Time Out! - Jay and Silent Bob Get Old Tour

Time Out!

It might seem to the outside observer that Eidolon Paranormal is doing very little right now, however, I can assure you this is not the case. We are as busy, If not busier than we have ever been.

 We have some very exciting projects that we are working on behind the scenes, and also organising some new investigations, all of which takes time, add to this a backlog of Private House Investigations, and we barely have time to live our day to day lives!

We went and watched the amazing Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes perform at the Thebarton Theatre in Adelaide over the weekend. Both Karen and I have been big fans of Kevin Smiths and Jason Mewes work for a long long time, so it was truly amazing for us both to be able to witness the great men in action on their "Jay And Silent Bob Get Old Tour".

 Even more amazing was Kevin was his own opening act, recording a "Smodcast" with his "hetero-life-partner", and best friend, the also awesomely amazing, Scott Mosier - this just made an already evening even better!

 We were very lucky to also get some signed merchandise, which will soon be framed and join our other signed memorabilia on the Eidolon Paranormal Office Wall, right next to Aaron Goodwin, and The Booth Brothers signed Merch!

 Kevin Smith on stage

 The following day we went and watched "The Avengers" in 3D. I am a big fan of comic-book/superhero movies, and this was one I had been waiting for this year (as well as the "The Amazing Spiderman" and "The Dark Knight Rises" (Batman)).

 If you are into fast-paced action with a little comedy thrown in, The Avengers is for you, it is a masterpiece of comic book moviedom!

 In other news, I have just been featured in a newspaper article about Schneider's Alley in Stonyfell:

http://eastern-courier-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/stonyfell-ghost-hunters-spook-the-neighbours/

Eidolon Paranormal's first newspaper interview...and I've been doing this for how long now? - so that's one TV Appearance, one Podcast and one Newspaper article (for those of you keeping score) in 5 years of Eidolon Paranormal being a publicly known entity....hmmm..maybe in another 5 years time I might make a radio appearance!

Until then Constant Reader, you will have my intermittent blog posts.....enjoy, or not :)

-Allen

EXIF FILES - What Are They, and How To Access Them?

EXIF FILES - What Are They, and How To Access Them?

Recently it has been brought to my attention that the term "EXIF File" is being thrown around by paranormal teams and investigators, without any real explanation of what it is, what it does, and how it is used. I thought I would take it upon myself to explain to you, Constant Reader, what an EXIF file is, and what it does.

EXIF data can also be found in other photo file formats, these are "RAW" (associated with DSLR) and "TIFF" formats, we may discuss these at a later point.

 The reason behind its prolific use of late has to do with accusations from some sectors of the paranormal community in regards to teams "faking" photographs of ghosts.

EXIF Files are very useful in finding out certain information from when the photo was taken, and if it has been tampered with electronically, this is not by any means infallible information, as you will see as we get further into this research and discussion.

- Allen Tiller

What does EXIF mean?

 The Acronym "EXIF" stands for   "Exchangeable Image File Format"

So What is it?

EXIF is a non-industry-approved standard that was created by the "Japanese Electronic Industries Development Association" to capture data associated with tagging aspects of Smart Phones, Digital Cameras, Scanners, and Audio associated with these media types. It can also capture Geo-location data via satellite in certain smartphones and newer cameras.

The stored information can include but is not limited to,  shutter speeds, date and time a photo was taken, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern, and if a flash was used. This is what is known as a "meta tag".

So who uses it?

 Professional Photographers often examine their EXIF data to compare two or three photos taken in succession, as one photo may be considered "successful" whereas two others may not. This gives the photographer visual clues as to what may have gone wrong with the "unsuccessful" photos, allowing one to adjust or compensate in future photographic shoots.

 Paranormal Investigators are often flooded with photos from the public asking "What is it in this photo?", a vast majority of the public is honestly unaware of what an image could be, but there is that small percentage that fake a photo to try and catch an investigator out. This is where EXIF data can be utilised by the investigator to determine if tampering or photo-shopping has been done to the photo, it can also expose the current trend of phone APPs that create ghost images - however, as I said in my opening paragraph, it is not infallible.

So how do I see it?

 To view your EXIF file data you have a few options, the software that came with your digital camera should allow you to view the data. You can also find EXIF web browser plug-ins online, photo editing and organizing programs usually have an option for viewing as well.

 You will find in different programs different terminology used other than EXIF,. In Picasa the term "Photo Information" is used, whereas in Flikr it is referenced as "Properties"

Most Internet Browsers have plug-ins available that will allow you to view the EXIF data of photos posted online. This is useful if you are interested in examining different aspects of photography, or want to improve your own technique.

This link will take you to a site that shows a variety of different EXIF data from various camera makers

 http://www.exif.org/samples.html

Does it have drawbacks?

 Yes, here is a brief sample of drawbacks associated with EXIF data sourced from Wikipedia

   - The Exif standard specifically states that colour depth is always 24 bits. However, many modern cameras, such as the Nikon D70 which captures 36 bits of colour per pixel, can capture significantly more. Since Exif/DCF files cannot represent this colour depth, many manufacturers have developed proprietary, non-compatible Raw image formats.

   - Exif is very often used in images created by scanners, but the standard makes no provisions for any scanner-specific information.

  - There is no way to record time-zone information along with the time, thus rendering the stored time ambiguous.

You stated earlier that EXIF files are not infallible, how so?

 I  always check the EXIF file of any photo sent to me, it allows me to see what settings the camera was on, this is valuable information, as often cameras will be set to " night mode" which opens the shutter for a longer period of time. If the camera is focused on a light source, and that light source or the camera itself moves at any point in the duration of the open shutter, the light will have a streak effect or a glowing effect. Many people mistake this for ghosts, spirits or other phenomena. 

 I also check to see if a photo has been made on an APP, like the infamous ghost making APPS found on Apple's I-Tunes :

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/ghost-capture/id349479650?mt=8

The truth is EXIF data can be altered, changed, lost or deleted, and rather easily too, with a variety of programs available to do so. Here are some links with information about changing EXIF data:

http://www.photosurfer.com/fix-enhance/24/how-to-edit-meta-data-or-add-information-meta-tags-to-photos.aspx 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Digital-Photo-Tools/Exif-Date-Changer.shtml

Adobe Lightroom 3:

 http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/WS57264460-DC72-4a1f-A665-1E90907A9FFD.html

So as you can see EXIF data is not infallible and not really a valid argument when accusing another of faking a photo, because the reality is, you can never be 100% certain the data is or isn't correct. I normally recommend to all budding paranormal investigators to forget the photography and go with the video, as photography gives you an image and no data, no start and finish point, whereas video gives you a start point, an action point and an endpoint, allowing for better examination of a phenomenon represented by the images - but, video is also fraught with so many possibilities for tampering, editing and faking....but we'll leave that for a later discussion!

Researched & Written by

Allen Tiller

"As In Life, As In Death" - A Paranormal Theory

As in life, As in death

A Paranormal Theory

by

Allen Tiller

Please consider the following scenario:

David was a grumpy old man. He had spent 40 years working in poor conditions in a factory for minimum wage. He had spent his life living in public housing, never able to afford a house of his own. His children had grown up with hand-me-down clothing, as money was always tight. This led to complications with his marriage, which ended in divorce.

Even as a young man, David was always in a bad mood. The world around him got him down. He found no happiness from sport, no satisfaction from work or family, and eventually, David died a miserable old coot with no friends...

 

Now, I have a question for you, Constant readers. If ‘David’ from my story above lived a miserable life, and was generally a sad miserable person, would he be released from his anguish and be a happy man in the after-world, or would he be as he was in life?

It is an interesting question and one I have pondered upon for quite some time. Firstly, let's remove religious bliss, things like going to Heaven and receiving forgiveness from this equation, and focus purely on the soul of the man that has shed his dense earthly skin.

So, now David is a Ghost, he looks much like he did, he sounds much like he did.... does that mean he is the same ‘soul’ he was when he was alive?

It is my wager that he is the same person, just without the dense human vessel around him.

Now, let us leave David to his misery and change the focus of emotion to something a bit darker, let us say, Anger.

Same scenario, but I'll name our Angry character "Susan".

Susie has been angry her whole life, and, if my theory is correct is angry in Death.

New people move into Susie's house after her passing, she does not like them much (she doesn’t like anyone much) and begins to cause trouble, little things at first, but as her anger builds, so does her efforts to cause trouble.

Soon the new occupants are worried and call in a paranormal investigation team.

The team begins their investigation, and Susie becomes even angrier as these strangers start asking inane questions of her...she scratches one of the investigators to get her point across...

Now, constant reader, you are that investigator, and you know nothing of Susie in life...do you jump to the conclusion of ‘angry ghost lady’, or do you jump to something “demonic”?

 

My belief is most would jump to the demonic theory and not even contemplate an ‘Angry Susie ghost’, this is partly because of the current trend of TV shows that come to the “demonic” theory all too quickly, partly because of the movie industry (think “The Exorcist”, “Amityville”, etc.) and maybe a little bit of presumption on my part.

 

It is my belief that as we are now, we are the same person after death, of course, this is just my own personal theory, and may not apply to every living person. I imagine someone in intense physical pain, or with a degenerative disease, such as Alzheimer’s, maybe freed from their affliction in death, and become negative or positive, depending on their outlook, and return to something like their old self – but who is to say really? As with all things in the paranormal world, it is just a theory and probably opens more questions as to what is possible...

 

It is, my goal to get you thinking about such theories, and hopefully adding your views, thoughts or questions to the discussion about this article in the Eidolon Paranormal forums found on our website at www.eidolonparanormal.com.au – I look forward to reading your comments (but please keep the negativity to a minimum).

- Allen Tiller

Eidolon Paranormal

SA Paranormal Meet-ups 2012

SA Paranormal Meet-ups 2012

 It has been a while since I posted anything here, my excuse - "We've been too busy!"
In the past few months, Karen and I have clocked up massive amounts of kilometres visiting haunted locations around South Australia, by ourselves and with other teams involved in the SA Paranormal Meet-ups.

The teams with the guide, Kathy Webb and host Tony Holland at the Gladstone Gaol 2012

 Our most recent investigation was at the Gladstone Gaol complex located in Gladstone South Australia, this investigation involved 5 teams, Adelaide Spirit Chasers, Adelaide Shadow hunters, Shadow Riders Paranormal Investigations, Mid North Paranormal, and of course, Eidolon Paranormal.

Members of Adelaide Spirit Chasers, Adelaide Shadow Hunters and Karen of Eidolon Paranormal

 We rotated through the sections of the gaol so everyone could get a chance at investigating different areas, then we all joined together as one big team for experimentation in various areas. It was a fantastic evening, with varying results, for more about the gaol visit our website or the Facebook pages of the teams involved.

The new S.A. Paranormal logo designed by Allen Tiller and Karen Paynter

 S.A. Paranormal was founded by Allen with the aim of bringing paranormal teams and the public together to learn, experience, investigate and chat about all things paranormal. It has taken some time, but finally, we are achieving the original goal set out almost 3 years ago. Expect more investigations and more teams to be involved this year as we gain more interested parties, not just from S.A. but all over Australia

We are looking forward to networking with a lot of new contacts we have made recently, and to some really great investigation locations, we have already booked for the year!

We would also like welcome Jayde Richards back into the Eidolon Paranormal team, Jayde took a year away from the Paranormal scene to travel the world....Jayde has been a member of PRISM and had her own team in NSW, she is a well-rounded investigator with plenty of experience and a welcome asset to the team :)

2012 is going to be a massive year for Eidolon Paranormal and S.A. Paranormal!

5 Team Paranormal Investigation in Kapunda, then Peterborough.

Hi
It's been a while since I posted on here, we at Eidolon Paranormal have been extremely busy with investigations and the S.A. Paranormal Meet-ups.

Since my last blog, we have been involved in two multi-team investigations, one at a cemetery in Kapunda, which also included a tour with some of the public who came from the S.A. Paranormal Meet-up. The investigation included: Eidolon Paranormal, Shadow Riders Paranormal Investigations, Mid North Paranormal, Adelaide Spirit Chasers and Adelaide Shadow Hunters. This investigation happened on October 29th 2011, and as far as we are aware, up until that time, was the biggest multi-team investigation in the world.

 The 2nd multi-team investigation happened on November 5th 2011 at "The Capitol Theatre" and "Peterborough Antique and Removals Store". This involved the same 5 teams working together in an enclosed environment.
 The teams worked exceptionally well together covering all areas of the Theatre, shop and garage, getting involved in experiments and sharing the vast amounts of equipment each team had brought to the investigation.
 We would like to thank Leanne and Phil, owners of the location for allowing such a large group of teams to descend upon their buildings, and for inviting us to come back to do it again!

 In Other news, Eidolon Productions has been filming a new ad for the Excel Health Fitness Gym in Kapunda, this project should be finalised soon. Allen has written his own score for this one, so everything in it is totally original - we are hoping the owners will really like it.

 Eidolon Paranormal has also adopted a new team member/ mascot/ trigger/object "Abby". Abby was given to Karen by our good friends Hillary and Ron for "Goth Girl Appreciation Day" in October 2011. Hillary made her by hand - and what an excellent job she did! You'll be seeing more of Abby as she starts to appear in investigations, and maybe some of her own videos too...

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to visit our website and facebook page for updates on what we are doing...

Thanks for reading
Allen and Karen

Adelaide Gaol, Cheltenham Cemetery, SA Paranormal Meet-ups

Wow! We were busy this weekend!

A trip to Gawler in the afternoon, then home to Kapunda, then into Adelaide for a ghost tour of The Old Adelaide Gaol with another local Paranormal Investigation team - The Adelaide Spirit Chasers.

Our tour was conducted by ex-co-founder of Paranormal Field Investigators, Mr Jeff Fausch, who is both informative and entertaining, This is the 2nd time Allen has been through the Gaol with Jeff, but the first time for Karen. Both of us really enjoyed it, and we both recommend asking for Jeff as your tour guide if possible when touring with The Adelaide Gaol Preservation Society.

On our way back to the Kapunda we made a quick detour to Cheltenham Cemetery to see how the Fireman statue was looking, The cemetery is currently being upgraded by the local council and appears to be in excellent condition!

 Sunday we were even busier, attending the Patrons Club event at The Clare Castle Hotel Kapunda!  We filmed Arvi Peterson's blues and ballads performance for a project we are currently working on, the footage came out really well and is being edited tonight (I am taking a break to write this!)
 Eidolon Paranormal then co-hosted the new look S.A. Paranormal Meet-up in the beer garden of The Clare Castle Hotel. We had a strong attendance of local teams, with our new co-hosts, Adelaide Spirit Chasers. Also attending were  Shadow Riders Paranormal Investigations, Mid North Paranormal, as well as some new guests and returning guests from our old meet-ups. We had a great discussion about all things paranormal and some spiritual topics, including aspects of crystals and protection. We also filmed a short piece for Naked Zombie Paranormal Radio which Allen quickly put together last night and posted on Brad Scott's Facebook wall - you can find the video on our Youtube channel.

 All in all, we had a fantastic busy weekend and really enjoyed ourselves, sharing ideas and information with other teams and other people.

Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre Paranormal Investigation

Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre Paranormal Investigation

For this post, I thought I might go back a few months and post some info about one of our recent paranormal investigations.
 In July this year (2011), we teamed up with Peterborough paranormal investigation group, Mid North Paranormal to conduct an investigation at a local heritage rail museum, Steamtown.

 Karen and I arrived late in the day and joined Mid-north Team leader "Tizzy" for an inspection of the site. We needed to see what possible dangers and obstacles there might be and to get an idea of the layout of the site to design our plan to investigate.
 What a magnificent place Steamtown ended up being! Steam locomotives, diesel loco's, carriages, it was a trainspotter dream place!
 We worked out where we would set up our base camp, we then returned to Tizzy's house for a quick briefing, before returning to the site. Steamtown has a light and sound show, which includes a feature film about the history of the town, the trains and townsfolk, we were invited to watch, and did so, taking notes for our EVP sessions and for when we return for future investigations...
 During the movie, it started raining, which soon turned became a downpour! We feared we might lose our investigation, and having driven two hours, it would be a costly loss! However, our guides, Len and Tanya, two of Steamtown's volunteers allowed us to investigate inside the train carriages, something we didn't expect - and our investigation was saved!
  We had a number of other problems with equipment though, throughout the night, our night vision failed, which left us in the dark with video, but we persevered, and believe we collected some good footage of the location.
 We had a number of "incidents" during our investigation with a shadowy figure seen walking along platform 13, which was not one of the team or volunteers. Unexplained footsteps were heard walking through another section of the complex, with no visible source. We also hear whistling from an unknown source and witnessed lights that we can not account for. Steamtown was heavy with orbs, but this is explainable due to excessive dust and air currents. While we gathered a lot of data, we concluded that we did not gather any solid evidence of paranormal activity (other than personal experiences)  that could be presented to the client.  We will, however, be returning to try again at some point in the future.

Steamtown video - this is a little video of our adventure