Over the years we have been asked to review numerous photos and evidence that others have collected or accidentally taken. Though not all are deliberately faked. We have encountered some that are faked by people for one reason or another. I tend to believe that those who send us fake pictures are either testing to see if we believe for the sake of believing or are truly looking into the realities of paranormal investigations. by scientifically pulling apart any evidence that we  get to see if there is any truth to the evidence.

Some photos and evidence are merely accidents that appear to be paranormal. such as atmospheric conditions, lighting errors, a loose camera strap smoke, fog, etc… Even deformations in glass can cause the apperance of alleged paranormal activity.

With the advent of Photoshop and other photo and video editing software. we as investigators must remain even more diligent in our vetting of evidence to eliminate the possibility that any evidence captured or received is legitimate on not faked by these processes.

In the Above picture you can see what appears to be a small girl standing under a table in period dress. This picture was presented to us as real and the story was that it was taken at a house where they were having paranormal problems during renovations.

The First thing i noticed about this photo was that the shadow of the photographer was discolored by light and shows a red, yellow and blue shadow hues and that the hues of color throughout the photograph are the same with the exception of the “ghost girl” typically a real photo will maintain the same hues throughout and there should not be a large color variance. in this photo the girl is in black and white while the photo itself is in color which was a big indicator to us that the picture was not real.

After an analysis of the photo we deemed it to be fake and the owner of the photo finally advised us that it was presented to him as real but that he was later told that someone had altered the photo and added the girl in later with an IPhone application.

Typically when someone wants to submit a photo for analyisis we request the orignal photo if its on film to verify that it was printed on photo paper. and they type of camera that was used to take the photo. We usually ask about conditions and attachements to the camera for further varification.

If the image is digital we ask that they send a copy of the original file photo so that we can run the file through our software that can tell us the type of camera the date and time of the shot as well as the aperture settings and flash settings of the camera at the time of the shot.  All this information is stored in each and every digital photo and can be retrieved using special software. If this information is missing from the file it is usually a good indication that the photo has been altered

In this real photo of a hospital, we see what appears to be someone looking out of a window. We were sent this photo by person and were able to confirm that the photo is real and are able to verify the camera and setting at the time of the photo.

When we zoomed in on the photo it appears as if someone is leaning on the window sill looking out. When we can verify that the photo is real we start looking for other explanations first. in this photo we were able to find a group that was investigating this location and that they have static webcams set up throughout the building. They advised us that they did have a camera in that location at the time and we were able to confirm that it was a tripod with a camera on top. However from a distance and in film it appeared to be a person.

However when we began to review the pixelation of the image we found an outline of a person near the camera. And according to the research team that is using the site as a long term research location there was no one in the building at the time the photo was shot.

Video is another area where it can be easy to fake paranormal activity. With the easy access to a video camera and some basic editing software you can easily make a ghost video. So as Investigators we need to remain vigilant to the possibilities of fraudulent videos and how they are made. they are usually easy to spot and most appear fake to even an untrained eye but there are those out there with skills in video editing and special effects that can make ghost videos that look real.

We use a video software similar to the one used for photos that gives us all the settings and camera information that is encoded on the film when it is made and this allows us to eliminate suspect videos. as those that have been altered will have several layers of video compiled into one file, that can be easily seen by the software that we use. a typical video should only contain the video image and the audio anything with more than those layers is easily dismissed as fraudulent.

Ok, being as we are in the middle of an Ice storm, we decided to come home from work about thirty minutes early in an effort to avoid traffic which is typical of a Friday evening. and which would have been horrible considering that the roads are a solid sheet of ice.

Our kids were out of school all day and were at home. we finally made it to the house at about 4pm and my wife started making dinner. the kids were playing in their rooms and i was watching TV.

After a few minutes of enjoying the peace and quiet ,which is rare in my house especially when the kids are here, my son came out of his room and asked what i needed. I asked him what he was talking about and he told me that he was in his room and heard me calling for him. He told me that it sounded just like me and was calling his name like i do when i need to talk to him.

I thought this was a little strange at first and thought that maybe i had called for him earlier and that he was just now coming out to respond to me.  my daughter was sitting next to me on the couch and she reminded me that i had not asked him to come out of his room since i had come home,

About 30 minutes later my wife was standing in the kitchen cooking some chicken when she ran into the living room and said that she was done cooking.  I noticed a strange look on her face and knew that she was not done because the food was ready but that something had happened. after a few minutes of bugging her to get her to tell me what happened. she finally told me what she saw in the kitchen.

My wife said that she was standing at the stove cooking the chicken and had a cabinet door open which was up and to her right. she stated that it was all the way open because she had gotten some spices out the cabinet and had been going back and forth so she left it open. While standing at the stove the cabinet door closed by itself.

At first I thought that this was an accident and she either brushed up against it or that it was maybe on the break over point and just got nudged by wind. so i had her open it again to where it was when she had and tried to lightly push the door to see if it would close. but the break over point on the door was too far away to be the cause and that if she would have hit it she would have known as it is a fairly sturdy and heavy door.

It seems to be getting stronger and more active as the days go by we have started to demand that it leave tonight and will do so each time there is any kind of activity and see how it reacts. It seems that ignoring the incident seems to make the activity increase so we are going to change course and see what develops with the confrontation and prayer and see if that helps. I have every faith that it will.

I will keep you informed if anything changes

Ok so apparently things are starting to happen on a more regular basis at this rate it is at least one event every two days or so. So the other day i came home and as i approached the bedroom door which was open about 4-5 inches which is the way I left it. as i approached the door to go into the room it slammed shut on me. I was concerned that someone was in the house because it closed so hard.

I ran into the room to check and found no one there. I noticed that all doors are locked in the house when I came in and that no one appeared to be in the house.

Last night my wife was home alone and was in bed with the door open and watching TV at about 8pm the next thing she knows the bedroom door slams shut. The dogs jumped up and ran to the door to check it out. My wife grabbed the gun and went checking the house. And once again found nothing and no one in the house.  She then went back to the bedroom to watch TV and a few minutes later she could her cabinet doors to open and close. She waited a few minutes then heard three steps in the hallway near the bedroom she then jumped up again to check it out and again found nothing.

All the doors in the house were locked and stayed locked until I got home. I then checked the house again and still found no evidence of anyone being in the house.

Nothing has happened tonight so if it keeps up i will be sure and let everyone know what does happen. It seems like it is doing more and more to get attention but we have been basically ignoring it. if this keeps up we may want to have an investigation soon. I will be sure to let you know

Ok , so it has been a few days since anything has happened around the house. that was until the 19th. We have an old fashioned alarm clock with the bells for the alarm. this thing has been in the house for years and never heard a peep out of it until tonight. It was about 5pm and we were in the bedroom and began hearing the sound of an alarm ringing. At first I thought it was just a smoke detector or a carbon monoxide detector. But as I started to really listen it did not make the digital beeping noise. so I began to search the house for the cause of the noise.

As I searched the house it continued to ring like an old school bell. and since I have never had the alarm set on this clock nor has it ever gone off I was at first baffled by the noise. after a few minutes of searching I found the alarm clock near my daughters room. and realized that it was the noise I was hearing.  I then called my daughter and asked why she had set the old alarm clock to go off at this time. she told me that she had never set the alarm and has never heard it go off before. I then started looking at the clock and noticed that there is a on/off switch on the back as I looked closely at the clock I noticed that it was switched to the off position. I then checked to see if it took batteries and noticed that there were batteries in it. The whole time this alarm is going off in my hand. after a few more seconds of trying to figure it out the Clock alarm turned off.

I then tried to do a little investigation on the clock itself I reset the alarm and kept the power switch off. as the time it was set for came and passed the alarm never sounded. I tried this a few more times and could not get the alarm to go off again. after this event nothing happened for the remainder of the night. I will keep updating this post as stuff continues to happen

Over the past few months we have been experiencing an increase of activity in our home.  though some appeared normal at first we began noticing it happening more and more often. At first it was shadows here and there which were easily passed off as coincidence. since we have just started to log the incidents i will give a brief overview of what has been happening prior to the start of the log.

it mostly started about a year ago by seeing shadows at the bedroom door whihc was about the size of a small child. and then on occasion about animal size. It would stay bythe door and then enter the room butwould then disappear.

On one occasion we heard what sounded like someone saying “hey”  but no one was there. so we checked outside and found no one.

recently my wife was in the bathroom and felt as though something had touched her leg while getting ready for bed. Several other things have been seen and heard around the house.

There were some other events that were a not as notable that may be discussed later. So having that background out of the way i am going to start the journal now

01/13/2010

In our living room we have a music box which sits on our mantle. It has not been wound in years and remains in the same place all the time. While sitting on the couch my wife and i heard the music box start to play it played for a few seconds and then stopped. I got up and checked the box but noticed that it had not been moved or wound.

About an hour later our as we were getting ready for bed my Lab came into the closet in the master bedroom she began to look around as if she was following something she then hunkered down and ran out of the closet. As i was in the bathroom at the time i checked the closet and found nothing. for the rest of the night she would not go into the closet which is unusual for her because she usually follows us where ever we go but no matter how hard we tried she would not go into the closet again.

01/14/2010

I worked late tonight while my wife was home alone she began to hear mumbled talking coming from the other room she thought that one of the kids left their TV on so she went in to turn it off.however no TV or radio was left on. This happened one other time before i got home this occurred the first time at about 4 pm and the second time at 730 pm.

We will post more as it happens to keep everyone up to date on anything that happens