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Hey yo!  My name is Manda I am from Michigan.  I am an avid believer in ghosts, spirits, and Demons, and have been for alot of years.   My husband is a skeptic at best, and stuborn at worst.  Our home has few times tried to shake him from his disbelief.  In fact his experiances with the Paranormal in our home far out number my own.  He has seen faces in mirrors that where not his own, heard voices, seen full body apperitions walk by his office, and always comes running to me freaked out, then an hour later insists that the event was "a trick of the light."Blarg... men seriously! ^_^I am a photographer by practised trade, and am well studied in the behaviors, and apperance of dust, bugs and light in photographs, so when I took a photo of an orb in my hallway that I couldn't explain, I counted that among my own experiances with the paranormal. Which brings me to a personal pet peeve of mine.  Orbs...  I hate orbs, they are usually easily explained (particularly in  video evidence), and shoud always be taken with a grain of salt when viewed as evidence.  All to often I see videos posted on the web "Lots of Orb activity!" they promise, and then you sit there going "bug, bug, dust, bug, reflection..." and it drives me crazy!This is not to say that I dispute all orb evidence, but I would never use an orb as evidence if I felt I could explain it in any way.  Even if I thought that explanation was unlikely.Still I love looking at ghosty photos!  Its like a challenge for me to see if I can explain it!  Which probably sounds silly, but it's almost my favorite hobby.  So if you have any ghostly photos you would like to get opinions on, share them with me!

-manda

Hey Manda!  Welcome to the online world of ParaPatrol, please feel free to offer any experiences or ideas you have.  As a photographer who practices "debunking photos" I'm sure there will be a time when we need your opinion on something in a photo.  I like your style of orbs, we are the same way about them.

Again welcome and hope to get to know and use your information in the future.

Hi Manda
Welcome to our new forum. Tell your friends who are interested in the paranormal to sign on. We would love to get an active forum! Sounds like you have the paranormal in your home. Do you ever work on EVP there? I tend to stay away from any kind of spirit communication in my home as I would like to keep it safe and free from any kind of haunting whatsoever.
We do not feel orbs are credible evidence of the paranormal unless it is viewed with the naked eye - not through a camera.
We have one photo on our website under "Debunked Photos" that I am not convinced isn't something real. It is the photo with the green haze. There were trees around in that area and I used a zoom lens so the field was even narrower. If you get a chance to look at it, I'd like your opinion.
Jayne

I did actually get a chance to look at that picture, and it was interesting.  Though I do feel the blur itself is explainable...
The first thing I noticed about the photo was that it was a bit over exposed.  This is why the grass appears shiny golden, while the shadows appear darn near black.  The cause of over exposure on a negitive, or on any digital camera is the effect of the shutter being open to long for the amout of light available.
What this picture appears to be is a shadow on the lens that moved while the shutter was open.  My guess would be that the camera was, at the time the photo was taken, in the shade of a tree, and either a gust of wind, or an animal of some sort caused the trees branch/s to move.  Because the shadow was on the lens it distorted the image that was beyond the shadow, which is why the blur is the same color as the tree and rock wall behind it.
This Hypothosis is supported by the fact that when the picture is zoomed in you can see every thing inside the blur shadow is blury, but anything just outside it's edge is not.  Also the blur seems to sweep in an almost circular motion much the way a trees branches do when stressed from their normal position.
Now this hypothosis does rely on a few things, it relies on the idea that the camera was in the shade of a tree, and that there was some form of force applied to that tree so that it would move, and that the camera was either set to auto shutter, or was set to a longer exposure time then it needed.  If either of these things are untrue, then the hypothosis itself is questionable though still not impossible.
I feel quite confident in my analysis, I can only hope it speaks truth to you as well.

Thank you for the detailed and thorough analysis. The camera was set to auto. I am not sure about anything else (in the shade of a tree, etc) but you certainly explained it very well and it is obvious that you have a very good understanding of photographic anomalies. If we have others, I would like your opinion and if you ever move to Mass we would love to have you on our team :-)

Definitly a VERY good understanding of photography!  Like Jayne said if you wouldn't mind when we have a photo, we could send it your way for your opinion.  It's good having people helping out.

Like I said I will gladly look at any photo's you have.  It's exciting to reason what happened in the picture, but it's even more exciting to not figure it out, and that's what makes it fun! 
Finding that image you can't explain.