Why Show Pictures of Bugs, Rain, Dust, and Camera Flashes?

As much as this site tries to prove the existence of orbs, EMFs, electronic voice phenomenon, spirit visitations, the afterlife and all forms of spirit communication, it also tries to disprove the rain, bug, dust theory. Pictures have been taken so you, the reader, can see the difference. More tests will be done and will be posted once completed. The pictures posted here have been taken during both light and heavy rain as well as no or a lot of wind blowing to show the affect of wind. I would strongly recommend reading the brief article on raindrops, their shape, and experiments on the "Scientific Study" page of this site for a better understanding when distinguishing what you may have captured on film. Trying as hard as several of us can, we still have not been able to come up with anything that looks like orbs - their distinctive shape, density, design and texture, however, we have come up with some very unique observations that certainly could be misunderstood and thought to be paranormal spirit activity or spirit photos, when in fact, they are natural occurrences. One point in view when it comes to EMF readings, the ionization in the air can make the meter spike higher then it will on a dry day. Although moisture and water are the hardest to determine the difference between it/them from real orbs, dust is much easier to disprove. For a reflection to occur from dust, the dust itself must either be on the lens or at least 2" - 3" inches from the lens in order to reflect, according to some of the best professional photographers. One of the best way to determine if you have captured dust is to gauge the distance from the camera to the particle or orb. One way to do this is to see how far you are away from an object and if there is anything between you and the orb/particle in the picture. Examples would be a reflection of the orb on something behind it or a partial orb behind something at a distance.

Bugs Not Orbs
	These are small bugs taken near a tree at a park. Notice also the light aura around the hand. Bugs, raindrops, and dust can reflect but as you can see from this and the next photo, they are much smaller in size, shape, density, texture, and design then orbs, and usually show up in white.

Bugs and Orbs
	This is a great picture of reflections off of bugs at night compared to orbs. The larger spheres are true orbs. Remember, bugs are made up of energy so they will show up at a distance unlike dust and pollen. Submitted by Patti (The Orb Lady)!

Lightening Bug
	This is a picture of a lightening bug, with a larger and lighter picture for better viewing.

Bat Reflection in the Sky
	Although the bat reflection can be confusing, it is the object in the middle of the picture. Notice the orbs around it.

Tom's Pouring Water
	At first this picture was listed in the "Other Anomalies" Album because it was so different looking and we had no explanation for it. There are, however, some real orbs in this photograph.

Patti's Pouring Rain
	Thanks to Patti, she took the identical type of picture and discovered it was not anything paranormal at all, but reflection of rapidly flowing water off the top of a roof during a strong rain. As above in Tom's photograph, Patti has also captured orbs as well as the pouring rain.

Gary's Man Made Orb 1

Gary: "I've been trying different things with my camera to see how close I can come to reproducing an Orb in a photo using various things around the house. This is the closest I've been able to get using a fine spray mist. I sprayed it upwind and waited for the droplets to reach me before I took the pictures." While the mist droplets do have many of the same Orb features, they are all the basically the same looking, and they lack color.

Gary's Man Made Orb 2
	Notice is no texture and the density is pretty consistent, unlike true orbs. These man made orbs do not have the distinct outline and colors as so many of true orbs do. There are a few what appears to be genuine orbs in this picture.

Thick Fog
	Believe it or not but this is an extremely thick fog that rolled in. Fog is nothing more then moisture, but looks entirely different with the naked eye then when captured on camera.

Gary's Humidity and Dew

Submitted by Gary. "Last night Cindy and I went out to take pictures. It had been raining nearly all day and the air was heavy with moisture. I took several pictures and I could actually see the water particulate in the air each time the camera fired. The results which look like my fine mist water test are attached for you to see. It is clear to me that, humidity and the dew point level are very influential in distorting pictures to make it look like Orbs. In fact if you look carefully, you can see the dew glistening on the tips of the grass. While I believe that there are some genuine Orbs in the picture somewhere, they are very hard to differentiate."

Humidity and Dew 2

As with the spritzer test shown above, the humidity and dew in the air tends to collect in a manner that is not consistent with true orbs. Orbs normally are spherical in shape, unless they are moving and then they can be quite lengthy, or have what I call a "tail" which appears at the opposite side of the direction it is moving in. They normally have a thicker outer shell so-to-speak, and normally have a texture about them, except in the brightest of white ones that are more like a solid light.

Water Optical Illusion
	Notice how rain creates an optical illusion if a picture is taken through glass or with a wet lens. Notice the distortion of the chimney on the house, and the telephone wires.

Water Distortion
	This is no more then a distorted picture taken through water running down a window during a heavy rain.

Elaine's Experiment With Bubbles
	Elaine submitted this picture of bubbles in comparison to orbs.  Notice the multi colors in the bubbles on the right of the picture.

Sunlight Reflection

Here are three shots taken close in time that shows a sphere of sun reflection coming through window blinds and reflecting on the TV across the room. You can see how the reflection moved from the TV set itself and then on to the screen. At the sun's strongest point, the sphere was blue instead of looking like a white orb. The picture on the right shows the white sphere on the set on the left bottom side just below the screen. The picture on the left shows the same reflection as it moved on to the screen which I had turned off in order to take the picture. Notice there is no texture, nor a thicker outline around the edge as found in real orbs.

Elaine's Daytime Bubbles
	These are simply bubbles taken in the daytime and not to be confused with anything spiritual.

Water Drops
	This picture was taken of drops of water falling from a faucet to see if there would be any difference in size or shape. Their square look is a result of camera pixelation, but they are actually spherical in form.

Sprinkler Water
	We have now taken pictures of raindrops, drops of water, water dripping from a faucet and sprinkler water. Note that none of these have tails on them. Also notice the size of the orb in comparison to the water drops. The size of the drops have been enlarged due to pixelation. Contribution of Patti.

Raindrops or Orbs?

This picture is of raindrops running off an umbrella, submitted by Patti. Adding to a bit of confusion is how do you tell this from real orbs with contrails showing their direction of projection? Rain and moisture are the easiest of all things to mistake for orbs. There can be two different things going on it this picture. One is a slight movement of the camera, and the other is refraction of the waves as the are deflected when the waves go through a substance (the drop itself). Notice that the some of the drops have changed form - impossible for raindrops as proven in laboratory experiments by Philipp Lenard, Nobel Prize winner in 1905, proving even the hardest of updrafts in the atmosphere does not change the shape of raindrops. They are either spherical or a hamburger shape depending on the speed at which they are falling. (See more on his experiment on the "Scientific Study" page). Changes in the shape of the drop itself had to occur by a slight movement of the camera, which was also proven via experiments about adding movement to a picture. There are four ways to do distort a picture by camera movement: Move the camera or subject for an abstract blur except for the subject - which would have been the raindrop itself. Move camera and subject slowly at the same time for a slightly blurred affect. Move camera and subject fast for a very blurred affect on the background. Move the camera and flash on the subject for a blurred background affect. If you look at this picture closely, you will see the raindrops are rounder, bigger, and distorted then normally seen in a regular photograph where there is not as much movement and/or refraction. In this particular picture the movement had to be from right to left or vice versa, rather then upward or downward which would have made them longated. Below is a photograph showing the difference between a regular picture, this picture, reflection, and refraction.

Rain Reflection in Dark
	This picture was taken in the extreme darkness, while raining from a distance of approximately 1 1/2' to 2' from the bush. Notice the shape and size of these raindrops compared to orbs.

Camera Flash
	Some people have claimed that orbs are nothing more then a flash. Here is a picture deliberately taken of a camera's flash reflection. Notice that it does not have a distinct circle around it but feathers outward. There is also no design or texture in a flash.

Spider Webs
	This picture is a spider web. The only way you can capture these dense bright white spots on a spider web is when there is dew or some moisture on them, or if you have some backlighting.

Camera Movement
	This double head and long neck was created by movement of the camera.

Camera Settings

The camera settings were wrong when this picture was taken so it distorted the entire picture. As you can see it is not sharp and distinct. Although there are similarities to others shown in the "Other Anomalies" Album, when those pictures were taken,the camera settings were correct as several other pictures were perfectly normal in between the ones posted. Even the ones that do have the anomalies in them, show the rest of the pictures to be very clear and sharp.

Energy From TV
	In this picture you can see the energy radiating from the TV screen and being picked up in the color spectrum.

Hair Not an Anomaly
	The above picture was taken because of a tea candle appearing on my dining room floor, and I also captured what looks like some type of anomaly, however, what you see at the top of the picture is only a few strands of my hair that were caught by the lens of my camera as I leaned over.

Camera Cord
	This is simply the cord from the camera crossing the lens of the camera and should not be mistaken for some type of vortex.

Energy Radiating From a Lamp Post
	Although it may appear paranormal in nature, this picture is actually just the energy radiating from a lamp post. The sphere above it, however, is a true orb and can be seen in color in the "Orb Conference - Joyce" album.

Flash Not Orb

Cigarette Smoke
	This smoke was created from one cigarette placed in an ashtray near an open window so the air from the window would pull the smoke towards it. Smoke tends to dissipate in a very short time (I've read that it disapates in 37 seconds), go upwards or directs itself towards a draft.

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