A Ghost Standing By A Tree?

Christopher Ogden posed by a tree in the town of Ninety Six, South Carolina, and his dad took a picture of him (below). When the two of them saw the full-size image, they noticed something strange. A mysterious figure seemed to be standing beside Christopher, even though he was standing alone when the shot was taken. The photo made its way to a local paper, The Index-Journal, to whom Christopher gave this statement:
“As a civil engineer, I’m well educated, and I’ve looked at it, and my dad has looked at it, and in my own opinion, it does seem to me like there’s something strange there..
“I’m Caucasian, and wearing a striped shirt and a pair of jeans and sunglasses, and immediately next to me it appears there is an African-American person -- I can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman standing next to me -- wearing some kind of white garb. I can tell you for a fact that there was no one standing next to me when that picture was taken.”

There are three theories about what this might be: 1) a double exposure; 2) sunlight on a tree; or 3) a ghost.

I'm going with theory two.

Paranormal Pareidolia Photos

Posted on Tue Oct 30, 2007



Comments

It's a wolfman wearing a white wedding dress!! must be someone's getting ready for halloween party :lol:
Posted by Jules  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  01:37 AM
What fascinates me is that some people will immediately jump to the least likely, most out-there conclusion. Instead of thinking, "OK, it looks odd but it's probably a play of the light or a double exposure," they immediately cry, "Eek, a ghost!"

Occam's Razor, people!
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  02:53 AM
luckily the picture is blurred and heavily overexposed like all photos of ghosts. Otherwise it would be too obvious that there is nothing but a tree in the sunlight.
Posted by predator  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  03:14 AM
It's a ninja.
Posted by outeast  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  03:50 AM
Ghots usually have fear of bad photographer!
Posted by Al from Italy  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  03:52 AM
Sunlight on the tree. Nothing more.
Posted by Logic  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  05:23 AM
I'll go with theory #2. If you look, and not even very closely at that, the "legs" are formed by the roots and the roots' boles. The face is probably a knot. Everything else is just glare. It's a very bad picture to begin with.
Posted by Fred  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  05:49 AM
i believe in ghosts, but this timeI'm going for sunlight on a tree under the theory that 'sometimes a cigar is just a cigar' as Freud said.
Posted by Nona  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  07:44 AM
RE: Cranky Media Guy

I chalk people's willingness to go with the most fantastic answer, in part, to their gross unfamiliarity with how the natural world works... Poor observation skills, as it were, perhaps agrivated by urban living.

My favorite example was a ghost hunting documentary in which a group went into the windowless, brick wine cellar of a house that hadn't been occupied for 50-some years. They were all in amazement at the swirling ghost activity around them which definitely couldn't be fog because they didn't feel any wetness (though it did look an awful lot like particles on the night vision camera). Then one of them noted that this wasn't going on the FIRST time they entered the room.

Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the first time they entered this room they kicked up a ton of dust that had begun swirling around in the air they themselves were disturbing, but there ya' go...

Or then there's the lake monsters who undulate something like a wave and are travelling at high speed but apparently stay undulating in one place for minutes on end...

I think people just need to get outside more. When we keep trying to explain perfectly ordinary natural phenomena as the supernatural because of our ignorance of nature, we're right back to where we were living in caves.
Posted by Cory The Raven  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  09:01 AM
Duh, it's Jesus.

Wearing a bondage mask.
Posted by Charybdis  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  09:04 AM
Can't be a ghost, they only come out at night. Read all the literature on the subject (Casper the Friendly Ghost, etc.) and you'll agree. I'll go with #2 also. And I'll also agree that it is a bad photo.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  01:25 PM
The guy blew his chance to make a million... he should have claimed it was the Virgin Mary in Bermudas and a T-shirt on a bad hair day... He could have sold it on Ebay. But now he himself has cast the shadow of doubt over the photo and now it's worthless...
Posted by Christopher  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  04:38 PM
Will there ever be a ghost photo that's properly exposed and perfectly in focus? 😊
Posted by Captain Al  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  06:33 PM
Hate to say it (especially seeing as I'm one, too) but I've noticed that engineers aren't exactly scientists. For what otherwise might be fairly well-educated people, they aren't exactly in a field that's scientifically rigorous -- it's more like, "If we do this, and we can fit it to a model, then the model works even if we don't understand the model."
Posted by tess  on  Wed Oct 31, 2007  at  11:07 PM
Yup, Cory the Raven, I think you've put your finger on it.

I saw that ghost-hunting show, too and yeah, those people sure made a big friggin' deal about dust and moisture in the air.

Like I said, Occam's Razor, people! Start with the simplest, more logical explanation before you assume "supernatural" cause(s).
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Thu Nov 01, 2007  at  03:26 AM
It's a fox with mange







hehe
Light on the tree, people can be pretty ridiculous sometimes
Posted by Josh  on  Sat Nov 03, 2007  at  10:35 AM
:zip: IM GONNA SAY IT LUKS LIKE A GHOST PERIOD NO IF ANDS OR BUTS ABOUT IT
Posted by EBONY  on  Thu Nov 20, 2008  at  06:45 AM
People of the world ghost are real and u no it! 😊 or do they? hmmmmm...
Posted by Jordan Karaffa  on  Fri Jun 12, 2009  at  03:35 PM
Osorry i ment to put or are they, instead of or do they. :red:
Posted by Jordan Karaffa  on  Fri Jun 12, 2009  at  03:40 PM
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