Odd artifact in picture during storm

gaman

gaman

Jedi Master
Background:

I had forgotten about this, but my wife and I were driving to visit family one weekend a few months ago during a bad storm. We saw some really amazing cloud formations and such so we decided to take some pics with the phone to see how they would turn out. I was trying to take a good picture of the low hanging clouds coming off the mountain. My first shot caught the wipers (I checked each shot as soon as I took it to make sure it was good) so I took another one.

One the second shot, something wierd showed up about 25% over from the left and down to the middle. It looks like some kind of glowing/charged structure/arch. I noticed it in the pic immediately and looked but it was not visible to the naked eye. My wife was amazed as well.

I guess this could be just some kind of camera glitch but it was during a storm with lightning and was wierd enough I though it would give me an excuse to post as I've been dormant in the slumps for a long time :)

I haven't edited these pics except to resize them down. The first one showing the wipers is just up the road, then the second one has the glowing arch thingie.
 

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I wish I knew enough about imaging artifacts, reflections, etc. to be able to figure out if this was some kind of reflection off the windshield but with the angle of the shot, combined with the previous shot that shows what might have been reflected, I don't see how. But, again, it wasn't visible to the naked eye so maybe some hitch in the phone camera. Still a little spooky and my wife and I remember it every so often and talk about it :)
 
I agree that it is an interesting find! It is after all possible, that the camera was picking up on a wavelength not normally visible. But, as you said, reflections and artifacts must also be considered. IMO the anomaly does have quite the odd shape, even for a reflection or artifact. I'm no expert though. :)

I noticed that there is an intersection present, and the weather is quite dark. Do you remember, were there any other cars behind you or at the intersection? Perhaps it could be a skewed headlight/streetlight reflection from an odd angle.
 
With all those power lines about... who knows. Still interesting. It appears to be behind the grove of trees when enlarged. :/
 
Jason (ocean59) said:
I noticed that there is an intersection present, and the weather is quite dark. Do you remember, were there any other cars behind you or at the intersection? Perhaps it could be a skewed headlight/streetlight reflection from an odd angle.
Click to expand...

I can't recall if there were cars behind us. It has been too long ago. It is very possible because that picture is less that a mile from an intersection that turns off a larger 4 lane road and there is usually plenty of traffic when we go through there.
 
First of all I am not an expert but I guess it can have something to do with camera glitch like you said in a first post. Structure is rectangular which could be result of some sort of single pixel reflection if it is a digital camera. If it is not a digital camera then thats really weird.

EDIT:
oh it is digital camera of your HTC mobile.

!!! REMEMBER TO ALWAYS WIPE METADATA OF PHOTOS YOU ARE POSTING IN NETWORK !!!
 
drygol said:
First of all I am not an expert but I guess it can have something to do with camera glitch like you said in a first post. Structure is rectangular which could be result of some sort of single pixel reflection if it is a digital camera. If it is not a digital camera then thats really weird.

EDIT:
oh it is digital camera of your HTC mobile.

!!! REMEMBER TO ALWAYS WIPE METADATA OF PHOTOS YOU ARE POSTING IN NETWORK !!!
Click to expand...

For those who do not know what image metadata is, and how to wipe/remove/clean it, here is the link:
_http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/02/ask-lh-how-can-i-remove-personal-info-from-photographs

or, you can google: "wipe metatadata photo" for more info.
 
Thanks for the reminder about the metadata but I already checked it before I uploaded it. Unless the software I use didn't show me all of the metadata tags, there wasn't anything personally identifying in there. I intentionally left the date and other general info.

If y'all see something personal in there, please let me know and I'll find better software :)
 
IMO camera info is an important thing. :)
Call me paranoid but having that information is important from attackers point of view. Without going into technical details , consider this scenario.
For example , I know that you have an HTC which probably runs Android - this narrows the attack vector significantly . There is a chance that you read emails on this device.
So I send you specially crafted email and take over you mobile phone , all data including SMS , phone book + I know your gps location etc. etc. game over....

Anyway , reminder is a reminder to all , just remember about this metadata in pictures :D
 
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