Strange apperition in photo's, can you help clarify what it is?

First of all, mods I really had no idea where to post this as not of the current forum's seem to match, so if you feel it needs to be in a different forum please feel free to move it.

Hi guys, this post is is regarding a strange form/apparition that is in a sequence of photo's I took the other day while out walking around Dovestones reservoir, The Pennines, NW England, the other day, I have recently taken up photography as a hobby and was out having fun taking pictures, I saw nothing unusual while out walking, and only saw this strange thing when looking through the photos in lightroom when I got back.

I have tried to figure out what it could be but at a bit of a loss, now I am not claiming this is for sure something paranormal, it could be some known camera anomaly, although I have no idea what it is.

The things I have ruled out so far:

1; Sun Flare, there was no sun visible that day, it was very overcast with thick light grey clouds
2; Insect blurred, it is the middle of winter here and no flying insects around, also the anomaly appears in 3 subsequent photos takes at different positions, I also took these photo's on a Sony A5000 which uses a tilting screen and not a viewfinder so I would of seen anything flying in front of me
3; dirt on the lens, in the 3 photo's the object changes positions, I was using a SEL55210 lens, which does not rotate when focusing or zooming so the mark would not change position, also as seen below I have included the photo prior and after these 3 and the anomaly is not showing on either, just on the 3 in this area

Anyway on with the first photo (by the way I have left these image unaltered, but I have had to convert to JPEG to post here, same with all subsequent photo's) As you can see there is nothing unusual on this photo



Then the first of the strange ones



The strange whispy object is in the upper right corner, now I did notice some blurring in the bottom left corner of this picture, and at first thought they were related however this blurring only occurs in this photo

Here is the second picture with the strange anomaly



Notice how it has changed position?

Now the 3rd



Again it has moved, and now just for reference, here is the first picture taken after these ones



As you can see there is nothing here, although this picture was taken perhaps 20 yards after these other 3

Now can any of you help figure out what this is? Rising gas perhaps, a ghostly figure? I really don't know. oh and as I know how much you lovely ATS lot like to get your hands on the evidence, the RAW files can be downloaded from the following link just in case some of you wish to analyse them, you will need software capable of reading Sony Raw files (lightshop and Photoshop manage fine, but I am not sure of what else does)

RAW Files

What say you ATS?

a reply to: PrinceDreamer

How about your breath in the cold air...

The 'smudge' in question is the exact same shape in all 3 photos

compare that to the other 2... that would lead me to believe its either on or close to the camera, something in that area. It could even be dust/pollen of some sort I suppose, floating by close

a reply to: chrismarco

He would have to have someone at that distance breaking out creating steam at the exact same time he took the photo before said steam was displaced by the air around it.

I am not saying these are genuine. But I believe that it can be safely ruled out that breathing was not the cause of this issue.

Were you in a car, shooting through a window?
It looks like a reflection in the first pix, with a 90 degree angle in the upper right, running down the right side of the photo.

a reply to: Violater1

No I was on foot, it is a nature reserve and only wardens are able to drive in that area.
Nor is it breath, as you can see in the previous and after photo, the strange thing is not there.
Also as I stated in teh first post there was no sun visible (normally required to create a reflection on the lens like that, I was also using a lens hood) But thanks for your question

a reply to: intunewithmyself

The picures are gunuine, in so much I have not altered them in any way or tried to stage anything, I only noticed the strange thing when going throught the photo's I took that day and found it very strange. There could of course be a perfectly rational explanation for what ever is happening, it gives an impression of some sort of ghostly figure drifting by, but as I said in the earlier opening post I saw absolutely nothing when I was there taking the photo's. It will most likely turn out to be something mundane, but it is interesting to me to try and figure out what it could possibly be

Just guessing here, but the first image looks like it was taken under a tree with the lens tipped upwards. The out of focus thing in the three "odd" photographs looks like a bit of dust or tree debris that may have fallen on the lens when you were shooting upwards, was loose and moved during the three odd shots, then finally fell off the lens or blew away for the remaining photos. Whatever it was might have been as small as a bit of moss fuzz from the trunk of that tree or leaf fiber and easily overlooked at the time.

Or it could be aliens ;-)

I have to agree with Ridhya, the `smudge` does look the same in all three photos, only thing i can add extra at the moment is, as you seem to pan to the right while taking your shots, the smudge appears to move accordingly to the left of the pictures. But got to say am stumped.

Hopefully one of ATS` camera friendly members will be able to help out.

Looking at the raw files, there is more of that fuzz in the foreground. In the grass area in the foreground (on the left of each photo) there is more fuzz in the first "odd" photo, less fuzz in the second and least fuzz in the last one, like the wind was blowing some stuff off the lens as it panned to the right.

How about cleaning your lens? These are smudge marks, as you have them showing in bottom left of the pictures, too. I had a similar ruination of shots with similar marks caused by my not cleaning the lens prior to taking the pictures.

If it was just a smudge, then why does it move when the camera is depicting the same shot. In all 3 photo's you can see this lantern hanging from the tree. And you see this, plasmic being, my take on this, walk from the clearing to in front of that lantern. The other little fog patches are interesting. And the shadow in the tree with the lantern is odd as well.

a reply to: elysiumfire

If you had read my post fully you will have noticed I have said the "smudge" as you call it moves its position, smudges do not move position, they stay firmly where they are on the lens, you would have also noticed that I posted the photograph taken immediately before these 3 and the photograph directly after, and they show nothing and the smudges would of remained.

a reply to: Unity_99

Thanks for your post, I think what you are saying about the latern is slightly mistaken, the bright spec you see is actually the end of branches that have been freshly cut (No idea why they were cut) you can see it in the full picture if you download the RAW files, I couldn't get the ATS site to post the pictures larger so it is difficult to tell on the photo's displayed here

Cloud of small insects?

Cool ghost pics... even if the anomalies arn't actually ghosts.

If you manage to get back down there try taking some sort of audio recorder too, see if you can get an EVP from the area where the anomalies were standing.

I agree with Ridhya; the main upper shape is the same in all three. All the forms shift to the left and the ones to the lower left move out of the frame. I suggest the possibility of lint, dust, fiber, etc. on the lens. Maybe wind or movement caused them to cling slightly and move across the lens, till they moved out of view.
I was once experimenting with taking flash photos of dust in the dark (or some would call orbs) from my front porch, in varying degrees of dustiness. I was surprised how much dust was stirred up when the neighbor came out, got in the car in the driveway, and drove off. With all that wood piled around, there are bound to be some stray fibers afloat.

zoomed in these shapes are all different. The shape varies enough and you can see some branches in front of it, and other branches are foggier, so to me that rules out a lens issue, and the camera settings from looking at how good these images are with respect to light and shutter speed also rule out any camera or lens problem to me.

And zoomed in this thing does look like a ghostly mist, so I am going to go with that. It looks like an apparition that has a mind of it's own, and is meandering around. Judging from the image, I can't think of anything else it could be. Fog doesn't hold a shape like this and neither does smoke, and the shape definitely changes enough to show it is not a smudge. Thinking of this as a lens smudge is totally ridiculous even.

a reply to: NoCorruptionAllowed

Thanks for you comments, I agree it is not a mark, otherwise it would of been in the subsequent photo's which it wasn't, and I do keep my lenses clean.

I cannot decide whether it could be some form of gas rising, but there was a fairly brisk breeze so doesn't explain why it stayed in the same general area, I ruled out dust as A; I would of seen it, and B; although not raining at that time it had been earlier and everything was damp which holds the dust to the ground.

I feel it is an apparition, but wanted to rule out anything I had not thought of, and did not wish to jump to conclusions. I doubt I will ever truely sure what it was but it is very curious. I am actually surprised at the seeming uninterest from ATS, a few years ago this would of been discussed and disected completely, however I do appreciate your comment and taking the time to look closely

a reply to: PrinceDreamer

I'm going with some sort of reflection or glare.

Direct sunlight is not necessary for lens flares or other lighting related anomalies. In the 3 photos with the anomaly you seem to pan from left to right, the 'object' moves from right to left just as a glare or reflection would be expected to do. Interestingly enough when you angle your shot upwards, the object moves downwards (in reference to total field of view), again just as a glare or similar would be expected to do.

Add to that the seemingly static shape of the object across the three photos, which is also common in reflections/glares/flares/etc.

Two quick questions, what was your general direction between the photos with and without the anomaly? I ask this because the lighting in the photos suggests that the angle of the sun was different, but it's a subtle difference (attributable to the overcast sky). Also how much time passed between the three photos showing the anomaly?

I don't think it was dust or debris on the lens because the object is present in different sections of each photo.

The area you were in looks absolutely awe inspiring, but that's coming from an American who lives in the most geographically featureless region of the country.