HOW TO SNAP A SPOOK in your holiday pics

Whether you’re planning a staycation, day trips or a break abroad, we show you how you can capture ghosts in your photos this Summer

You assemble the family in front of a beautiful backdrop on holiday. ‘Three, two, one, cheese!’ you cry, before taking the snap.

But when you get home and scroll through your photos, you freeze. There, behind your family, is a ghostly figure.

Is it a trick of the light?

A fluke? Or something else?

The desire to catch images of ghosts in photos has been around for centuries.

One notorious spook snapper was William H Mumler. Born in 1832, he was an American spirit photographer, who took his first spooky snap by accident.

It was a self-portrait, which included a ghostly image of his dead cousin.

So many people were interested in spirits at the time that he became a full-time spirit snapper. He took photos of bereaved wives with images of their dead husbands next to them, brothers who’d lost sisters, women with their dead grandmothers…

Mumler became so famous he even took a picture of Mary

Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, along with the great Civil War leader’s ghost. But his fame wasn’t to last. He was eventually charged with fraud. The reason? None of the ghostly images he’d taken were real!

He’d faked them all, even breaking into potential sitters’ houses to get images of their dead loved ones so he could superimpose them onto the photographs later!

So, fakes aside, can you catch ghosts in your photos?

Reverend Philip Solomon, a professional psychic medium, says that although there are many fakes out there, he’s seen plenty of evidence you can catch ghosts on camera.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Philip says the first thing people need to remember when trying to snap spooks, is that there is a difference between a spirit and a ghost.

‘A spirit is a loved one visiting you or letting you know they are near,’ explains Philip. ‘A ghost is different. It’s a replay of an event that’s happened in the past and walls of buildings have absorbed it and are replaying it – such as an ancient lady walking through a wall or a janitor cleaning some stairs. So sometimes when people say they see a spirit on camera, they’re actually seeing a ghost.’

Philip says many ghosts have also been caught in photographs or videos by accident, rather than design.

‘I’ve had several people show me photos of ghosts and the people weren’t even trying. It was pure luck. Other times, and more commonly, you see orbs in images – white balls of light surrounding someone or something,’ he says.

‘Orbs aren’t to be ignored in photos either or simply put down to accident or a bit of dust. Orbs can show up in images and often represent energy and light of a spirit. They’re often the first thing to show up in a photo when spirit is present.’

GET CLICKING

So, if you want to catch a spook on camera this Summer holiday season, what should you do?

Philip says this depends on whether you wish to capture the image of a spirit or a ghost.

‘If you want a ghost, then seek out places other people claim to have seen them,’ he advises. ‘If

people say they’ve seen a ghost at a certain place at a certain time. It’s worth going there at the time the ghost is usually seen, and taking your camera.’

Then snap away and see what you capture.

Spirits are a different matter. ‘Spirits are a continuation of this life into the afterlife. I don’t believe spirits are ‘up there’ in the heavens. I believe we exist side by side with our passed loved ones, closer than you think, just in a different dimension,’ he says. ‘That’s why sometimes you feel a loved one close to you and can’t explain it. If you do feel a loved one, that’s the time to get your camera out and try and get them in a photo. Trust your instinct about when you feel them near and you may get lucky.’