Orbs in Photos

[ButterflyWoman]

I have always been fascinated with orbs in photographs, but despite being quite an avid photographer, I've never managed to capture any. Or so I thought. Tonight I was going through some older photos and found two of my husband, in a church (built in the 1980s, so not some big neo-gothic structure or anything), holding his cello. In the first shot, very noticeable orb, right over the body of the cello (the cello was about 100 years old at the time). In the second shot, which was taken just a matter of seconds later, no orb at all. Nothing.

Generally, I'm very good at spotting things like lens flare and other lens abnormalities that cause orb-like images. I'm well aware that most orbs are just odd lighting or lens self-reflection or similar, but I can't find any reason at all for this one, unless it's some technical thing I'm unaware of (always possible). It looks like something on the lens, but the photo taken immediately before it has NO such mark (and I'm generally quite fastidious about keeping my lenses clean!).

Photos are below, trimmed to just the area around the orb. I put them on top of each other and cropped exactly. Orb, no orb, and a zoomed in view of the orb (so zoomed you can see the jpeg compression).

Happy to hear if this is some sort of technical glitch (digital camera, a Kodak, can't remember the model but I can find out if anyone really wants to know), or other theories.

[CFTraveler]

Gorgeous orb it is, with it's diffuse patterns.

[Sinera]

Nice, recently I looked at some old vacation pics and discovered a whole bunch of these 'guys' on the Barcelona night sky of 2002.
Might add a link here when I find time to upload it.

[Beekeeper]

Initially I dismissed all orbs as dust or moisture but I know Anthony Grezelka (Australian medium) can identify spirit from orbs and he's definitely the real deal.

Your orb looks like a genuine candidate.

[Sinera]

What are these? I did other night sky pics with the same camera, but nowhere else are they to be seen. They only have been 'hanging around' at the Columbus monument. There are more, this is just a cutout from 2 of 3 pics altogether. The scatter-pattern is always different, so it could not have been my greasy fingers touching the lens then.



Some look like they mirror each other (a weaker version below a stronger), so I always thought is was the lens or dust when I saw this. But I'm not sure anymore.