Barwon ghost picture
I ran across this picture a couple of days ago after release and was skeptical to post about it, but after seeing it on paranormal.about.com and another site that will go unmentioned, because the blogger might gripe about it, I decided to post it. The picture originates from Australia at a place called Barwon Park mansion. As the story goes, a group on a ghost hunting tour (as this story was released by Australian Ghost Adventures) was upstairs in a stable and someone sensed a presence. The photographer snapped several pictures before a shutdown of the camera occured. After leaving the stables, the camera comes back to life and after review, they capture a picture of the ghost girl (above). The two stories below are from Australian Ghost Adventures and Today Tonight an Australian news outlet.
On the night of Saturday the 8th August 2009 a ghost tour group from Australian Ghost Adventures were exploring Barwon Park Mansion, Winchelsea Victoria. At 11.20pm the group were in the Mansions stables upstairs loft when a patron sensed a presence in the corner of the Bluestone building. Another patron used a digital thermometer to measure the temperature in the area the other person sensed something and got a reading of 22 ’C with the cold winter night readings at 5’C everywhere else in the building Adam (another patron) took a number of photographs in the same direction of the heat source, after taking some photos his camera shut down, As the group left the stables, his camera started working again and he immediately checked his photos and one of them had the (attached) image. Could this be an image of a ghost?
Gary Sullivan, lead investigator and paranormal researcher from Australian Ghost Adventures said: “At the time the temperature rose to 22 degrees I put it down to one of the bluestone bricks being warm, but was not” and could not explain the temperature change on the digital thermometer. With the photo” he could not explain what the image was”. Ron Dorre the Sceptic from AGA was also present. “I too witnessed the events including Adam taking the photos, I couldn’t believe it when he checked them and it had a slight image of a girl in one of the frames” We took the photo to Anthony Kilner a Photographer and photo journalist to investigate. The photo data showed no flash was used and to have such a clear photo in low light without a tripod was unusual.
The mystery is still not solved. The ghost tours continue and tour guides are encouraging photographers to take as many photos as they can in the Stables.
Source: Australian Ghost Tours
Barwon Park Mansion is situated in Winchelsea, an hour and a half west of Melbourne. Built in the mid 1800’s for the Austin family, its rich in tradition and history. And now, after the events of one cold night last August, it’s considered haunted.
19-year-old Adam Harris and 15 others were on a tour of the mansion, the tour included sceptics and paranormal investigators. Armed with digital thermometers, cameras and torches, they entered the barn at the back of the property.
“I was taking photos because I felt a presence coming towards me, as in dark figures. So I got my camera out and took three to five photos up there and my camera went dead, just turned off, I couldn’t turn it back on. I tried and tried and tried,” said Adam.
“It was a five degree night, everyone was wearing scarves and jackets, and it was freezing cold and we wanted to get out of there. We wanted to get back into the warm mansion so somebody said, ‘No, I feel something in that corner’. So this lady took this temperature gauge that we have we give them to play with and took a reading and it came up to 22 degrees and we thought that was quite strange. Then we had Adam take some photos in that area and I saw him take the photos and then his camera failed.”
By the time the group made it outside, Adam’s camera turned back on and what he discovered has left “believers” in a spin and sceptics scratching their heads.
“There was an image of a girl in the top left hand corner of my screen, just a real faint picture,” said Adam.
Apart from being the best looking ghost ever, she appears out of a seemingly black digital photo, only revealing herself when you adjust the tone.
Today Tonight took the photo to Andrew Tauber (a photographer with Melbourne’s Herald Sun), and Anne Maree and Nick (Digital photography experts). Anne Marie was previously re-toucher at the National gallery.
If the photo was a fake, you’d assume they’d be able to tell.
They analysed the metadata attached to the photo (embedded information connected to every digital photo). It tells them when, where and how the photo was taken.
The inconsistencies had them baffled. The photo with the ghost shows no background, yet the next photo clearly does. The experts all agree the image hasn’t been tampered with, but they believe some aspects could be fingers and that the image appears to be a photo of a painting not a person.
The biggest flaw is with regards to the time difference. Adam claims to have taken five consecutive photos, with the third one capturing the ghost. The meta data tells a different story. The ghost photo is recorded as being taken two hours earlier. But mystery surrounds how it is planted in order among the others on the memory card.
“I did see it happen and I know it’s there but I can’t explain what it is,” Adam said.
Source: Today Tonight
After reading these articles, especially the one from Today Tonight, my skeptical mind starts working. If the metadata on the picture showed it being taken two hours earlier, shouldn’t that point to the answer? As stated “But mystery surrounds how it is planted in order among the others on the memory card.” After doing a bunch of research and you knew how the camera and card works, you could probably easily plant a photo on a memory card. Who is to say that he gave them the correct memory card in the first place? If this is a ghostly photo, it’s probably the clearest to date, but that makes me just a suspicious in the end.
Written by Gary Popella - Gary@ghosttheory.com
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I wouldn´t mind her haunting my home the least… Very attractive.
Anyway, the “experts” say its either a photography or a painting, not a human being, then it must be faked somehow.
Have anyone heard of 2D ghosts?
Exept shadow people, of course.
Umm, is it just me or it looks like a hero of some computer game?
That raises some questions: When is a photograph not too good to be true but good enough to not be fake? And can we or should we answer that before looking at pixels or establishing a chain of evidence?
One of the hottest looking ghost I’ve ever seen…
There are a few things that do stand out… Look at her top and the way her white shirt cuts to a V-Shape… I have seen lots and lots of clothing from older era’s and can’t recall an over-lap at the V-Section of her shirt (modern v-cut shirts are made that way) not old clothing which was usually a single v-shape or cut…
Then there’s the BRIGHT metal buckle that goes to her shirt and stands out (or shall I say shines out)…
And last but not least, the memory card and the photo line-up or number sequence of the camera… VERY VERY EASY TO RE-CREATE!!!
All you have to do is take a bunch of shots, delete the ones you don’t want… and BAM!!! The camera automatically begins the numbering sequence from the beginning again, hence the 2 hour previous time stamp on the photo…
And then you just keep snapping away and guess what, all the new photos will appear in number sequence before and after the PICTURE in QUESTION!!! Boo-yah!!!
Will someone send me the girls email address and phone number, cause she’s hot!!! LOL
Hmm, Correct me if I’m wrong but looks to me like there’s a signature as in painting type signature. Look at the bottom middle of the picture. See the white writing that looks like a name?
If that’s not a painting I’ll eat my socks right off my feet.
@Nathan:
I think you might be on to something. The girl in the photo does look like some character from a video game. In fact, it looks familiar. (not that I play video games, but I think I’ve seen it before)
@Gary:
You’re right, the metadata information for the picture shows that it was taken hours before…maybe his camera was malfunctioning all day and automatically snapped a shot of a poster or something.
-Javier
George,
I think a photograph has to be proven legitimate and untampered for starters. Photographs are the easiest to fake, thus should carry the highest suspicion out of the types of visual media available. The problem with this case is that the metadata has been either tampered with or protected so as not to be deleted/overwritten as JoeMomma stated. I don’t think picture quality needs to be established as long as it has been legitimized by at least three neutral sources.
Another thing pointed out by JoeMomma was the bright buckle or whatever is reflecting. The ghost tour articles clearly stated “The photo data showed no flash was used and to have such a clear photo in low light without a tripod was unusual”. So how is it that there is something reflecting?
If you look at the picture, the girls face and neck shows obvious shadows from a light source, and obviously there is no other light source. That’s telltale to me. It’s stated that she appears only when you adjust the tone in the Today Tonight article, yet they knew they had a ghostly picture on the spot after it was taken. Can digital camera’s adjust tone on the fly?
Still leaning towards the photo being fraudulent…
Javier,
Actually considering the kid is like 19, he probably snapped a picture of some hotty somewhere
Jbondo, checked that signature area out in MS paint, but it doesn’t strike me as a signature, just some high points that are being highlighted by whatever light source.
Still leaning towards fakery on this photo
I totally was going to mention that it looks like an oil painting and a signature in the bottom…
Thanks for mentioning the light source as well, cause I forgot to mention that regarding the buckle.
When the picture was LARGER on the site, you can clearly see the v-cut overlap on her shirt… older garments weren’t made like that…
It looks like one of the ghostly images you make at home with a mirror, proper lighting and proper angels…
And what’s up with the Date Time Stamp of 1953… no one would setup there camera’s with a date of 1953 unless your playing with the settings…
And if your playing with the settings, your playing with the numbering sequence and also playing with the image…
This whole story reminds me of waiting in line at Disneyland to get into the Haunted House ride.
This Paranormal group just happened to be giving out tours of a haunted place and even provided the tourists with devices… And then bam, there’s a ghost on the image…
Well, if you planned the event out right and are a good enough actor… My camera isn’t working, let me step outside for a second, hey wait look there’s a ghost on my camera… and by the way the sequence of photos are wrong and the ghostly image was taken 2 hours earlier in 1952… LOL
Like I said, once you get onto the ride at Disneyland… of course you are going to see some ghosts… no different here… This has setup written all over it…
Just forward me the girls’ email address and/or number… I’d like to take some more photos of her… or do I have to go to Australia and take this tour in order to see her some more…
Pack your bags!
Hi all. My name is Gary, and I’m the investigation team leader for Australian Ghost Adventures.
I would like to point out that I do not believe that the photo is a clever hoax initiated by someone for whatever gains that may be. As I personally followed Adam down the stairs of the Stables when his Camera came back on. After viewing a somewhat faint image with my eyes squinted, I took the memory card out of his camera (with permission), and uploaded the photo to my laptop to see if I could see a clearer image. I then increased the Gamma to lighten it a little, and Voila! a girl appears. Now what strikes me as odd is that on this particular night it was freezing cold (by Aussie standards) around 5 degrees Celsius. I also know for a fact that being a true blooded male, I would have noticed if anyone on the tour was wearing quite a low cut top..lol
After looking at various other photo’s of guests that were there. I didn’t notice anyone that stood out as much as the girl in the photo. I do recall a temperature increase in the area where the photo was taken on 3 different occasions with about 10 seconds or so between each reading, which seems quite odd, as I have been investigating the Paranormal for over 20 years and have never come across such a big increase in temperature. There was no E.M.F meter present so I can’t give you any info on that.
All we are asking is the question, “Could it be a Ghost”.
We are not suggesting it is or isn’t, as the Jury is still out on that one. I’m sure we’ll get our answer someday.
regards……. Gary
Gary,
Thanks for commenting and filling in some gaps and explaining a few questions that we had! We here at GhostTheory try to be as neutral as possible in our skepticism, so i hope you can appreciate our candor on this photo.
Has your organization attempted to have this photo independently verifed or attempted to investigate further into it, by chance? Does anyone from your team know Adam?
Cheers!
Gary,
I am not suggesting in any way that you guys were trying to pull a fast one and neither should anyone else at this juncture. That would be foolish as we know little of you or your show. However, I do have a few questions.
Was there a mirror/s there?
Was there a painting in the room or visible thru a doorway in an adjacent room?
Did you check the rooms in a lighted condition as well?
My theory is that the picture is a mirror reflection of a painting that is hanging in a location that would induce such a picture. It could even be in the next room whereby there was a straight shot thru the doorway. However it looks to me like the painting was in the same room.
I just blew the picture up in Visio and I have to say it definitely looks like there are brush strokes. Also the signature I suggested before still looks as though it could indeed be a signature.
Like I said before, I’ll eat my socks if it’s not a painting. I think Gary will eventually verify my conclusions after a thorough investigation.
Look up Megan Ann Walker on Facebook. Is it a coincidence that she was also friends with Adam Harris the photographer of this image? Hoax me not.
Thanks Gary. We have had the photo independently examined by 2 independent professionals in photography, and both have come back with “The photo has not been altered in anyway”. The second point is that prior to the tour when the photo was taken, nobody on my team knew anything of Adam or what he does. We have since found out that he is neither a professional photographer nor a specialist in computer technology.
jbondo…… The photo was taken in a Horse stable where there are no mirrors or paintings, just loads of Blue stone wall and wood. The only thing that anyone will ever see besides Humans are the odd Bat or Two. Also the reason the photo may look like a painting, would possibly be due to the apparent lack of light, thus causing the picture to look Grainy. I will endeavor to send you guys a couple of photo’s during the daytime so you can see for yourselves.
Thanks for your comments……. Gary
Well Gaz,
Assuming you are being truthful and you do seem sincere, I am baffled. I would have bet my life that it was a painting.
Anyone got any pepper?…Ranch dressing?
jbondo,
Make sure you don’t wear the socks first…:)
Why is the time stamp set to 1952??? That right there is a big RED FLAG!!!
Were in the year 2010, and depending on when the photo was taken… the year would might be 2009… still not 1952…
If it is paranormal somehow, I would look up that date in the records and see if anything happened on the site on the day 02/02/1952…
The fact the picture was 2 hours out of sync with the rest of the photos, and the date and time stamp is set wrong… just doesn’t make sense at all…
You would think that if you were paranormal hunting, and using a date/time stamp within your photos for some kind of documenting purposes… I think you would properally setup the date and time before taking ONE PICTURE… PERIOD!!!
Even a novice would know better… Not doubting everyone else that was on sight at the time… But with a little prior setup and time put into it… you can easily play it off…
Yeah guys, my camera’s acting up… let me step outside for a sec… Yeah everybody, there’s a hot ghost chick in one of my photos… which happens to be 2 hours out of sync and the date and time stamp shows 02/02/1952…
I just think the individual behind this screwed up with that little slip up… the date and time stamp… no matter what other meta data you can pull off the camera… the date and time stamp is what it is…
My 2 Cents…
I don’t know what was more interesting…the story or all the comment exchanges it sparked! I don’t know…I’d like to think it’s real, and not that I ever lived in olden times, but she strikes me as a wee too modern looking somehow. However, I’d really like to see this be real! It would be a great find. No matter what, this was a very interesting discussion to watch.
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=megan+ann+walker&init=quick#/profile.php?id=673972844&ref=search&sid=1489070254.1365071729..1
check this out lol SUCH A GHOST RIGHT? so much so shes ALIVE!!! and kinda hot… fuck me running HOAX!!!
damnit link wont work unless ur signed into facebook dope!!! sorry…
but ANON is totally right
SHE IS ON FACE BOOK!!! HOLY SHIT A GHOST ON FACEBOOK!!! someone call ghost hunters
I checked out that link before and I must say, the lady has a striking resemblance to the one in the picture, but could not find Adam Harris in her friends list as a friend. It might help if we could see where Ms. Walker lived too as that would narrow it down.
Interesting resemblance, however, I am curious how someone was able to find her seeing as facebook’s membership is in the millions. Was that just a random search that provided results or do they know the person somehow?
That was another question of mine, pinky. The original poster, anon, has an ip address that originates out of Colorado…
…the plot thickens :p
Okay, so I took a look at a bunch of Ms. Walker’s friends, and what do ya know? They are Australians. I think Australian Ghost Tours got punk’ed.
We can pretty much rule this a hoax/fraud.
It must have been a reflection or something…
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/1001433/hottest-ghost-ever-reveals-media-hoax
She’s not a ghost alright…
We followed the story closely here at http://notesfromthebartender.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/mystery-ghost-photo/
Just spent an hour or so e-mailing with Megan who is pretty pissed off at the storm of media interest she is fending off.
She claims she had nothing to do with it….
[...] We’re there because of the photo at left, which was taken while on a ghost tour at Barwon Park mansion in Australia. I snagged a copy of the photo from Gary’s post about it on GhostTheory. [...]
Oh man this is all kinds of awesome, so Gaz what you got to say for yourself? I find it funny after reading that young lady’s interview that you forgot to mention there was a young lady telling all of you at the time that she believes that was her on camera…yeah how come you didn’t mention that one pal? Let alone I loooove how you v been in the biz twenty years yet something like this fooled you…yeah way to go there egon, actually scratch that as egon actually got proof/succeeded.
anyways lets break it down a bit though:
1. Accidental reflection of young girl gets caught on camera, cue a bunch of ppl that want to believe/cash in ( sorry its true, get over it alot of you “ghost adventurer” types are nothing more than frauds that “keep people in the caves” to paraphrase james randi )its a ghost.
2. After this said girl tries to tell you people its actually her that somehow got caught on camera, probably through various easily explainable ways (contrary to what people like gaz or whatever the hell his name is will try to tell you, remember folks hes got credibility to lose/possibly a hoax to protect…just keeping an open mind like you Gaz
) yet most of everyone involved not only appears to have ignored her, or did hear her but figured ” F IT, WE CAN MAKE MONEY OFF THIS!” or probably wanted some 15min of fame either or really take your pick.
I love this stuff, I’m sick of yet again people keeping us in the caves, now if only someone could just use some common sense and logic and do a damned ghost investigation right!