BLOG: 10 Photos of Unexpected Ghosts and Entities Taken at Family Gatherings
Depending on your family, the holidays are a wonderful time to celebrate with family and friends, or a real horror show.
With Thanksgiving coming up soon and the December holidays not far behind, we’re taking a look at some photos from family events that really became something of a horror, after the pictures were found to contain some pretty scary uninvited guests.
Are these family pictures genuine snaps of paranormal activity, or just mundane incidents of malfunctioning cameras? From an alleged demon’s animal face, to a disembodied hand, to a famous photograph that may not be what it seems, here are 10 Photos of Unexpected Ghosts and Entities Taken at Family Gatherings!
1) The Demon Dog at the Wedding Anniversary Celebration
At his in-laws’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration, Joe Martinez and his wife had their picture taken together, like many of the other guests in attendance. Unlike the other guests, however, Joe’s photo captured something chilling lurking over his left shoulder. What appears to be the head of a dog stands behind Joe, staring into the camera with its creepy face.
The picture was kept in a photo album for eight years before Joe and his wife looked closely at the picture and discovered the eerie anomaly, but immediately Joe, who had long been a drug addict, believed he was looking at a demon. The image has since been examined by photo expert John Davenport, who believes it is authentic, and by Brian Bonner of the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society, who thinks the image is very interesting but doesn’t have enough evidence to make a firm determination.
Despite its scary mysterious figure - or rather, because of it - Joe credits the picture with scaring him straight and setting him on the road to recovery from his addictions. He now keeps the picture in his wallet as a reminder that even though the photo showed him something bad, it changed him for the good.
2) The Family Christmas Tree Apparition
This early 20th century picture of a family sitting together next to their Christmas tree is almost quaint enough to put on a vintage Christmas card - except for the partially materialized half of a body emerging from the top of the tree.
The origins of this photograph are almost entirely unknown, so it is unclear whether it is a genuine photo of an apparition, a modern photoshop job, or just a case of double exposure at the time the photograph was developed. If you or anyone you know has any information about this alleged ghost of Christmas Past, we’d love to know this picture’s true history!
3) The Uninvited Ghost Guest at the Table
Photo with flash - second image taken.
In 1988, a group of vacationers at the Hotel Vierjahreszeiten in Maurach, Austria gathered together for a farewell party inside the hotel. To capture their final night of vacation fun, one of the party members named Mr. Todd set up his Canon film camera at an adjacent table and positioned it to snap a photo of the group. When the self-timer went off the first time, the flash did not, so Mr. Todd reset the camera for another picture, successfully activating the flash on the second attempt.
Photo without the flash - first image taken.
When the film was later developed, one of the vacationers was reviewing the pictures and suddenly realized that the first image, taken without the flash, revealed an extra member in their party! Not only was the uninvited guest - a smiling woman’s head - unknown to everyone else in the picture, she also appeared to be popping out of the middle of the table, blurry, and slightly out of proportion compared to the other people around her.
The set of pictures has been examined by the Royal Photographic Society, the photographic department of Leicester University, and also the Society for Psychical Research. Although they could not conclude how the unknown woman came to be in the first picture, all three of them ruled out a double exposure as the cause for the anomaly. Just who she is or how she got there remains an eerie mystery - but at least she looks like she’s having a good time.
4) The Folly Ghost in the Easter Holiday Picture
Family photo with no extra people in the background.
Nurul Islam, his sister, and his niece and nephew were all enjoying an Easter getaway at Roundhay Park, near Leeds, West Yorks, when their family photos captured an alleged specter in the background.
Niece and nephew photo with a mysterious figure on the steps.
After snapping some pictures of the whole family in front a folly (a Victorian-style fake ruin) built George Nettleton in 1812, Islam’s niece and nephew took a photo together of their arms outstretched in front of the structure. Although the Islams have said they waited specifically for the crowds to clear the park before they took their photos, someone unknown seems to suddenly appear on the steps behind the children. Not only is the mysterious specter visible in the image when the Islams believed no one else was around them at the time, the figure also looks like it is wearing a long white garment and some kind of gauzy veil or wrap as it ascends the steps away from the camera.
Although the Roundhay Park Estate dates back even farther than the 1812 folly, no one is sure who this supposed ghost may be, as the director of Leeds Civic Trust Kevin Grady said that this photographic incident was the first time paranormal activity had been recorded at the site. Did a real person in a white gown slip by the Islams unnoticed as they took family photos, or were they just (un)lucky enough to capture the first evidence of ghosts out and about at Roundhay Park?
5) The Mysterious Hiding Figure at the Wedding Reception
A picture taken in 1972 by a professional photographer has gained some creepy notoriety online, thanks to a small figure hiding behind the photo’s subjects. The picture was anonymously submitted to a paranormal research website, with a brief description from the sender:
“The photo shows me on the left, my wife who was pregnant at the time, and friends. Crouching behind one of the figures is a ‘spirit extra’ looking towards the camera and dressed in what appears to be open-toed sandals.”
Reportedly, the photographer was taking shots of guests arriving at a wedding reception in Paisley, United Kingdom, and unsuspectingly captured the strange sight of shoes and an eye peeking around the legs of the man in the tuxedo. As is common in unexpected ghost photos, the photographer did not notice anyone hanging out behind the man at the time the photo was taken, but confirmed that the figure - whoever it may be - is also present in the picture’s negatives. A police photographer who examined the image has stated that it was genuine.
It’s certainly possible that someone’s little boy decided to hide in the background of the picture as it was being taken, since the solid form and its shoes are approximately the size of a child’s. But judging by how spooky the internet seems to find this particular photograph, there may be more to this image than meets its disturbing peeking eye.
6) The Shadow Person at the Wedding Reception
Another image on this list with very little background information is the smoky specter of a shadow person allegedly captured on the dance floor of a wedding reception. Taken at Barriere Fall Fair Hall in Barriere, British Columbia, Canada, Matilda Donal was photographing the group dance at her cousin’s wedding. It was only later on as she scrolled through her phone that she realized one of the dance pictures contained a shadowy human-shaped figure in the middle of the frame. Is Matilda’s phone pic the result of a motion blur on a crowded dance floor, or did her cousin’s wedding reception have a very questionable wedding crasher?
7) The Hand That Rocks the Family Photo
Is it more or less creepy when the picture in question has almost no context with which to frame it? Yet another image, this time from the creepy community of Reddit, has very little detail attached to it, but holds a big creep factor. Redditor Qbaxter77 shared a sweet happy photo taken with some family, plus one extra hand. As all the family members wrap their arms around one another, an unidentified right hand also rests on his dad’s right shoulder, and no one from the picture knows to whom it belongs. Qbaxter77 writes, "I am the kid with braces in the picture and I can honestly say that is not my hand. My parents' house is crazy haunted." Indeed, Qbaxter77’s right arm appears hanging down in front of him and all of the other hands, both right and left, look like they can be accounted for. So, who is the Thing lightly gripping right next to Dad’s neck? Is the image a double exposure, or an unwanted guest in Qbaxter77’s parents’ “crazy haunted” house?
8) The Ghost Posing on the Homestead Porch
A family photo taken in New Zealand around 1930 seems to contain an extra member in the midst of the gathering. Standing above the big family, who are seated on the porch, appears to be a womanly figure in a bodice dress, posing placidly with the rest of the group.
At first she may be hard to spot, but once noticed, what look like thin arms and a period dress are almost all the eye can see. Redditor Njfurlong provided just a bit of history on the photo, writing about the suspected ghost figure: “My aunt saw her a few times while growing there in the '60s/'70s. Beside or at the end of her bed. She wore a fitted white bodice-style dress, with a dark brooch at her waist, dark hair up in a bun." Her aunt’s description seems to eerily match that of the porch apparition.
Although who the ghost is - or was - is a mystery she seems to feel as though she is a part of the family.
9) The Shadow Man Who Came to Thanksgiving Dinner
One homeowner was constantly “bumping into shadows” ever since living in her house, but her family laughed at her and made light of her fears. That is until one Thanksgiving, when the family gathered together for dinner and her daughter took a picture of her boyfriend.
The resulting photo captured not only the boyfriend, but also a large, black shadow man with “smoke” coming out of his head. After the daughter showed the picture to her mother, she confirmed that it was the same shadow person she continually saw in her house - and no one in the family laughs at her anymore.
10) The Infamous Cooper Family Falling ‘Ghost’
Since 2009, the infamous Cooper family falling ghost photograph has been one of the most disturbing paranormal pictures on the internet. It is also may be one of the best fakes.
The story goes that sometime in the 1950s, the Cooper family moved into an old house in Texas, and on the first night in their new homestead, the father took a picture of his wife, two kids, and Grandma sitting at the dinner room table. When they developed the film, however, they were horrorstricken to discover that next to the family was an upside down, faceless body hanging from the ceiling.
When it first emerged online, the picture quickly made many a list of the scariest ghost photos ever taken. It has also supposedly been examined by photography experts who dubbed the image to be authentic. But around 2015, a very different story surfaced. A man named Robert Copper - not Cooper - came forward to reveal that, after seeing the image, he was sure he and his brother were the two boys in the picture with the falling ghost - but someone, unknown to him, had gravely altered the photo. He said the image was taken in 1959 and although he did not have that exact photo (he added that his mother habitually threw away any photos she did not like), he had other childhood pictures that seemed to match the curtains, candles, and tablecloth all visible in the falling ghost photo. Robert Copper further went on to say: “What annoys me is that somebody got hold of a family photograph. The story is almost entirely fiction. Our last name is Copper, not Cooper. Does anybody know who did this?”
Robert Copper’s family photos compared to the falling ghost photo.
Since Robert Copper’s testimony came to light, internet sleuths have continued to analyze the ‘original’ image and have offered suggestions to debunk it. They theorize that Robert Copper’s family photo was hoaxed using the original shot of the family superimposed with what may be the head and torso of a ballet dancer, turned upside down and edited to look older and obviously much more sinister. Combined with the details and pictures Robert Copper provided, there seems to be a very plausible theory that the falling ghost photo that has disturbed the internet for over a decade may well be a very talented hoax. Is it possible someone somewhere came across a family photograph that had been thrown away by Robert Copper’s mother (maybe a picture labeled ‘Copper Family’ but misread as ‘Cooper Family’), and subsequently used it to create their own ghost story? Even while the picture may truly be a fake, the fear it has generated since it emerged has really made it one of the scariest family ‘ghost’ photos.
Do you know any other details about these family ghost photos? Will you be examining all your holiday pictures more closely this year? Share your thoughts and stories with us in the comments, and have a very happy (and not haunted) holiday season!
For more weird and haunting images, check out Scary Pictures of Shadow People Caught on Camera, 6 Images of Ghost Monks Caught on Camera, and 10 Historic UFO Photos Taken Around the World!
~ Lindsay W. Merkel
