Bachelor's Grove Photos

[nekosensei]

The Bachelor's Grove Photos are up and available here.

If you want to be freaked out, go to Image 7776, click the bigger image, and look in the trees toward the right. It's probably just a play of the sunlight and the tree branches (I was facing the sun and the picture didn't turn out that well), but whoa. Freaky.

I decided to crop the images using Seashore.








I didn't notice those until I uploaded the images and clicked on the picture for a bigger view. Somebody check my shorts. Real or not real, I don't think I'm going to go back there alone after seeing that.

So...anybody want to get together and go to Bachelor's Grove sometime in March? Like last time, I would probably want to be there around two or three in the afternoon. It really is an interesting place.

Comments

[laurainlimbo.livejournal.com]

I kind of see it in the pictures you cropped up there. creepy place - but very cool! I'd love to go, but it might be hard since I work full time and it's far from where I live. let me know when you're going though...

[ftemery.livejournal.com]

I like your LJ name; I have a daughter named Laura also, but she goes by LooneyLupe!

[laurainlimbo.livejournal.com]

aw, thanks! Laura is a great name, if I do say so myself - as is your daughter's nickname:)

[ftemery.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'd go with you..........I mean, other than the 3000 miles difference! There were two geocaches there which have been taken by vandals.

[nick-101.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty strange picture. :)

Interesting...

[donutato-kun.livejournal.com]

The bottom one I can explain.

The top one I'm not so sure.

Interesting pictures, to say the least.

I don't mind going back there. I try to get there once or twice a year.

Re: Interesting...

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I understand how the second one works. Psychologically, people are wired to pick out patterns and see faces. That's why we sometimes make out faces in things such as branches, trees, smoke, etc. The second picture could just be everybody picking out the pattern and thinking they see a face in what is really a jumble of branches. By the way, doomsey looked at both pictures and declared that it was caused by wind, but he's very much a skeptic.

nekosensei = Mulder
doomsey = Scully

(grins)

My professional opinion...

[donutato-kun.livejournal.com]

Ghosts and ghost lore fascinate me. I currently have something like 30 books on the subject. Which is why people are often surprised when I kind of sit on the fence about whether they're real or not.

I'm actually kind of agnostic about ghosts. I don't disbelieve in them. Who says they COULDN'T exist? I'd LIKE to think they're out there, and am willing to bet they are. Culturally speaking, they're as real as anything else in humanity's shared history. I certainly don't discount everybody's experiences like a lot of skeptics do. Nor do I assume they're liars (which I find insulting and a cheap way out of having to do some scientific footwork). But I'm also of the opinion that 9 out of 10 ghost phenomenon stem from natural causes -- some of them unrealized by the observer. Some of this is because it's actually happened to me. I've seen the "hungry fence effect" in action at graveyards late at night. I've gone into day dream states and seen things out of the corner of my eye. I've heard strange noises and then found out they might be caused by crows.

I do end up doing a lot of Photoshop work for Doug. So I'm used to seeing how layers cut and pasted on top of each other can give you weird optical effects. I'm thinking that the bottom picture (the one with the guy standing behind the fence) might be a tree. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's an optical illusion created by a tree leaning directly away from the camera. What gives it that cool effect are 4 layers. On the bottom, there's a white branch poking out of that fallen tree that's a number of feet closer to the camera. That runs right up the middle and gives the appearance of legs by creating a white negative space. There's another branch on the 1st layer that I think MIGHT BE sourced from the branch cutting across the guy -- this branch curves around the image of the man in the background and gives the appearance of an arm and head. The fence is the third layer, which cuts off the head and may be providing a vertical outline on the left side of the "guy." This could also be an alternate source for the outline branch, which may be clinging to the fence. Finally, there's a layer of branches up top that obscures the rest of the tree. This makes it look like a person. You can, however, see two darker branches jutting out on either side atop the head, which makes this ghost look a lot like the Knight Who Said Neet.

The top one I'm less sure about. My estimated guess is it's a discoloration brought on by the splitting of that tree a few years back. A lightening strike can also cause that. That may explain the scorch looking marks on top. Actually, now that I think about it... it's probably a limb, since the outside of the cemetery dips beyond the fence. Both pictures are probably showing these trees at a higher angle than we might expect. Yeah, actually, you can see two dark branches poking out of the bottom of the "Guy" behind the fence (right on the other side of the white line between his legs). Interesting.

Like I said, I wasn't there. So I really can't say with any certainty. That's just my professional opinion. Maybe you caught Gozer on camera. Who knows? :-)

Re: My professional opinion...

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is an interesting optical illusion, isn't it? I can kind of see how the left hand side of the face are really the branches.

And yes, I was looking at the top picture again late last night, and I realized that it could be a flaw in the tree. I was looking to see if I had another picture of the tree in question to compare it with, but unfortunately, I don't. Did you see the other optical illusion (http://pics.livejournal.com/ambericanbeauty/pic/0000227b/s320x240) that Amber pointed out, with the face?

Not sure on the third...

[donutato-kun.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the first two are natural.

I gotta be honest, I have no earthly clue what the third one is (the one Amber discovered). I don't see army fatigues or two guys. But I DO SEE that weird glitch in the upper right that looks like a face. Not sure if it's a plant or a camera blip or Class 5 Full Roaming Vapor.

Re: Not sure on the third...

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

I found another odd one in Image 777 (http://www.nekito.net/albums/February-2009/IMG_7777.jpg), which I took right after the one that I originally posted here. It's all the way to the left.



Creepy looking, huh?

Edit: I'm tempted to make a macro out of one of these. "Singing Bach in a Haunted Cemetery: Not. A. Good. Idea." :)

Re: Interesting...

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Oh...and another interesting thing...I took that picture maybe a minute or two after the whole movement out of the corner of my eyes / tall grass floating in mid-air shenanigans, which happened not long after I took pictures of the big Fulton headstone.

Re: Interesting...

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

Something just dawned on me. Doesn't that top picture look vaguely like a woman dressed in white?

(points to a famous picture (http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/bachelors/ghost2.jpg) from Bachelor's Grove)
(gives herself the willies)

confused and unable to see patterns

[forestdruid.livejournal.com]

I have been looking for something like ten minutes and I can't see anything. I even tried crossing my eyes. Until I read the comments, I thought you were talking about the hairy vine (which is poison ivy btw). Where exactly am I looking in each image?

Re: confused and unable to see patterns

[nekosensei.livejournal.com]

The second one probably is a bunch of hairy vines, but it looks like a face. As I was saying, it's probably just my eyes picking out a pattern from nothing. The top one looks like the faint outline of a person just in front of the tree in the center.

[soulofajedi.livejournal.com]

The photos are beautiful... But I don't see what you see, even after you explained it to forestdruid. : ( So it goes. But I think the place would be wonderfully creepy to visit. : )

[ambericanbeauty.livejournal.com]

It's funny, but when I looked at the second pic you posted, I didn't see any of the things you saw, but I do see what appears to be a human figure dressed in khaki clothes (possibly janitor or some sort of army fatigues) immediately left of the big tree trunk. And in the enlarged version you linked to, I saw another figure in khaki fatigues all the way to the right of the pic... I guess that's the magic of imagination, it's all in what you interpret.

[sphix.livejournal.com]

Oooh, creepy <:o

The Grove

[blondibritecake.livejournal.com]

I haven't been there in a very long time and would definitely consider going.

[silme711.livejournal.com]

woah. The second one really looks creepy.