Fairy Photographed in South London

[arthwollipot]

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/09/fairy-photographed-in-south-london.html

I think this is a moth reflecting the camera flash, but I can't work out what the "limbs" are. Lens reflections of some kind?

[Femke]

They don't look like the normal limbs of a moth, but I am no entomologist.
Some Photoshopping to make it more special?

[Marduk]

its totally bogus
Mrs Bacon, 55, said she was not even looking through the camera at the time she took the picture.

Instead she simply clicked the button while holding it at arm's length out of the back door while chatting with relatives in her kitchen after dinner.
I am not satisfied that the photograph was taken under any sane condition, so it was most likely taken so that it could be later claimed, I didn't see it when I took the picture
what a scam
lol
;)

[iMaGiNaTioN]

"But after scouring the internet for pictures of butterflies, moths and beetles that might match it, she has drawn a blank.

'I think it must be a fairy,' she said yesterday as she made the picture public for the first time."


She thinks it must be a fairy, just because she can't find a picture of a moth that matches it? How does she even know what a fairy looks like? Talk about jumping to conclusions. First off, I'm not convinced this picture is not photoshopped. There doesn't appear to be a high rest version available to look at.

[microdot]

Could it be a mayfly?

http://tinyurl.com/n7ldad

[Lothian]

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/09/fairy-photographed-in-south-london.html

I think this is a moth reflecting the camera flash, but I can't work out what the "limbs" are. Lens reflections of some kind?At first I thought it was a taxi driver but then realised you wouldn't get one in South London at that time of night.

[iMaGiNaTioN]

"'Looking back, I think there was a fungi fairy ring in the garden at the time I took the picture, but I don't really know what to make of it all."



Wha?! A fungi fairy ring??

[Marduk]

:D
really, if she wants to know what the fairy folk look like she should watch Hell Boy 2, their interpretations are much closer to the historic truth than all this bollox made up for kiddies stories

Fairies have swords and know how to use them, its risky business going round telling people that theyre small and weak, they don't like it. Darth Vader wouldn't approve
:D

[Correa Neto]

Nope, its not a fairy.

Fairies wear boots...

[Arthur Denton]

Nope, its not a fairy.

Fairies wear boots...

And where's the golden hair, blue eyes, pocket with fairie dust, blue shell-shape shoes and graciousness that they are supposed to have?

[shadron]

"'Looking back, I think there was a fungi fairy ring in the garden at the time I took the picture, but I don't really know what to make of it all."



Wha?! A fungi fairy ring??

A fungi fairy ring is a normal growth of mushrooms appearing on the surface from the subsurface decay of a piece of wood, for example. The bogus part of this is the name "fairy ring" (see the wiki page for an explanation of that, such as it is), not the fact of their existence. The name seems to be a way to connect her photographed fairy with the real world.

"...but I don't really know what to make of it all."

Awwww, don't worry; the press and your friends will take care of that for you.

[Stray Cat]

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/09/fairy-photographed-in-south-london.html

I think this is a moth reflecting the camera flash, but I can't work out what the "limbs" are. Lens reflections of some kind?
Moths have limbs too. ;)

It's blurred enough to be a lot closer to the camera than the tree it is photographed against.

I wondered about a crane fly... but yes is mostly resembles an ambiguous flying insect/moth type of creature.

[iMaGiNaTioN]

Could it be a mayfly?

http://tinyurl.com/n7ldad

good call. a google image search shows mayflys look exactly like that picture, including the little 'horn' looking things on the head (visible in the picture)

[Spektator]

Check out the white plume moth, about three or four pictures down at this site. (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e1l350dzSrA/RpI_5Gc8uJI/AAAAAAAAAsU/c2awqSjt6NQ/s400/white_plume_8jul07_800l_20b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://thenaturalstone.blogspot.com/2007/07/weekends-moths.html&h=300&w=400&sz=27&tbnid=3LUdq0zNWqDWcM:&tb)

[arthwollipot]

Check out the white plume moth, about three or four pictures down at this site. (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e1l350dzSrA/RpI_5Gc8uJI/AAAAAAAAAsU/c2awqSjt6NQ/s400/white_plume_8jul07_800l_20b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://thenaturalstone.blogspot.com/2007/07/weekends-moths.html&h=300&w=400&sz=27&tbnid=3LUdq0zNWqDWcM:&tb)We get insects like that around our place as well!

[Ripley Twenty-Nine]

"'To be honest, I don't know what it is and I'm keen to listen to anyone's suggestions. But until someone can tell me otherwise I'm going to go on thinking it's a fairy.'"

Alrighty then!

[One Skunk Todd]

With the rounded body and stick-figure limbs it looks like Celia from Order of the Stick. :)

[Ashles]

Fairies apparantly have really long arms relative to their legs.

[JimBenArm]

It couldn't be a fairy. I wasn't in London that day!

[richardm]

"Phyllis Bacon"?

[Niggle]

Looks like a plastic stick figure stuck in the tree to me, maybe with an aluminum body to reflect the flash. The limbs show no joints in the middle and are far too stiff to be natural.

[madurobob]

Look at all the other little light spots on the photo (full photo, not the cropped one). Some look like flash reflections off windows, others like bugs reflecting light. The "fairy" is just another one of those. It has the color of lens flare and the shape make it look like its caused by a street light just behind the trees.

[Sideroxylon]

A fairy dies every time someone in this thread suggests it's a moth.

[kerikiwi]

mothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmo thmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmoth mothmothmothmothmothmothmtohmothmothmothmothmothmo thmothmothmothmoth

[microdot]

If you look very closely at the top photograph at the page linked at the beginning of this thread by arthwollitpot....

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/09/fairy-photographed-in-south-london.html
...the fairy appears to be wearing a wide brimmed hat which, although perfectly nice, isn't really suitable attire for evening wear.

That's how I know it's not a real fairy, as a real fairy would never be seen dead wearing the wrong hat on a night out.

I still think it's a mayfly http://www.life.illinois.edu/entomology/illustrations/gifs/ephemeroptera.gif - if you sort of squint to simulate camera blur when you look at these illustrations some of them even resemble tiny, thin bodied peoples.

[JimBenArm]

A fairy dies every time someone in this thread suggests it's a moth.

mothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmo thmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmothmoth mothmothmothmothmothmothmtohmothmothmothmothmothmo thmothmothmothmoth
Ahhh! It burns!

[Unlike a Bull]

It's highly improbable that there's a breeding population of tiny, flying hominid-like creatures living in southern London.

[rhetorician]

Oh, it's such a cute fairy!! I love it. Adorable. I want one for my very own. What an odd picture otherwise. It's just a picture of nothing. A part of her back yard at night. Why?

[microdot]

...the fairy appears to be wearing a wide brimmed hat which, although perfectly nice, isn't really suitable attire for evening wear.

That's how I know it's not a real fairy, as a real fairy would never be seen dead wearing the wrong hat on a night out.

Maybe the fairy is a fan of 80's musical favourites Mel & Kim - http://tinyurl.com/pcp8hw

[microdot]

Or it could be the spirit of a certain recently deceased fedora-wearing pop star :idea:

http://fc09.deviantart.com/fs16/p/2007/136/4/4cee2b2af40ade1b.jpg

[LTC8K6]

Mothman?

[Burning Beard]

Fairies wear boots...

yeah I saw it, I saw it, I tell you no lies! :):cool:

[kerikiwi]

It's highly improbable that there's a breeding population of tiny, flying hominid-like creatures living in southern London.

Why? What objection do they have to South London?

[shuttlt]

Why? What objection do they have to South London?
They prefer the better public transport, and anyway anything worth doing is north of the river. The south is there so London doesn't become top heavy and fall over.

[Erigena]

"Phyllis Bacon"?
That's hilarious! Nice post.

[Erigena]

Mothman?
That was my answer. I mean clearly if it's not a fairy than it must be a mothman. :D

[Nick Bogaerts]

I can't work out what the "limbs" are. Lens reflections of some kind?

Motion blur?

[Skeptic Guy]

Ahhh! It burns!

Just clap your hands and it'll be alright.

[Darat]

I notice the lady also has an infestation of orbs.

[Lucian]

Oh, it's such a cute fairy!! I love it. Adorable. I want one for my very own. What an odd picture otherwise. It's just a picture of nothing. A part of her back yard at night. Why?
I was wondering that too. Without the "fairy," what's the point of the picture?

Mrs Bacon, 55, said she was not even looking through the camera at the time she took the picture.

Instead she simply clicked the button while holding it at arm's length out of the back door while chatting with relatives in her kitchen after dinner.

Who does that? "Oh, that was such a lovely dinner--I'm going to take a picture of the empty back yard without looking at what I'm doing."

[jhunter1163]

The limbs look like motion blurs to me, like someone dragged a pic of a streetlight or somethig to create them.

[richardm]

The original Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211845/Croydon-Tinker-Bell--fairies-the-garden.html) article has some useful suggestions, including:

This is a preying mantis in flight. I could understand if Miss Bacon looked in books she certainly would not think of a mantis when seeing its photo. I have seen many in flight before, and it is most definitely "Mantis religiosa" as opposed to a fairy.

This is one of the reasons I never go to Croyden - the sheer expense of the Praying Mantis repellent required makes in uneconomical.

[desertgal]

Okaay...

This woman walked up to her back door with her camera in hand, stuck her arm outside, and, without even looking through the viewfinder, took a picture of her backyard...for no discernible reason.

As we all do...:rolleyes:

[Darat]

Okaay...

This woman walked up to her back door with her camera in hand, stuck her arm outside, and, without even looking through the viewfinder, took a picture of her backyard...for no discernible reason.

As we all do...:rolleyes:


And then was surprised to find there was some blurry thing in the photo she took by waving her hand out of her back door, in the dark, with her flash....

[desertgal]

And then was surprised to find there was some blurry thing in the photo she took by waving her hand out of her back door, in the dark, with her flash....

Not to mention that she is, apparently, the wunderkind of "blind" photographers. Most of us would end up with a closeup of the siding on our houses, a finger in the picture, or something equally out of whack...but she gets a perfectly focused, properly proportioned, correctly lighted (mostly) photo of her backyard, the buildings beyond, the starry sky...and Tinkerbell.

Ansel Adams had nothing on this chick...:p

[Kahalachan]

I'm a scholar on fairies. I've observed and researched fairies my whole life.

The luminescence of the wing glow doesn't match what I've seen when I've photographed fairies.

This must be a bug of some sort.

[Cainkane1]

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2009/09/fairy-photographed-in-south-london.html

I think this is a moth reflecting the camera flash, but I can't work out what the "limbs" are. Lens reflections of some kind?
I like this. Its not a fairy but I like it anyway. Hopefully this isn't a photoshop but pareidolia. Nice pareidolia.

[Soapy Sam]

She has a bloody effective flashgun.

Swamp gas.

[Apology]

I'm a scholar on fairies. I've observed and researched fairies my whole life.

The luminescence of the wing glow doesn't match what I've seen when I've photographed fairies.

This must be a bug of some sort.

Tell us more about the fairies :shy:

[Kahalachan]

Tell us more about the fairies :shy:

Well I observe them in their natural forest habitat. We also have a fairy sanctuary, which is a biosphere that simulates a forest populated with angels and elves for further research.

Their droppings are a form of bio luminescence that we're trying to figure out. It's most likely the result of bacteria in their stomach helping to break down pixie dust.

I obviously study fairies the correct scientific way to prevent them from being considered any form of cryptozoology.

[blue sock monkey]

Have you tried feeding fairy dust to lab rats--and if so, is it really carcinogenic?

[Kahalachan]

Have you tried feeding fairy dust to lab rats--and if so, is it really carcinogenic?

Fairy dust is too volatile for me to risk using it on any other biological organism. A flammable (which we discovered on accident when we had a fairy sprinkle dust near an open flame) and odorless gas is ejected from pores all over their body and instantly vaporizes and disintegrates along with the sparkles. We are currently trying to make fairies eject their dust and safely separate the sparkles from the fumes.

It's actually the opposite regarding cancer. Because fairies are resistant to cancer, we are hypothesizing that the dust might be a factor. We must separate it from the gas first in order to study the dust itself.

FYI Woo believers: If we could get descriptions like these with evidence to work with, we'd be happy.

[Vortigern99]

Can you provide evidence of your claims? Photographs, independent verification of your observations, testimony from others in your group? Otherwise I hope you'll forgive us for not accepting your assertions at face value.

[shandyjan]

Fairy dust is too volatile for me to risk using it on any other biological organism. A flammable (which we discovered on accident when we had a fairy sprinkle dust near an open flame) and odorless gas is ejected from pores all over their body and instantly vaporizes and disintegrates along with the sparkles. We are currently trying to make fairies eject their dust and safely separate the sparkles from the fumes.

It's actually the opposite regarding cancer. Because fairies are resistant to cancer, we are hypothesizing that the dust might be a factor. We must separate it from the gas first in order to study the dust itself.

FYI Woo believers: If we could get descriptions like these with evidence to work with, we'd be happy.

Wooers doing scientific research? Don't see much of that on a day with a 'Y' in it ;)

[Mcguman]

"'Looking back, I think there was a fungi fairy ring in the garden at the time I took the picture, but I don't really know what to make of it all."



Wha?! A fungi fairy ring??


Fairy rings were the supposed meeting places of fairies in medieval mythology. they were circular formations of mushrooms (Which are in fact only the sex organs of the fungus) growing in a circular pattern on the perimeter of the larger underground organism, called the mycellium.