Strange Object in Bat Photo

Quite an amazing pic!

As TheLibra suggested: 'The object is corporeal; casting a shadow."

I've noticed that the 'ground area' is dry; no indications of 'puddles' that I can see. However, I don't want to rule this out just yet. The orbs could mean moisture in the air or otherwise.

The bat, in the background is facing the photographer. I can make out its face/ears. Can't tell if its eyes are reflecting the light or not. The bat seems to be going after the brightly-lit object. How is it that everything in the pic is of a clear image, except for this? No blurring anywhere else, that I've noticed. I know that birds and bugs in motion will sometimes give that effect on film. Fire-flies and other bugs will light up, but this puppy's BIG! I'm thinking bats won't normally go after prey this large.

IF, the brightly-lit object is a bug, what kind could it be? Can a bug fly fast enough in circles (on the spot) to produce and effect such as this? I've waved 'glow-sticks' at a fast rate, but the outcome was a 'large glowing circle'.

It is a possibility that the 'bug' was very close in range to the photographer when the pic was taken, but now I have to think about the 'shadow' part.

What kind of bright light are you using besides a 'camera flash'? i.e. high-powered flashlight? If you are using car high beam lights, what distance is the photographer from the car. I don't see the photographer's shadow.

I'm stumped.

Anyways, thanks for sharing!

Flagged and starred!

I have read through all of the posts. I wish I could add something more, but I am stumped also.

No smoke, a shadow, plenty of other reference points.


Hats off to you on this one. Flagged and starred. And I saved it too for future looks.

you thought it was a moth ? ... God thats a scary moth.

Why would a moth appear as a flaming object ? and secondly, why would a bat and everything else in the pic appear normal yet the "moth" appear like that ?

Thats odd.. someone will need to look into the photo details to see if its been edited. That's a really strange photo.
Lets remember that the object wasnt visible to the person taking the photo, therefore the whole shadow thing isnt going to be normal either..

Nice Pic OP.

I'm curious to know if theres other pics from the same area/time even if they dont show anything incredible they might shed more light on the posted pic.

Originally posted by mortalengine
Why would a moth appear as a flaming object ? and secondly, why would a bat and everything else in the pic appear normal yet the "moth" appear like that ?

I don't think it was flaming, I think the surface of the thing was probably either very light (like an albino bat) or fairly reflective (such as silky fur or feathers). This would have bounced back a lot of hot light from the flash at the camera, making it look like it was blazing. Especially if the object was close to the camera, as camera flashes are designed to illuminate distance more than close-ups.

The "flames" coming off the right-hand side look more like motion-blur to me. If the object were flying from a rightish to leftish direction.

This might also explain a lot if it were another bat in the photo. If it was flying sideways, and the photo was taken while it was flying from left to right, it's wings in the up position, this would explain the "hand with thumbs up" shape of the object. Since bat wings are typically smooth and leathery, it's possible that it reflected enough light to cause a hot backflash.

I'm not sure if anybody else noticed but look at how many transparent orbs you can see in the picture and their all over the place! But as far as the object I can't seem to tell what it is, its in the air but theres no wings, head, feet, visible so It's probably not an animal. The shadow underneath it should reflect the outline of the object and it seems sort of rectangular but not precisely. It's a mind boggling picture and it seems to be moving at a high rate of speed since you can see the motion blur at the rear of the object. another good find

Originally posted by ready4whatever
But as far as the object I can't seem to tell what it is, its in the air but theres no wings, head, feet, visible so It's probably not an animal. The shadow underneath it should reflect the outline of the object and it seems sort of rectangular but not precisely. It's a mind boggling picture and it seems to be moving at a high rate of speed since you can see the motion blur at the rear of the object.

I agree with ready4whatever, whatever it is it might be a oddity or an tiny shinny peice of metal, but whatever it is its moving insanely fast. This picture is a mindblower.

If you were to rotate the object to your left, i think you would see that it resembles a bat. I see the head in the middle, accompanied by the wing tips on their respective sides. Cool picture though.

Hi ,
looks like a owl, showing his left side with wingtip up while its making a curve to the right. Follow the profile and everything is on the right place for a small owl.
You surprised him on his routine flight route, nice pic!!

Marlin

I recall in the mid eighties during one of the interminably boring attempts by new age travellers to gain access to Stonehenge that a picture was published in a national newspaper showing what appeared to be, and was announced to be, a blazing missile being hurled at the police from the rioting hippies.

It caused quite a stir at the time but in fact, it was later identified that the object was simply an innocent object, a canvas bag or some such, which had been illuminated by the photographer's powerful flash... and it looked exactly like the object in this picture, (albeit in black and white).

So my guess would be another bat with its leathery wings towards the camera reflecting the flash and as it appears to be flying across the field of vision it would probably generate more blur, accentuated by the reflected flash, than the one coming directly towards the camera; and I would be pretty sure that the "shadow" is a bit of damp ground.

Strange image nonetheless.


[edit on 29-10-2007 by timeless test]

looks like a moth the bat has been tracking, its close to the camera thus is over exposed by the flash. you can see the bat is very focused on the object, face and ears aimed right at it.

what appears to be its shadow isnt. just a dark spot on the ground.

i'm surprised no one has spoken up about the 'orbs' clearly visible in the picture.... (as usual, simply dust)

I find it strange that there is a shadow cast underneath the object, when there is no light source coming from above it, only the light source from the flash/light on the camera.

The area around the object, for about 5 pixels is also glowing too.

My guess is that there is an object there, probably another bat or a bug, and while the camera took the picture, the camera light/flash caused it to look brighter than it should be, because of how close it was to the camera.

The shadow and extra glow around it looks doctored.

Well it is definitely an interesting pic, it could be anything but I agree that the 'shadow' on the ground could just be a damp patch.

As for the orbs, they appear in almost all of my photos in low light when I use the flash. I don't know why people get so worked up about them..just dust particles in the air and crap on the lens!

[edit on 29-10-2007 by fiftyfifty]

After looking at the picture, I would say something may have been superimposed on it. If you look at the bright object, there is a shadow directly beneath it. From the angle of the light source, hardly any shadow should be directly underneath the object.

Very nice picture.

That thing looks like its very hot, and moveing very fast. It's so bright, I just can't see a bug or leaf being lit up like that. Then again I've rarely taken flash photos in the blackness of night.

I don't think that bloth is intended to be a shadow, at least I hope there was no photoshopping going on here, and i hope it's a dried out puddle.

A question though. Did your friend who took the picture see the object at all before or after the picture? Or only until after they got the prints back?

I would think even moving fairly fast something that bright if real it would catch your eye.

If it was only seen after the pictures were developed, I'd have to say it was a flash anomoly. Too bad I have zero experience on the subject, but some other posters said they have seen stuff like this before happen when flashes hit falling leaves, insects ect.

Wonder if theres any other comparable photos like this that can be found that had been explained and/or recreated even.

reply to post by Nola213


The fast moving object only looks so because of the streak left behind it. In Photoshop, you can use the smudge tool to add the streak, after using the dodge tool to make the object brighter, then using the lasso tool to select the object to then use the blur effect.

I'm on the damp patch on the ground and insect illuminated by the flash side. The "orbs" are bits of dust caught in the flash too IMO. A good way to see these orbs is to shake a towel in a dark hallway and take a photo with a flash. You'll get dozens of them. Same when it's just starting to rain at night and you take a pic looking up.

If the 'shadow' object is inspected, it seems to have the same three projections that the illuminated object has on the right. The flash is going to spread light over a larger area than a point source, it is designed that way. Flashes on cameras illuminate a wide area to fill in the whole picture field of view, or as much as possible.

I think it is a bird flying by and the flash has washed it out due to it's short distance from the camera. The perspective in the picture may not be exactly as a person sees it due to the focal length of the lens system, so may be it could be a shadow cast by the bird or whatever it is.

In my opinion, it's another bat. Gliding with great speed, caught in the camera lightning

I know a lot of people have mentioned how the object may be close to the camera, and I just have to add this:
If the object/insect was close to the camera, even moving at a relatively slow speed, it would appear to be moving fast through the cone of vision, creating the motion blur.

on a paranormal note:
Maybe it's a will o' the wisp/corpse candle?
What can you tell us about the area the picture was taken? Swamp/marshlands? Graveyard? Anything else we should know?