Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

Check it out. I'm very proud of it.

http://ghastlydoor.com/haunted-photographs/

Neat photos! I don't know what to make of them.

I very much like the composition of your photos, while simultaneously finding them entirely devoid of paranormal phenomena. The inclination of the human brain to see form and familiarity in randomness is a well documented and quite useful feature we have evolved, but the interpretation of that imagery is more likely to be based on personal inclinations and preconceived notions as to the existence of the non empirical world.

You have to remember the circumstances.

Say a group of photographers went out one morning INTENDING to take a picture of a cloud that looks like a pig. Four hours later, that cloud actually appears. That is not random.

A cloud that looks like a pig is random.
Going out looking for it, before it happens, and then having that cloud appear is NOT random.

Another way of looking at it is that spirits may use the interplay of shadows in order to appear to us. Just as they may use random sounds in order to speak. Spirits may be able to manipulate shadows.+

What I'm saying is that if you begin with the supposition that ghosts exist, you are more likely to see them in your photographs, whether or not you set out to photograph ghosts. I'm saying that the brain is programed to see order or form where none may actually exist; that the appearance of an object, especially in a medium as notoriously deceptive as photography, does not prove its existence. Sure, spirits may be capable of the things you mention, but first they must exist.

Note that when I talk about the inherent deception of photography, I'm not attributing to the photographer a will to deceive. I'm talking about the myriad of factors involved in the mechanical process of capturing and reproducing an image, including light, lens, sensor, and so forth.

Are you sure, Witchy? It'll make your life so much easier, it replaces your microwave, your vacuum cleaner, and your TiVo, and it fits right on your counter top! It's even dishwasher safe! All for the low low introductory price of just seven easy payments of $69.99 (plus shipping and handling, of course!)!!

If Mac were to try and sell anything using logic and reason he would starve to death.

In the sales world the pucker approach tends to work the best.

MacPhantom wrote:Are you sure, Witchy? It'll make your life so much easier, it replaces your microwave, your vacuum cleaner, and your TiVo, and it fits right on your counter top! It's even dishwasher safe! All for the low low introductory price of just seven easy payments of $69.99 (plus shipping and handling, of course!)!!

But wait, there's more!! Act now and we will double this offer and also send you, as a free gift, this lovely battery tap-light!!

All you pay is shipping and handling!!!!

A series of photographs showing a ghost turning on and off a battery tap light would be extremely persuasive, even to a skeptical atheist like me. But they'd have to show both the ghost and the tap light clearly.

witchy wrote:Good lord Now I have two salesman on my hands!! It's a good thing your both cute!!

Gentle lady, I take offense at being included in such rough company!

Why, if it were not for your otherwise polite demeanor, I would regard your comment deleterious!!