What do you believe?

[NoKnees]

My wife and I went back to New England to visit some old friends last week and figured that we'd visit Salem while in the area. No trip to Salem would be complete without a visit to the Witches Museum and a late night walking "Ghost Tour".

So there were were, hanging out at the edge of this graveyard listening to ghost stories. Great setting to play around with some moody long exposure shots of the gravestones, etc...

Anyway, after the tour I found this photo among the ones I took... Major lens flare, and then a very unique "flare" or some sort on the opposite side of the photo, right side, edge of the trees... Makes for some fun conversations... It definitely looks a lot cooler than the normal dust/pollen particles that other folks like to call Ghost Orbs...



Adding crop of photo before rotation...


Yes, the Sony ARW (cRAW) file is available too... Full size image available in my gallery here. Processing was a straighten and crop. Output via Sony's IDC software, no other post processing.

So, what are your thoughts?

[Medley]

I'd have to say that I can't rule out the possibility of it being a product of a lens flare. Below is an image I took on one of my many hikes in the Oregon wilderness:



The anomaly in my image is definitely the product of a lens flare. It is more pronouced because this particular image was an HDR image. The flare was present in every exposure, and therefor "enhanced" in the final image. That it was present, in the exact same spot, in every exposure tells me that mine is a product of the shoot, not a product of the environment.

Although the shape is different, there are enough similarities in the colors present, as well as the separation of those colors, to make me believe that that's probably what I'm seeing in your image as well.

I'm open to all possibilities, but from a skeptic point of view, I can't rule out the lens flare angle.

- Joe U.

[NoKnees]

Cool lens flare... I'm with you on it, but it's fun to talk about it as possibly being something else.. ;) And no, I didn't get it to appear in any of the couple of other shots I took right there, but none had the same composition, so all apples to oranges comparisons...

I tried to line it up with the lens flare on the left and it was a few degrees off... However, considering how many elements are in the lens, and the variation in alignment of the obvious flares, I have to think that's what this colored spot is too...

Good times...