Smoking

One evening, at Karen Vance's bookstore, we experimented to see how cigarette and cigar smoke would look when photographed. These photos were taken with no lights other than the camera flash. The smokers who volunteered to smoke up a haze were Frank Ehrenhart, Joe Ives, Karen Vance, and Dan Braun (all seated on the sofa). The back of Marcia Fowler's head is seen in the first photo. Frank, Karen, and Dan all smoked cigarettes. Joe smoked a cigar In all of the photos, Barb gave a "one, two. three, exhale" command. A slight haze, but nothing distinct can be seen in this first photo. The back of Marcia Fowler's head can be seen.

In this second photo, the smoke from Joe's cigar can be seen clearly. It obscures part of Joe's head. Notice that the cigarette smoke is not seen at all.

In the third photo, the cigar smoke is again dense enough to block the view of part of Joe's head. It rather looks like some of those old ectoplasm photographs from the days of Victorian spirit photography. Some of the cigarette smoke can be seen in front of Frank's face, but it is nowhere near as dense as the cigar smoke. A number of photos were taken as a part of this experiment and non showed more than these last two photos. The smoke only showed in the photos very close to the smoker's head. By the time it travelled any distance from the smoker, it dissipated and did not show up in the photograph.

Smoke can be mistaken for misty forms, energy loops, or ectoplasm. Based on our indoor and outdoor experiments, I would not totally discount the possibility of paranormal effects showing up in a photograph where smoking is going on, incense or candles being burned, or other flame present. However, any such photo is subject to criticism and will be considered inconclusive by the most serious researchers

On another evening, Tonia Schwartzkopf and I were visiting a local cemetery. For the sake of science, Tonia volunteered to light up and exhale so we could see how a photo of cigarette smoke would look with pitch black darkness in the background when hit by the flash of the light. As you can see, there is a swirl of smoke that could be mistaken for a misty form if Tonia was not seen smoking in the photo.