Otherworld North East Research Society Journal 01 | Page 5

Journal 2007

1. Pareidolia ~ an Explanation
By Sarah Louise Hutchinson, 2007

I

T COMES WITH LITTLE SURPRISE that in the 21st Century nearly all so-called
paranormal investigators use photography in some way. Cameras, both digital and
analogue are easily come by these days ranging from your £4.99 use-once-only film
cameras through to £1000+ digital SLRs. So no matter what your budget it you're
guaranteed to find a camera to suit. Most of us are introduced to cameras from a young
age, usually by being told we have to pose and say "cheese" as a child. Many people
presume that because they have pretty much always used cameras in one form or
another, they are capable of deciphering what different images contain.
Sadly, not many of those so-called paranormal investigators have ever taken any kind of
course in photography or indeed studied the subject at all. Due to the very nature of the
subject field of the paranormal, it is inevitable that we, as investigators, seek something
more than what we would normally be able to photograph. It is therefore a perfectly
logical (although not excusable) conclusion to come to that sometimes we are just simply
too eager to jump on the paranormal bandwagon without first conceiving all other
possibilities.
When you look at the paranormal 'research' conducted by almost all groups in the UK and
indeed worldwide, most of us conduct our paranormal investigations at night and this in
itself poses more problems than it is perhaps worth. We have to consider the fact that we
are all inevitably going to get more 'unusual' looking photographs at night simply because
of the way the flash on our cameras reflects off surfaces/objects. Dust particles, insects
and moisture droplets being just some examples of this. An article about the infamous
Orb Phenomenon in particular can be found here.
Another hazard we are likely to come across, coupled with the aforementioned point, is
that of the temperature at which we are taking these photographs. As previously
mentioned, most investigations are conducted at night. When the temperature drops you
can often see your own breath misting. When you exhale, the warm breath leaves your
body and comes into contact with the cold air. It immediately cools down, at which point
the water vapour condenses into tiny water droplets. You can't see these individual
droplets themselves, we just see a hazy mist. This is exactly what many people worldwide
have photographed and reported to have been some form of anomalous 'spooky' mist.
This effect is not overly dissimilar to that caused by cigarette smoke reflected in the light
from a camera flash.
Overleaf, you’ll find some examples of breath misting in H