Where do the orbs come from?  Some people say they are manifestations of ghosts that aren't visible to the human eye. Other people, including myself, believe that most if not all orbs are just out of focus images of light bulbs, the reflection of  the photoflash off of shiny objects or out of focus images of dust particles, raindrops or snowflakes. 

Why do this?  During the summer of 2000 I began working in the Mounds Theatre in Saint Paul Minnesota that had been used as a warehouse for the last 30 years.  It was in the early stages of renovation and I took a lot of photographs to document the project.  Like many old theaters, there were rumors that this one was haunted. Much to my surprise, some of the photos I had taken were used as possible evidence to support this claim because they contained orbs. I decided to post  some of those photos on the Internet. I've also included other orb photos taken with the same camera but at locations other than the theater. This will  allow people to study the photos for themselves.

How were these photos taken? All the photos in these pages were taken with a simple, fixed lens, fixed focus 35mm camera, a Minolta Freedom Autodate S II.  It has a built-in flash that was used for most of the photos and also has an autodate function that adds the date to the lower right hand corner of each photograph. This camera cannot focus any closer than about 2 feet. Any object closer than that will appear out of focus. 

How were the photos prepared for this web page?  The photos were scanned into a computer at high resolution using a HP ScanJet 5200C scanner. They were then  reduced in size and resolution using Adobe  PhotoDeluxe Business Edition.  Some of the photos were cropped.  The  brightness and contrast were adjusted in some images to enhance the orbs.  No other modifications were made except that faces were blurred to hide the identity of people in the  photos.  All of the orginal photos and negatives are available for inspection.

What is the photo at the top of this page?  What do you think it is? Explore these pages and you will find the answer.