Calling all photographers!

[caddyman]

The photograph below was taken by my niece, Hayley on her mobile phone last week on Mothers' Day. The event was the baptism of her friend's baby, both pictured.

It is not the best of photos even for a phone camera: it is shaky and not well focused. What is interesting though, is the background. There appears to be the blurred image of a the head and shoulder of a man, possibly an old man, wearing glasses between the camera lens and the plaque on the church wall. My first thought was that it was a reflection on the plaque, but it is too large and seems to partially obscure the wreath below.



Apart from downloading it from my phone to my computer and uploading to Photobucket, all I have done is rotate the picture ninety degrees.

Do any of the fair number of photographers on my friends list have any thoughts as to how the image might have got on to the picture and what it may be? I am informed that there was no-one there behind the woman and baby when the picture was taken.

Comments

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

It's a digital 'ghost'. They happen sometimes. Basically it's another image that the phone has captured at some point and has been partially stored in the memory. When it took the photo the camera got confused and combined the two images into one when it stored the photo. It's rare but not unheard of.

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Examining the picture it appears to be a man in a gray shirt and white dog collar such as is sometimes worn by CofE Vicars and the trendier Catholic Priests. I think that it is likely that he walked past as the photo was being lined up and the camera phone (being essentially a video camera that takes stills) recorded several frames of the priest in it's temporary memory, and due to a glitch combined those with the actual picture.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I like that explanation: it is believable and seems to fit rationally with what little I know about the technology underpinning digital cameras.