Is It A Ghost?

One of the things we used to do for fun was take my cameras out to the graveyards in the middle of the night and take timed exposures.  It was just for fun, like a dare, to be out in such a spooky place at such a spooky time.  We never saw a thing, and nothing ever showed up in any of the pictures…

…except this one time.

This is from a rural cemetery in Lodi, California, a very quiet place next to a small trailer park.  When we were actually out at the cemetery taking this picture, neither my friends or I heard or saw anything unusual.   I didn’t see any lights or movement around this gravestone, nor did I realize it was leaning to one side.  Remember, it was dark out there.  We could barely see anything.  I think the shutter on my camera was open for at least 40 seconds when this picture was taken.

(Close-up scan of the same picture)

Some of my friends where skeptical when I showed this to them, because they knew I could have easily faked it.  It’s true, I could fake it.  I can even tell you how to get this exact effect.  The point is, though, that I did not fake this shot.  It is real.   If I wanted to fake a ghost photo, I would do something a lot more dramatic.

After this photo was taken, we went back to the same spot and took more photos (see below).

Nothing strange showed up in the second set of photos, nor did anything strange ever show up in any other shots I took at this cemetery.  The reason these shots were so much brighter is that there was a moon out at the time.

The above is a close up of the gravestone in the same picture.   There’s no swirls, and the stone itself is sitting squarely on its base.

I don’t know if my strange photo is actually a picture of a ghost.  I only half-believe in them.  Sometimes I do, and sometimes (when I’m in my very rational mind) I don’t.  

Nevertheless, I can’t explain my strange photo.