I started looking through some of my old photos and some of the examples I have of non-paranormal pictures and decided that I will talk a little about taking pictures in an investigation and some do’s and don’ts.

First you should avoid shooting through glass like windows or using a mirror to get a different angel. The glass of a window or a mirror may appear to be clean and without any imperfections but the flash will bring them out. Your pictures could have streaks and blobs that are not paranormal but just caused by the flash and the glass. You should note where all the mirrors are in a room so that you can eliminate any bright area in your photo. When you are taking pictures around crystal, glasses or any other reflective surfaces (such as in a kitchen) you need to realize that when you use a flash you will get reflections. These reflections could appear in your picture even if these reflective objects cannot be seen in the picture. Photos can also be affected by reflective objects on your person or another person in the investigation. It is best not to wear any clothes that have glitter, rhinestones or any type of reflective object. This will include any jewelry that could reflect light like a watch face, a large pendant, bracelet or any polished metals. It is best to0 keep your bling at home! You can have your protective jewelry under your clothing or in your pockets or purse just to keep the possibility of a reflection at a minimum.

Next you will want to watch out for lens flares. Lens flares will occur when a light source is in front of the camera instead of behind it. This happens a lot when you are doing an outside investigation because your camera’s shutter speed will slow down to get more light. This may happen more if you are using a 35mm camera. Digital cameras do not seem to have the same problem as often as the 35mm camera. Even though this doesn’t seem to be as big of a problem now that most everyone uses digital cameras it is good to know. A lens flare will make an anomaly look like a hexagon (six sided) or a stream of orbs in a straight line coming from a light source that you may see in the picture or it could be off frame. A lot of the lens flares that I have seen come from car headlights when I was doing an investigation outside near a road using a 35mm camera.

Most of us have used a 35mm camera and know that you can get the onetime use type or have one that you load the film. One of the pros to having a 35mm camera in your kit is that it doesn’t take as much battery power to take a picture. You can also get high speed film and other special film like black and white and infrared. The cons are that you have to buy the film and then pay to get it developed. A pro to having the negatives is that you keep the original media upon which the image was saved. With digital cameras (for the most part) you reuse the card after you load the pictures on your computer. Another con is that sometimes you will get a picture that appears to have a good anomaly on the print but it is not on the negative. This happens when there is a problem with the developing. I have seen pictures that have what appears to be a vortex on them, but if you examine the negative you see a scratch or that a hair was on two or three frames of the negative. If you’re using a 35mm camera and you get a fog on the picture you need to check the negative to make sure that it is only on the frame and doesn’t extend outside of the frame. If it extends outside of the frame then the film was exposed to light, heat or radiation and it caused the fogging. But that is not the only thing that causes fogging.

When you are doing an investigation inside or out you need pay attention to anything that may cause what could be an anomaly on your picture. So if it is an outside investigation you should not do an investigation when it is raining, snowing or on a very dry and dusty night. You should experiment with your camera when the pollen is in full bloom so you can see how pollen will show up on your picture. Or go to a dirt road when it is dry and have a car go by and take a few pictures and see an extreme orb and anomaly picture that is only dust. This experiment will help you with inside investigations of old or dusty homes or barns, it will help you to determine what could be dust and what could be an anomaly. If your camera is warmer or cooler than the air temperature it may cause your lens to fog or partially fog so that the pictures that you take may be affected. This fogging can also be caused by humidity in the air or from your breath.

During an investigation you need to know if anyone is smoking or if there is any incense burning that may cause a fog. Smoke or a person’s breath can cause you to think a picture has evidence of a paranormal event, but there is a natural cause. See the picture (pic B1) for an example, the fog to the left is my breath and nothing paranormal. Another example of your breath can be seen in picture (pic HB), the breath is on the right side and there is also a hair on the left side that appears to be blue. The hair was placed in front of the lens but not on it and I let out a breath before I took the picture. You can see how you can affect a picture when the weather is right with your breath but you can also see how you affect it with a part of your body like your hair or a finger. See the picture (pic F1) and picture (pic F2) and see how a finger can be just outside or just inside your frame and still cause your picture to be affected. As you can see in these two pictures that they were filled with anomalies but it was just my finger causing them. Not only parts of your body can affect your pictures but the cameras own strap could cause you to think that you have a good picture of a vortex or another type of anomaly like in picture (pic C1 or pic C2). I used a white camera strap to make it more visible, the strap’s color has little effect one way or the other. Because a camera strap, a finger or even a hair will have a dimension you will have to be careful when you are reviewing your pictures. One of the rules that most use is that a true paranormal event caught in a picture will look dimensional and not flat like the lens. So it is important to be careful of how you hold your camera and that you use the lens cover when you are not taking pictures. Most of the people I know that have a camera strap take it off the camera before they go on an investigation.

What you do before an investigation is important and shows your ability to get good evidence and to keep it safe. You need to know your camera, how it works and how long the batteries should last. It is best to play with your camera and take many pictures during the day inside and out, with and without flash. This will help you to know what you can expect with your camera when on an investigation. You need to have extra film if it is a 35mm and an extra memory card if it is digital camera along with extra batteries. You need to have extra batteries for your cameras separate from any of your other devices because of the flash on the camera you need to have the type of battery that works the longest. You need to plan what to wear for the weather and to keep any possible causes of a reflection minimal. You want to be comfortable and not have any problems with your wardrobe or equipment so that the investigation goes well.

I want to touch on the spiritual or what some would call psychic protection. First, if you are not feeling well or are extremely tired you should not go on an investigation for safety reasons. Your energy levels are an important part of your aura and that is your first line of defense against negative energy. You can also have some protective stones, metal or crystals on your person like amethyst, agate, amber, chalcedony, chrysoberyl, hematite, pyrite, snowflake obsidian, silver and iron. These are some of the crystals or stones that I will have on my person when I conduct an investigation. My jewelry will have a spiritual meaning like a silver cross or will have one of the protective stones in silver. I will also have on my person two or three of the stones in a small bag. To me my jewelry and small bag of stones are as important as having my camera or recorders when I conduct an investigation.