Our friend J.H. lives with her husband and children in north-central Georgia, USA. She is a professional livestock breeder, and a good amateur photographer. She has been invited to take part in a photography contest by The National Library of Photography.

Due to many strange objects appearing in photos JH took on 26 June, 04 July, and 18 July 2007, she embarked on a month long photographic study. She was determined to be scientific, take pictures every day for 30 consecutive days, keep notes, and have an open mind. She is more concerned with finding out the truth, rather than search for possible U.F.O.s.

JH has taken control pictures as well. She photographed a sheet of blank white paper to ascertain if her camera were producing digital artifacts. She took pictures from the inside of her car of insect splats on the windshield (windscreen JC). JH took photos of a spider in its web against the sky for comparison. She has made pictures of birds in flight, and captured airplanes and helicopters for her records. She found that in SOME of her photos, what first seemed to be an anomalous formation of objects was in fact clouds of gnats. In these ways, JH is showing us that her study is truly scientific.

JH took hundreds of pictures during her 30 day study, and some of them revealed anomalous objects. The 31st frame taken on Day 1 contained just such an object. Here is what our friend JH had to say in her own words. (It has been edited for privacy and clarity - JC)

Study Day 1 - 23 July 2007

This one is big and has a tail. This is trippy. This is a big one -with a trail /tail looks like trailing smoke or something - I saw nothing but white air /sky.
JH

It is a very distinct, black orb shape, and appears to be producing some sort of exhaust, or "smokey" trail. Highly unusual to say the least. What it is we do not know. We can be fairly sure it's not an insect, bird, airplane or helicopter. Since it is not in the next frame taken in the same direction, a balloon can be ruled out, as they don't move that fast. Balloons generally don't emit exhaust either.

Let's take a look at the original photo, a few enhancements, to decide for ourselves shall we?

The photos JH shared with us were resized, zoomed, and incorporated into animated GIFs by Jeff Challender as appropriate for the web. All photos copyright © 2007 JH of Georgia.

This animated GIF is comprised of the frame in question, jpeg #31 from JH's Study Day 1, 23 July 2007. It is unenhanced, and although presented just as it was shot, it is reduced from 640x480 pixels to 360x240 for the web.

The YELLOW circle has been added to show where the object is located.

As you can see, this object bore no resemblance to insects, birds, balloons, lens flares, or atmospheric phenomenon. Therefore, I must classify it as unknown.

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At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to draw your own conclusions.

© 2007 Jeff Challender