Atlanta, Georgia
August 30, 2002
Brandy's Report:
First, I would like to thank the Ghost Hounds for their hospitality
(Picture at right). Thanks for the batteries, Holly!
The Ghost Hounds (GH) were guest presentors for Dragon*con 2002.
As in years past, they ended their presentations by selecting five volunteers
from the audience to go with them on a ghost hunt in Atlanta. This year, Mark,
a friend who lives in Atlanta, and I were additional guests for the hunt. This
was Mark's first investigation, and my first in Atlanta.
We went to two locations: Cooke Elementary School, where a civil war cemetary and hospital once stood. We arrived at 11 PM. In my group was Mark Tisdale, myself, Holly Simpson (GH), Brian S., and Nick N. Patrick Burns, (GH) lead the investigation.
The area near the school is currently recovering from hard economic times. It was once a high crime and drug area. However, during the Civil War this area was just on the outskirts of Atlanta. It housed a hospital; legend has it that the hospital took in around 11,000 dead and injured war soldiers in a single day.
The investigation was centered mostly around cameras, digital video recorders, and digital cameras of various brands, which the volunteers brought with them. (Mark had an Olympus digital camera, I had my Pentax 35 mm with 400 speed black and white film. When that ran out, I switched to 400 speed color film. The Samsung digital camera was also used).
Though many in the group captured orb images, there was no other equipment with us to validate paranormal activity. EMF and temperature readings were unavailable to provide additional readings or to confirm paranormal activities in the areas.
However, it was an interesting investigation. At the site of the school, my digital camera picked up one mist image. I was skeptical of the image, as it was very humid that night and I was unable to look at it other than on the LCD screen on the camera. Could the mist have been caused by humidity alone?
The question was answered when a few days later, after I returned home. I noticed that this was the ONLY image with mist on it, including images taken 30 seconds before and after that shot. Holly and I attempted to reduplicate the image and the duplications were null. The mist seems to be too fine to be humidity. There was NO smoking on the hunt, and no smoke noted in the area that night. (see below)
One of the two orbs in the image is strange. To the left is a small white orb, which seems to fit the standard orb pattern. The larger orb, however, is a yellowish shade. It could be a reflection of the school security light but the orb image is not the same shape as the light and is twice the size of the light itself. It is my understanding that images that are refractions tend to be the same size and shape of the light source.
During this area of the investigation, Mark also noted that he felt a cold sensation. He captured several orb images on his camera.
Fog Image with Orbs. Cars in background belong to the drivers of the GH investigation. The image before and after this shot had no mist. None of the other photographs had mist images. (Below): My attempt to replicate the images.
