Transparent Lady
from Bob Winsor, Ontario, Canada – There is likely a valid technical explanation (from a professional photographers point of view) for what I am about to tell you.... but the photo I have is so thought provoking and realistic, you might find it interesting. On a recent (Feb '06) vacation in Mexico, I was sitting with my wife and a couple of friends at a restaurant table one evening, and my wife took a picture of our friend. It was a low light situation, and she used the night setting on our digital camera. This, I have since learned, leaves the shutter open for a time after the flash, and continues to gather existing and reflected light from the setting. Our camera is not sophisticated (Kodak Easyshare CX7525) and the shutter speed is 1/2 - 1/1400 sec. We were surprised to find a mystery person in the photograph when we loaded to my computer. She is visible on the camera review, too, but we didn't bother checking photos until we were home. We were using a SanDisk 512 MB SD memory card, and the photograph is still on that card. This mysterious lady is completely transparent, similar to what would be a double exposure with a film camera, or superimposed if you know how to manipulate things with digital camera software. She is walking slowly in the scene... I assumed she is walking slowly because her arms are folded across her chest. The theory explained to me (which I am compelled to believe) is that she was there when the flash went off, which burned her onto the picture.... and in the time the shutter remained open, she walked out of the scene. During this shutter still open time, the camera continued to gather light from the background... including the area where she was standing when it flashed... and this light from behind as well as the immediate area of her original position, is what made her appear transparent. Quite believable.The only difficulty I have is time. With a maximum of 1/2 second shutter time, I don't see how she could have covered the distance to walk out of the whole scene, and there are no blurs, or other noticeable evidence of her having been in the area of her exit from the scene. Everything I know about the paranormal, and photography, I have learned in the past week or so. Needless to say, I'm on the bottom rung of the ladder and have a lot to learn about both. There are several people in the original photograph, including our mystery lady, and the only person I know is the man at our table. For privacy (not to be confused with paranoia) issues I have blanked a portion of the faces. Nothing else has been changed. I think this is quite a fluke indeed. The photo is so vivid and clear, it defies the possibility of being an apparition... compared with the multitudes of samples I have seen on the internet in the last week or so. Quite by accident, we managed to be at the right place, at the right time, and the setting and lighting were just what was needed to capture this image. In the beginning I was very sure the lady was an apparition. What I have learned in recent days has convinced me 99+% that this was a lucky long shot ...a camera trick, perpetuated by the camera itself.
