Fireworks, Phantoms, and Other Phenomena
Colonial Williamsburg’s Grand Illumination is a spectacle that rivals its July 4th celebration, and is well attended by people, phantoms, and yes other phenomena (I will get into the other category in a minute). In my second book, I was able to capture more ghosts in one photo than have ever been captured before—a whole ghost militia standing at the Powder Magazine—so this original 18th century building is a source of endless fascination with me. So when I discovered that one of the locations for the pyrotechnics was the Magazine, I just had to station myself as close as possible to the over three-hundred-year-old octagonal building, hoping for another appearance of the 18th century militia, or perhaps an appearance by a 19th century Confederate army unit, whose mass gravesite was proximal to the guardhouse—right next to the magazine. I was curious if all the fanfare from the fireworks was sufficient to wake the militia a third time (I had captured them standing in front of the magazine’s wall on two separate occasions, just one week apart), but it was not. I was able to capture a number of phantoms watching from nearby the guardhouse, but it was not an organized, post-mortem gathering of the military, just some casual observers.
I was able to capture several faces peering over the fence near the guardhouse, two of which are bearded males—the beards making a strong argument to place them in a Civil War fighting unit, perhaps even the 24th Virginia regiment, which was decimated in the Battle of Fort Magruder (Williamsburg). Standing near them was a striking full-body apparition, but it’s hard to make out the details, other than it’s a large, overweight woman. Perhaps you can see something that neither others nor myself can see?
The clearest, most detailed apparition that I captured was at the Powder Magazine’s wall, on a metal grid that was used as part of the fireworks display. What is really unusual is that it is the first time that I have a photo of an apparition that is actually smiling! All of the faces that I’ve photographed previously have a face that seems to be devoid of emotion—or sometimes with the mouth gaping open—which I learned from a registered nurse happens at death. (She said that when a patient dies she has to often close the mouth as well as the eyes.) I can only wonder if the fact that the clearest electromagnetic entity appeared over a metal grid, giving rise to the question is the conductive metal in the grid responsible for the clarity of the electromagnetic apparition?
One of the phenomena that comes under the other category are orbs, often dismissed as dust or moisture in the air. The orbs at the Magazine are huge, and they appear to be misshapen hexagons high up in the air where the fireworks exploded. You can tell that they are not small objects that are so near the lens that they appear to be large, because they would have been much darker being that my camera was several hundred feet from the Magazine—in the dark. These shapes are lit up as if they are right up there over the Magazine where the exploding pyrotechnics can illuminate them. For this and other reasons I find it difficult to just dismiss these orbs as just moisture or dust. (I have captured orbs moving at tremendous speed on video—faster than any air movement indoors or out—as well as the fact that they can suddenly change direction and move at a right angle to their previous course.) Check out the massive orbs suspended over the Magazine and illuminated by the exploding fireworks, and you decide for yourself. After all, belief in the paranormal is a highly personal thing dependent on whether or not you have had a paranormal experience or not, as well as your philosophic and religious background. Then there is of course changing one’s philosophic and/or religious background based on a paranormal experience . . .
Here are just a few of the fireworks photos at Colonial Williamsburg’s Powder Magazine showing massive orbs; some are at the very top of the photo and cut off.
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The first two ghost faces I captured at the Magazine were near the Guardhouse, which was next to a mass gravesite of Confederate soldiers. Given the hairstyles and the beards, these might just be two of them, and I can only wonder if the myriad of colors on their faces is from the fireworks:
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I’m not sure if this is masculine or feminine, but again the colors make for an intriguing face:
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Two feminine phantom faces showed up together—could they be related?
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The clearest, most intriguing photo of all was a feminine face that appeared on the metal grill in front of the Magazine’s wall; could the conductive properties of the metal enable this electromagnetic entity to appear so much larger and clearer than the others?
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Check out other ghost photo blogs including the following: the ghost of a small child and others attracted to what is familiar to them, the ghosts in the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA; the ghosts in Julep’s Restaurant in Richmond, Va; ghosts in a Las Vegas casino; dark hooded apparitions in Colonial Williamsburg, the ghosts ofMerchant Square, Williamsburg, the ghosts of Jerome, AZ P1, Jerome, AZ P2, the ghosts of Relics Restaurant, Sedona, AZ, the ghosts of the Red Garter, Williams, AZ P1, the ghosts of the Red Garter, Williams, AZ, P2, ghosts in theBarnes & Noble Bookstore that featured my book, Williamsburg’s most haunted: the Peyton Randolph House, the ghosts of Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ, one of America’s most haunted roads: Crawford Road, near Yorktown, VA,Civil War ghosts in my house, Civil War ghosts at Edgewood Plantation, photographic proof that ghosts are attracted to children, the story of how one of my ghost photos was positively identified by a group of friends, and other paranormal posts.
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After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography (Part 1) available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon, nominated for consideration in the nonfiction category for the 19th annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
2nd edition, with over 100 new photos & 7 new Chapters is out now: https://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Historic-Colonial-Williamsburg-Virginia/dp/0764358898/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
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Part 2 of this book features the largest number of ghosts ever captured in a single camera shot, as well as several photos of apparitions that look alien to our world. Here is the link:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/0764355724
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Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
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