow, became ill. He was a large dog, part St. Bernard, and going on 13 years old. It happened very fast. Within two days he had lost control of his entire rear end. The last night of his life I stayed up with him, brushing him and telling him it would be OK. It was really the most horrible night of my life. Absolutely heart-wrenching. It occurred to me that we would have to make the decision to put him down in the morning, and, not to sound morbid, it also occurred to me that since he was so near death (the truth is, he probably wouldn't have lasted more than a couple days had he been left to suffer, the strain of pulling his rear around was extremely taxing on him) that maybe there was some activity in the house. So I began to take photographs around him. Sure enough, there were "orbs" visible. It rather spooked me, and after a few photos with these in the house I quit taking pictures. The next morning my brother was called, as he was the original owner, and we decided to end Arrow's suffering. So he was put to sleep. It was a horrible day. In the afternoon, before it was dark, I began taking more photos in the house and was not entirely surprised to see an orb where Arrow always laid. Since then I have taken more photographs in my house than any place else, with very surprising results. Sometimes there are several orbs, and we can see faces in them. In fact, we can see Arrow's face in some. Some are people but I'm not sure who they are. I'm convinced that some of these orbs are former pets. We've had several cats and two other large dogs, I think some of these are the smaller orbs who are nearer to the floor. Also I've noticed that certain orbs will tend to hang around the same spots. And there is one distinct yellow orb which has appeared several times. We have tried talking to them and they react, they will encircle a person addressing them. Also, and this was a big question, for me to differentiate them from dust or particles of some sort on the lens, I have photographs of them part way BEHIND things, like doorways. This proves that they are entities in "real space" - some are closer, some are farther away. Some are brighter, more materialized, some you can see through and are fainter. On two occasions I have also caught ectoplasmic clouds in the house, both of these incidents were late at night. I'm not sure why there is so much activity here, my parents built this house and no one else has lived here. But there is a Chinese cemetery close by which now has been neglected, even houses built on it. So maybe in the "olden" days there was activity here, either a cemetery or Indian ritual site, I don't know. Maybe the activity is all related to my family, pets, relatives, spirit guides, I can only guess. I suppose this is where more research comes in. Oh, one other thing, I have noticed that activity increases here, too, when I've been taking pictures for awhile, like they know they can be seen in the photos and will gather to be noticed. I began also taking photographs on evening outings too, in restaurants and night clubs. I've posted a couple of photos at my site where I caught activity on these occasions. So, cemeteries aren't the only "hot spots" - I've even got photographs of orbs during evening walks. It makes sense to me that they could be just about any place,or at least any place any living being or beings have been. skeptika's note: Jitzle's images can be seen on the Jitzle's Page of Ghostly Photography. |
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