Myrtles Plantation – Tips for Capturing Ghost Orbs

Ghost orb pictures are among the most popular evidence of hauntings.

They’re also one of the easiest subjects for beginning ghost photographers.

Some people seem to attract ghost orbs more than others.

We’ve known ghost hunters who never see orbs in their photos, but they get great EVP… and vice versa.

Those of us who do capture ghost orbs in pictures, also seem to bring home higher percentages of ghost orb photos each time. We don’t know if the ghosts have become more comfortable with us, or if we’re developing an innate sense of where the orbs are.

Some ghost researchers claim that one or two orb photos per hundred (using a film camera) is a very good statistic.

In profoundly haunted locations, as many as 35% of my photos will include anomalous orbs.

They can turn up where you least expect them.

However, they may not show up when you do expect them.

That’s what happened when a few of us were taking baseline photos at the Myrtles.

(It’s smart to take several photos in locations where you’d expect to see false orbs, due to reflections, humidity, lights, and so on.)

Ruling Out False Orbs

That night, several of us—including Margaret Byl and me—were taking photos outdoors after dark.

Our intent was to see how many false orbs appeared in our pictures. That way, we’d know how cautious to be when photographing known haunted areas at the plantation.

To our amazement, we saw no orbs in pictures where humidity should have produced them.

The photo, at left (dark scene with white picket fence), was taken at the back of The Myrtles Plantation, near the marshy land and pond.

We expected at least a half dozen false (natural) orbs in this and other photos.

As you can see, even in a very haunted location, ghost orbs can be rare… even when they should naturally appear in photos.

Was this an anomaly, in itself? At a very haunted site like the Myrtles Plantation, it’s difficult to be certain.

Indoor Orbs at a Haunted Piano

Indoors, we’re cautious when an orb might be from a reflective surface. (That’s rare,* but it can happen. So, we err on the side of skepticism.)

At the right, you can see one of my few good orb photos taken at The Myrtles Plantation. (An enhanced close-up is shown below, on the left.)

That’s the famous broken piano at the entry to the most haunted wing of The Myrtles Plantation.

We checked the piano carefully, and some of the keys were jammed so that the piano didn’t work.

In fact, it couldn’t.

We also examined the piano closely for microphones or other evidence of a hoax.

It’s a real, broken piano with nothing added.

There is no sound equipment anywhere in that wing, which could account for what we heard later that night.

During our visit, around midnight, that piano started playing all by itself. Of course, I’d heard the stories about piano music.

However, I was expecting something classical… a piece by Debussy or something.

Not even close.  It wasn’t a melody, but the “plink, plink, plink” of a small child tapping on the keys at the far right side of the keyboard.

The experience was eerie, but one of the less startling events of a dramatic night at The Myrtles Plantation.

We weren’t at all surprised to see an orb over the piano in several of our photos—taken from different directions— including this one.

*For years, I was among the most skeptical voices regarding “ghost orbs.” Then, after several years of intense study of orbs—with multiple cameras (film and digital)—I discovered that it’s very difficult to create a convincing (but fake) orb in photos.

Since then, I’ve been trying to undo the damage I caused by my early (199os and early 2000s) assertions. See my article Ghost Orbs – An Overlooked Question.