By Anne Salisbury, Ph.D. & Greg Meyerhoff

In this series we investigate orbs, those spheres of light that can appear in your photographs.

Bouncing with Curiosity (at the Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway)

Sometimes you can identify the same orb showing up in multiple photos through their enlargement notice the nuances of color, shape and design. Also, when you quickly click a series of photos, you can see them move around from photo to photo. This was true when we shot a series of photos in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway later that summer of 2008.

These spheres appear to be curious ones, like dogs that want to get a good sniff of everything – in a manner of bouncing from person to person way. Then, they become satisfied and take off.

These orbs seem to enjoy the activity of investigation and interaction more than other orbs. You could say that these orbs have exceedingly curious personalities, and once they are satisfied, they just pick up and run off to the next intriguing site for investigation.

Bouncing w Curiosity

Have Your Own Orb Experience!

To see the movement of orbs, go to a place where you feel as though there might be some. It helps if this place is somewhat dark so that you can use your flash. This could be an old church, a piece of land you feel is sacred or perhaps a place where you have photographed orbs before.

Take out your camera and just start clicking away in the same direction. Then enlarge the photos to see if you can find the same unique signature of one orb in the next photo as well. Look for the placement of the orb in each photo so that you can tell how much it has moved. It may disappear from one photo completely and appear again in a few photos later.

This gives you a good feel for identifying specific orbs and their movement. You can start feeling more familiar with them through this careful form of observation.