"Ghosts" at Netherland Plaza; Cincinnati, OH

People who know me know that I am into the paranormal - i.e. ghosts. It all started about 4 years ago after I had watched a British show called "Most Haunted". I can honestly say, as a scientist, the appeal of the show was not about believing in actual ghosts or hauntings. If you have ever seen the show you know that it is terribly entertaining. If you believe in ghosts: you love it because they do a great job of making the phenomenon believable. If you think that ghosts are ridiculous: you love to watch it and laugh at it. If you are like me and don't really have strong feelings either way you might love to watch the cast and crew scare the crap out of themselves. Grown, professional, serious people scream: "Bloody Hell!!! That just scared the s%&t out of me!!"

I am not sure why but I find the paranormal and the "evidence" wildly entertaining. I love to watch shows and documentaries about hauntings. Maybe there is part of me that wants to believe...maybe there is part of me that wants a bit of the paranormal to be real...

In any case while I was staying at the Netherland Plaza Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio this last week I took almost 200 photographs inside of the hotel itself. To understand the following you have to understand a bit about how I photograph. When I am inside I try to never use the flash. This means that if I want a detailed shot I have to use a slower shutter speed and so I need to remain still. I normally take several pictures of the same thing to make sure that I have at least one good picture. Later on I sort them and look for the one that is the best quality. I found the following anomalies in some of the photographs that I took:

Of all of the "Anomalies" this looks the most like camera glare or tricks. You can see the lights reflected in the wood paneling. I believe that this reflection is creating a light effect within my lens somehow.

This "Anomalies" is quite obvious and again looks like some kind of trick with my camera...I think.

This set of images is the creepiest. I really wanted to get a good detailed shot of this wall decoration in the Julep Room on the third floor. For this series of pictures I was not moving - my camera was not moving, I was just snapping picture after picture hoping to get one good shot. Although I was not moving, and the camera was not moving - the light anomaly is moving. Creepy!

The same night I was sorting these photographs, after I spotted this particular anomaly, I was reading the information brochure about the hotel. There is a small side story about the "Lady in Green" that supposedly haunts the hotel. The story states that the lady was married to a man who was killed during the construction of the hotel. There are no details about his death but they mention that his body was never found. Supposedly his widow wanders the halls looking for his body - the lady in green, the same color as all of the light anomalies above.

This is an interesting link if you want to see some more "Haunted Photos".