This picture is not as spectacular as many of the 'paranormal' images which have appeared on the Internet - however, it has a special place in my collection because it records one of the strangest things I have ever witnessed. I was about to take some pictures in a neglected old churchyard. It was about 2pm and the light was good. Suddenly, something that looked like a bright, fizzing spark flew swiftly around the graves like a dragonfly. For several seconds it threaded its way between the monuments so quickly that I nearly gave up trying to catch it on film...then it stopped and hovered for less than a second and I pressed the shutter button. The spark zoomed off and didn't reappear - its departure was so sudden that I was unsure whether I'd actually got a picture of it. 

Until the negative was developed I was pretty sure that the thing had outpaced my reactions and that I'd be left with nothing but a snap of some empty space.  When the image was finally revealed, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I'd caught the spark at the exact moment when it was stationary and even managed to compose the other elements of the scene in a way that captured some of the atmosphere of those few, inexplicable seconds amongst the graves.

What was this thing that I saw in that lonely place? Above is an enlarged image of the 'spark'. There are many legends and superstitions about 'Graveyard Lights' - some suppose them to be the spirits of the dead, others suggest that some kind of freaky natural effect is at work. I really don't have any answers and I don't claim that the picture ought to win any awards; but I can confirm that it is genuine and not something cooked up with the aid of Paint Shop Pro.

Back in 1982, I was taking some pictures of Markeaton Brook in the West End district of Derby from a viewpoint near St John's Church.  I was using 400 ASA Colour film with a sepia filter - to match my images to some old photographs taken in the area in the early 1900's.  Nobody was in sight when I took my snaps - but, after the film was developed, one of the images featured a group of people standing and sitting below my viewpoint; all of them apparently looking up towards the camera and one of them waving.

They looked liked a family - mother, father and two children - and seemed to be semi-transparent.  I hadn't taken any pictures of a family group on that roll of film, nor did I recognise the people.  For a while, I considered the possibility that the four figures were  'Extras' - a term coined by Victorian photographers to describe people or animals which cropped up in images only after development.  I called the photo lab and asked if there was a possibility of a 'double exposure' - perhaps an image created by some other person had overlapped the negative during printing?        

  The lab's chief technician claimed that this wasn't possible - his lengthy explanation stated that the negatives and prints were fed into automatic machines which ran like conveyor belts.  If something had got stuck or superimposed itself on to other materials, he said, it would probably have insinuated itself into more than just one image on the roll...plus there was a good likelyhood that I wouldn't have been the only customer to find something unusual in any of the prints produced that day.  I wondered if he was being economical with the truth  in order to be rid of a 'difficult customer'.

Several people who've studied this image say that they can see a number of additional phantom faces and body-shapes.  How many 'Extras' can you spot within the photograph?