Swingset Child's Ghost
by David Clarke
(Duncan, B.C., Canada)
Original Photo
This picture was taken recently by the younger cousin of a good friend don't know know for a when you read through mine. She and her friend were on a swing set after dark in a park in Surrey, B.C. They were taking pictures of themselves when they heard a noise on the empty swing beside them. She said that it sounded like someone had sat down on it. There was no one else in the park so they assumed it was the wind but it scared them enough that they got up and left the park.
The next day when going through the pictures to tag on Facebook the girl noticed this image in the background on the empty swing where they had heard the noise. It's small, dark and not super clear, but it looks like the image of a little boy on the swing. There is a very discernible face, and also the placement of it on the swing would be where it would be if someone small were sitting on it. The girl also mentioned that there is a graveyard within site of the park.
I used Photoshop filters to enhance the brightness, sharpen the image and to remove the digital noise that appears when adding light to a dark photo. I've submitted the unaltered original
and also the zoomed enhanced version.
I have no reason to believe this picture is a fake as the two girls that took it are in highschool and have no graphics experience. They were really scared by this and one of their moms screamed when she saw the image. Also with zooming in on it i couldn't see any digital tampering marks on it. I considered that it might be a blur from her swinging because as you can see by the chains of her swing she is in motion while taking the picture. But if so, it wouldn't be blurry in just that one exact spot. Also the chain on the far side of that swing is not visible behind the ghost image yet you can see the one closer to the camera. This suggests the object is between the two chains. I only just found this site today based on looking up more pictures after being sent this image. I don't believe a lot of the pictures where people circle faces in smoke or lens flash reflections. Most of them seem no different than finding shapes in clouds. This one though, coming from a credible source, is hard for me to argue that there is not something there.
