Occasionally you hear interesting stories of potential evidence of paranormal activity caught inadvertently. This past week a story came out of Washington state about an odd photo taken during the renovation of the Columbia Theatre. The story describes the strange situation surrounding the photograph, as well as simultaneously debunking it. Interestingly, the editors at the newspaper seemed depressed that the story was debunked so easily.
Awkwardly, it seems as though the paper “teased” its readers with evidence of a local haunting, only to have it debunked before the story went to press:
Deflated, the reporter told her editors Monday the story was dead.
“Nobody’s saying those lights are ghosts, so there’s nothing to write,” she told them, a little horrified because the story that hadn’t panned out had already been promoted to readers. The editors shrugged, saying sometimes that happens.
Oops! Well it’s good to keep in mind that most photographs can be debunked, especially if they involve longer exposures – one thing I’ve learned as a budding photographer is that cameras pick up things like light and color in darkness that the human eye can’t see. To me, looking at the photograph from inside the Columbia Theatre, it almost looks like someone quickly shined a flashlight, or there was a reflection from behind the photographer, and during the two second exposure it may not have been noticeable to the naked eye, but, as well all know, the camera never lies…
