Ever since the day my pal Dan and I threw a pot lid in the air and got some really incredible UFO photos, I've not been convinced of the efficacy of photos to prove much of anything. So witness this shot, currently making the rounds as a contest winner and generally getting people all in an uproar about the "ghost" in the window:
Apparently, everyone has forgotten the incredible fairies photographed in England in 1917 that took in upper class British twits and even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who was rather a sap when it came to believing anything paranormal):
I'd bet a rather large sum of money that both photos–and the fairy photos, of which there were several, persisted in being declared "real" into the 1970s–were faked in precisely the same fashion. The ever-irascible realist James Randi pointed out in said '70s that the "Cottingley fairies" bore a remarkable resemblance to cut-outs from a children's book in circulation when the photos were taken. Snip a little and paste some paper on the outside of those iron bars in the first photo, put one inside for good measure, and you've got yourself a ghost photo. I mean, look at the original, unzoomed version:
Come to think of it, I think I saw a ghost on my fridge this morning. I'm endlessly fascinated by the human desire to be fooled. And the human ability to see faces in everything is certainly the hoaxer's best friend.
That said, what I want to know is how this was faked, because there's no way on God's green Earth it's really a gnome. This is one short hoaxer, by gum. Or a really well-trained monkey:
Turns out that second "spontaneous" take was better than the first, equally "spontaneous" one:
