Ghost In My PHoto? (My first thread)

Hi Everyone,

I've frequented ATS for quite a while, but this is my first thread. Here it goes:

My wife and I are in the process of renovating our kitchen, and as part of our renos, we need to pick out the granite to be used for our counter-tops. Last weekend, we went to a granite supplier warehouse to look at the full-sized slabs of granite. There was a blizzard that day, but we braved the weather and went out anyway.

When we got to the supplier, we walked into the front showroom area, and the only person in there was a woman working behind the reception desk. She was a younger woman who was very attractive and had long blonde hair. She took as back into the warehouse attached to the showroom and gave us a brief run-down on the types of granite and what the labels and numbers on each tag meant. She then left us to walk around the warehouse and make note of which slabs we were interested in, we were to write down the model number and bring it to her at the front desk in the showroom where she would provide us with quoted prices.

My wife and I walked around the warehouse looking at every slab of granite which are stacked on edge so that you can see what they look like. I used my iPhone 5 to take pictures of several slabs that we were interested in so that we could review them later. The pictures didn't turn out very well because of how reflective the surface of the granite slabs are. We finished browsing, went to the front desk and spoke with the attractive woman, and then left the store as my wife gave me a little smack because she knew what I was thinking about how attractive this woman was.

Later that night when we were at home, we began looking at some of the photos we had taken, and to our surprise, in the reflection of the granite in two of the photos were people. My wife and I both confirmed that we hadn't seen anyone else in the warehouse with us, and as much as I'd have liked, it wasn't the attractive blonde woman who worked there.

Image 1
You can see me in the reflection of the granite slab in the middle, wearing a white hat and grey jacket and holding my iPhone in front of my face to take the photo. There is a person on the left.


Image 2
Again, you can see me in the reflection of the granite slab in the middle, and I'm holding my coffee in my other hand. There is a person on the right.


I didn't think a whole lot of it at first, and later in the week I showed the photos to my friend at work. We then decided to bring the photos into Photoshop and make some adjustments to see if we could solve this mystery. Was the person in either of these photos just my wife who's reflection got caught in the photo?

I e mailed my wife and asked her if she remembered exactly what she was wearing that day. She said she was wearing her bright blue winter jacket, a black toque and grey boots (because of the blizzard that day). I decided to bump up the image saturation in Photoshop so that I would be able to detect/exaggerate any hint of blue on the mystery person's jacket to determine if it was my wife caught in the shot. The result answered questions, but also brought up more:

In photo 1 when I bumped up the saturation, you can see that the person is wearing a blue jacket, which means it is my wife. But in image two, there is no hint of blue detected on that figure. You can clearly see me in the center of the photo holding a coffee cup, (which was bright blue), but the figure on the right is still all black. That figure doesn't have the shape of my wife, and is also wearing a hat with a rim, and my wife was wearing a wool toque. The person in the figure also seems to be wearing a long slender jacket. It looks to me like it would be the way a man dressed back in the 40's or 50's.

Image 1 (increased saturation)


Image 2 (increased saturation)


What are people's thoughts on this?

I'm not here to try and trick anyone, and I welcome any explanations people may have. I'm not sure if these links to the photos are of full quality, but if anyone wants the full quality versions to play with and manipulate, I am willing to supply them (if you instruct me how to share them).

I am actually heading back to this warehouse again this weekend to finalize our decision. Maybe I'll snap some more photos for fun and see if anything shows up in the photos.

Cheers,

Mikey

Interesting. Thanks for posting.

Having just purchased granite slabs for our kitchen counter-tops from a granite distributor...I know the slabs are displayed in rows with slabs to the left and right as one walks down those rows.
It could be that the other figures are reflections back upon the slab from the slab behind you.

Notice how the 'other' figure's left arm is bent at the same angle as your primary reflection's right arm (the one holding your coffee).

reply to post by IAMTAT


Thanks for the post. That is an excellent suggestion!

I was expecting to get an explanation that would satisfy me eventually, but not on the first post..lol

Looking back at the pics, I don't think it is a reflection of a reflection. The arms arent at the same places...

hhun.

Still nicely put Mickey923.

reply to post by Mikey923


Hey there and good to participate in your first thread.

I really like these pictures and that's a big deal because most of the offerings we get on ATS turn out to be really disappointing.

Here's my take on these pics;

I see 2 warehouse workers ... possibly foremen dressed in 1920's - 1930's style clothes (is the warehouse that old) ?

If not what was there before the current warehouse ?

One man is stocky build and seems older ... the other is taller and slimmer build and seems younger.

Both appear to be wearing the same sort of clothes (heavy coats ... hats).

They also both appear to be holding something like clipboards ?

If the existing warehouse is old enough (or prior existing building) try to find-out if there was an accident during 1920's - 1930's where two men were killed together.

I love these kind of threads so star and flag for you.

Woody )O(

If Woodwytch thinks you've got something here...well, my friend, then you've got something here.

My explanation is just one possibility, though not necessarily the correct one.

hmmm the figure in picture 2 looks totally black with no color. you can see yours clearly. maybe its hat man

Creepy pic, great post OP! It definitely seems like the 2nd photos mystery man lacks a lot of detail and color, yet you can tell it's being reflected on the granite. Pretty convincing!

SnF for the post! That means Stars and Flags, you'll see that term thrown around to good posters a lot. Welcome to the forum!

i agree with woodwytch, definately very old style clothing! really good catch!

reply to post by Mikey923


I agree with Woodywytch. I think you have captured the image of two different ghosts that are roaming around there.

When you go back, ask the "attractive lady" if they have any paranormal activity there. If so, you can provide her with pictures of who is responsible.

Great catch!!!!!! Thank you for bringing it to ATS. S&F for you.

reply to post by Mikey923


It would be impossible to tell what is in the reflection without seeing what was behind them and also see several different shots of the same slabs. Sometimes reflections of things in background can look like anything but what they actually are.

Optical Illusion would need to be ruled out before stating these are ghosts. Without having any idea of what's behind the slabs in context of photos it will be impossible to tell what caused the shadows.

reply to post by Mikey923


Hello Mikey,
About image 1, are there 3 people in that shot? What is that red thing between the two outermost figures? When I first saw your images I thought the "red thing" was your wife, - I assumed she was wearing a red sweater and white hat.
But you say that your wife was wearing a bright blue jacket:

Mikey923
She said she was wearing her bright blue winter jacket, a black toque and grey boots (because of the blizzard that day).

Well...if she really is present in image 1, and if she is all the way at the left of that image, I'd have to say that she doesn't seem to be wearing a bright blue jacket. The jacket looks dark blue if anything.

Mikey923
In photo 1 when I bumped up the saturation, you can see that the person is wearing a blue jacket, which means it is my wife.

The confusion of mine could be due to the photo's lighting and my vision. But if it is really her in the first image, then it is also probably her in the second image since her dark jacket seems to be darker there. Her height also seems to be up to your eyes, or around that area, and this appears to be in common with the height of the mystery figure in both of your images.

I think there is no ghost, just a captured image of you two.
In the second image the "mystery" figure seems to be facing at something behind you, and what looks to be only 1 leg on that figure is probably just both side by side. The figure's hat does look rimmed though, in the second image.

I hate to be the first skeptic in the thread, but if you've been frequenting ATS as you say, you'd know that people here pay a lot of attention to the stories associated with pictures to help find any piece of information that doesn't quite 'fit'. It's not a reflection of people judging you, but we're only given the most basic information to begin with, so we work with what we've got...

To me, it seems strange that you had to check with your wife in order to work out if that reflection in the first image was her. I understand that the person in the image is not clear, but there's a couple of things:

1. You took the photo - normally people are aware of where others are standing around them (particularly if it's only one other person, and it's your wife). You were probably having a discussion about the different granite samples as you took the photos. Like it or not, your brain records a lot of this information as a memory. You would have a pretty good understanding of where she was standing.

2. It's your WIFE! You've obviously known her long enough and well enough that you'd recognise a reflection as being her, particularly as it was only days earlier, and you were looking at granite samples together. Surely you wouldn't need to email her to confirm it was her?

3. You didn't remember what she was wearing and it was only a few days earlier? I find this harder to believe given the weather - sure, people have a lot of clothes, but most people only have a few heavy coats that would be suitable to wear out during a 'blizzard'? Surely if you remember it being a blizzard, it narrows down the possibilities of what your wife was wearing down to only a few items?

I'm not offering any suggestion yet as to the second photo, but I'm suggesting there are elements to the back story that don't quite seem right...

Regards,
Rewey

1Learner
reply to post by Mikey923

 

Hello Mikey,
About image 1, are there 3 people in that shot? What is that red thing between the two outermost figures?

Being a warehouse, I'm assuming the red thing is a fire hose reel or fire hose cabinet mounted on one of the pillars in the warehouse?

Regards,
Rewey

reply to post by Rewey


Yea it looks like it is one of those things. I believe it even says "fire hose" but backwards because it is being reflected of the granite slab.
And as for your own concerns, it might just be that the guy Mikey has a bad memory.

reply to post by 1Learner


Yeah, it could surely be a memory issue. But I've seen enough of these threads torn apart because of a back story that didn't quite sound right, and I have no doubt that it will happen here. It's usually the first thing attacked...

Regards,
Rewey

To me it looks like there is a 3rd "person" in the second image. Just left of your reflection there is what seems to be a forearm right next to the white stripe in your jacket...

reply to post by 1Learner


Thanks for the post 1Learner.

Yes, at first I thought that the red thing in figure one was someone too, but my friend spotted that and told me to reverse the image, and after it was reversed you could make out the work "Fire" on it, so that was just a fire-hose box on the wall. ...I think.

And yes, the other person in image one is my wife. In the enhanced version of image 1, you can see that there is blue in the jacket (not as blue as her jacket is in person, but it was a reflection on dark gray granite.

Just to be clear to people who have posted that they see two ghosts, I am 90% sure that the person on the left in image 1 is my wife. I am still unsure about image 2 with the dark slender figure on the right, but I am also leaning towards the theory that it is my own reflection from another piece of granite behind me. The way the warehouse was set up is rows and rows of granite standing on-edge.

I am not convinced that I believe in ghosts, so I am leaning towards a more natural explanation. I think when I am at the warehouse again this weekend, I will try to duplicate the reflection, and maybe hold my hand up in a unique way so that there is no doubt if it is my reflection or not.

Part of me wants to solve the mystery, and part of me likes the excitement of the unknown.

I'll post my results.

OP,
To really make this story more credible, I think you need to go back and take more pictures but please get some with the attractive blonde otherwise I just can't believe there was an attractive lady working there that night!

reply to post by Rewey


Hi Rewey,

Thanks for the post, and your questions are valid. I'll give my explanation for them:

Normally if I have taken a picture, you're right, I would remember where my wife was when I took it, but we looked at every slab of granite in the warehouse (probably close to 100 different slabs), and I would say that I probably took pictures of about 15 or 20 of them. As we were walking around, sometimes my wife would be ahead of me and onto the next slab as I stopped to take a photo of the one we had just viewed, and other times I would be ahead of my wife down the row if she stopped to decide on one that I had already discounted as being a possibility.

Once we saw the photos later on my iPhone screen, my wife is actually the one who said "who is that? (regarding image 2). And I suggested it was her, and she responded, "that's not me.." We then looked through all of the photos and were obviously paying more attention to anything else out of the ordinary, and that's when we discovered image 1. At that time, we too thought that the red shape was someone, and that the person on the left must've been my wife. So out of all the photos, those were the two we were questioning - image 2 being very confusing, and image 1 being just slightly interesting, but most likely explainable.

When I was at work my friend had asked me how the renovations are going, and I mentioned that we are picking granite right now, and then that cued me to show him the two interesting pics (he knows my wife and I well). I showed him the pics, and he is the one who suggested putting them onto my computer at work and playing around in the Photoshop. Once the photos were on my computer screen, he noticed that the red part of the image 1 had a backwards word, so we reversed the image and saw the word "Fire". Then we moved onto image two to see if we could see anything that would explain the mystery. I am the one who suggested increasing the saturation to amplify any color in the image because I figured my wife was wearing her bright blue jacket. Once I increased the saturation, the person's jacket did not show any blue at all, but my coffee cup did. And the jacket looked to me to be a longer fitted style, rather than a winter ski jacket. That is when i e mailed my wife to confirm with her, and I said, "which jacket were you wearing on Saturday? (because like any woman, she owns several). I then went back to image 1 and increased the saturation and you could see blue in that image, and it did look to be my wife. My friend and I both agreed, "yeah, that's her" and then i got an e mail response from her confirming it was the blue jacket she wore that day. So then we went back to figure 2 because we figured we could find something that confirmed it was my wife as well, but it looked so different from figure 1 due to the body shape, the jacket style, and mostly the hat rim.

So to be clear, image 1 was determined to most likely be my wife on the left, but image two was the real mystery. I posted both images to show the comparison between the two figures, and to show that I do have an explanation for image one, but using that same logic, I can't explain image 2.

All that being said, I too don't think this image is a ghost. I think the very first reply to this post was the best theory.

Hope that clears things up a bit. I'm definitely not out to hoax. I am just a huge fan of mysterious topics, and I am a Coast To Coast AM and ATS junkie, so i was excited to finally have a mystery of my own to share.

Cheers,
Mikey