VGHRS Investigation of The
Civil War Museum at the Exchange Hotel:
FILM: PHOTOGRAPHY
The photograph shown above was taken with an ordinary 35 mm SLR film camera using a 58 mm lens and 800 ASA color film in a darkened room with NO FLASH ! The lens was set at f/2 (aperture wide open) for a focal distance of approximately 6 feet. The camera was approximately 16" above floor level on an unextended tripod, tilted upward and aimed toward the diagonally opposite ceiling corner to observe as much of the room as possible. A shutter release cable was also used to help minimize camera vibration. The image was captured during a 3 second exposure, however the duration or "life span" of the phenomenon in the picture could have been any fraction of that time. My pet name for the phenomenon is AWFUS - the Anomalous Wave From Unknown Source.
Room lights were turned off and though it wasn't pitch black, it was quite dark in the areas being photographed. The closest street lights were hundreds of feet away and generally below window level. All room windows were obscured by either venetian blinds or muslin drapes. There was no smoke, mist or dry ice present. I was not carrying a flashlight, not wearing a watch with an illuminated dial, not wearing any glow-in-the dark jewelry and no one else was in the room or even on the same floor of the building at the time. I made a return daytime inspection the following week to check for any possible sources of spurious lighting effects such as electrical devices with indicator lights etc., but found nothing to suggest a possible "contaminant". Yes, the rooms did have mirrors, picture frames, display cabinets and other light reflecting surfaces, but there was precious little light to be reflected. At any rate, you will soon learn that the potential effects of even transient reflected light was negligible. . .
What's unique about this photograph is that the
lens was fitted with a UV transmission filter. This is a rather
specialized filter that passes ultraviolet light while blocking
virtually all visible light waves. Ultraviolet light is of course
invisible to the human eye, however ordinary film is quite
sensitive to it. Note: UV transmission or "pass"
filters have a more or less opposite effect to that of the
better-known UV blocking filters (aka "haze filters")
commonly used in outdoor photography.
Specifically, the filter was a B+W # 403 and is one of a class of
UV transmission filters used primarily in medical and scientific
applications. Its characteristic transmission spectrum is shown
below:
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Chart at left is from the on-line article "Medical and Scientific Photography" which provides an excellent tutorial on the techniques and equipment used in Ultraviolet Light Photography. See: http://msp.mit.edu.au/index.html |
Worth mentioning is that the filter does pass a small
percentage of blue light (at about and just below 400 nm
wavelength). It also passes some deep red (at about and just
above 700 nm). It has a transmission window in the infrared
wavelengths as well, but since ordinary film is not sensitive to
infrared, this cannot be the cause of the anomaly in the
photograph. The # 403 is a glass filter that appears black in
color and it is virtually opaque when held to the eye. Please
read on to learn how we accidentally demonstrated just how
effective it is at preventing ordinary light from reaching the
film . . .
Beginning with a fresh roll of film, a series of shots were made
in a room that we were told seemed to be the area of most
frequent "activity". Other equipment had also been set
up for simultaneous audio recording in that room. At one point
during this session I was away from the area when my colleague
walked into the room and snapped a picture with his digital
camera, inadvertantly setting off the flash. He immediately came
to tell me what had happened and I reset my film camera - which
by that time had been left with shutter open for nearly 15
minutes. I expected the flash to have overexposed or possibly
fogged the shot (a photo flash does emit some UV) but after
developing, there was no trace of light exposure on that
particular frame of the negative (frame 4).
During the initial photo/audio recording session in the primary
target room, I made 6 shots with varying exposure times. After
that, the next shot was taken with camera aimed directly out a
window. I intended this shot to serve as a reference frame
showing the break point in our investigation and also to show how
the distant street lights would appear as seen through the UV
transmission filter - but again, after developing there was no
sign of any light exposure on that frame of the negative (frame
7).
As we were winding down our investigation, I took my camera,
tripod etc. from room to room and took one or two 3 second (+/-)
shots in each room. Each shot had generally the same positioning
as described above and each time I took care not to aim directly
toward a window. The anomaly (which appears on frame 12) was
captured during this "wrap-up" session. It is the only
image whatsoever to appear on the entire roll of film. Inspection
of the negative indicates that it is a bona fide photographic
image completely contained within the frame (i.e. not a
"light leak"). The bluish tint to the image serves as
further evidence that the phenomenon was photographed through the
filtered lens and is not the result of accidental light exposure
or an artifact of processing. A scan of the negative clip with
frame 12 and adjacent areas is shown below.
At this point, I'd like to emphasize that the UV transmission filter did not "add" UV or "add" anything to the resulting photographic image. It simply blocked most visible light from coming through the lens. Film is already very sensitive to UV and the phenomenon that I captured at the Exchange Hotel that night should have appeared using a camera without such a filter. However, in this case the anomaly would have been superimposed onto a visible light image and the picture would be subject to much more suspicion as to possible mundane sources.
The other major advantage of the UV transmission filter is
that it permits the use of extended exposure times without fear
of overexposing or fogging the film. The lone image that I
captured that night resulted after approximately 20 minutes of
total exposure time for one roll of film. Using 1/250 second as a
more typical exposure setting, 20 minutes would represent 300,000
individual shots. And if the phenomenon had come and gone while
rewinding or reloading etc., it still would have been missed even
with 300,000 shots!
Please note that I am not trying to make any exaggerated or
unfounded claims regarding the photograph. I am simply describing
the results of a "new" and potentially very useful
photographic technique available to paranormal investigators. At
this point the AWFUS presents an interesting puzzle but unless
the phenomenon can be replicated and verified in a rigidly
controlled manner, it is little more than that. I invite you to
experiment with the techniques described in this article and
meanwhile your questions, helpful comments and constructive
criticisms are welcomed.