A few days after the interview with Rosemary Ellen Guiley, a friend posted an image (see above) on my Hidden Experience facebook page.
Her name is Kim, and she simply asked: "CAN YOU FIND THE FAIRY?"
I replied: "There is a girl's face, mostly just her chin and lips, peering thru the branches in the upper right portion of the frame. Is this one of your daughters?"
Kim came back with: Well yes and no, my daughter was standing behind me, when I took the picture. Yet she showed up in the picture when we looked at it later. Just before I took it I was goofing around with my little nieces and telling them this was the part of the woods I saw the fairies when I was a girl. Then we heard a noise of giggling in the brush, they went silent with big eyes and I said," 'Shhhh I'm going to get a picture of the fairies."'
So I took the shot. However when we got back to the cottage later that night we realized that this image was in the photograph.
"Close-up of the face within the branches"
This began a back and forth bunch of questions and answers about this picture.
Here's what Kim had to say about this photo and the curious circumstances that surround it:
My family would spend summers at the cottage with my Grandparents. I was the first grandchild and my Grandfather and I were very close.
My Grandfather was born in Canada I think moved to the states, to Detroit, as a young man. He was a first generation "Scots" and very proud of our Scottish heritage. (Note: this is the same as my father who was born in Ontario and moved to Detroit when he was 6 years old. I wonder if my father knew Kim's family?)
He would tell me stories about the fairies and other Celtic "myths". As a little girl, he would show me the fairy rings on the property and in the woods nearby. He would tell me about how they gathered there and that if I was quiet and waited they would appear or they would be nearby and I could catch a glimpse of them. The other adults would go along with him as he told these tales to me, but I remember sensing that he really believed in them.
I recall seeing and playing with "fairies" as a child when we would be there for the summer. When I told my family that I had been playing with the "fairies" they would laugh and say that was fun to make believe. But I always remember my Grandfather winking and telling me he believed in them too.
The cottage was within walking distance of Lake Huron. This was in Ipperwash Ontario Canada. The photo was taken in the woods near the cottage in the early summer of 2005.
Here's what lead up to the photo being taken. The mood was very relaxed, we had already had spent a week or more at the cottage so we were all in vacation mode.
I had shown the kids the "fairy ring" on the back of the cottage property and then we all headed for the beach via the trail, along the way I was telling them about the fairies, just as my Grandfather had done for me.
I was in a very playful mood, had a sense of being very much like I was as a child tromping in that same forest. I was indulging my nieces and their friend in this "play pretend" world I had experienced as a child. I was joking about the "fairies" in the forest. We were in that "magical" space that kids get into when they pretend.
My mood was one of recalling how it felt to be a kid and full of wonder. The kids seemed to be in the same mood, very happy and playful, all talking about the "fairies". (see this video from just before the photo was taken) My sister and I spoke about this today and we both recall it being very surreal in the woods that day.
So when I actually heard the "giggling" in the brush I was a bit jarred.
I stopped looked behind me to do a kid head-count and they were all there. I asked them to be quiet and we heard the giggle again. That's when I aimed the camera in that direction and took the picture. My oldest niece and daughter ran towards the area afterwards because they thought they would find someone - but nothing.
It was only later that the picture revealed the image. It almost went unnoticed until I zoomed in on it with the camera. Since we were at the cottage I didn't have the ability to upload this photo onto a computer to see a larger version, that didn't happen until we got back home.
I spoke to my sister and daughter about this today. On the trail that day it was my sister, my two nieces and the neighbor boy. My youngest daughter was not with us, she had stayed behind at the cottage with my mother. [NOTE: this is different than her initial comment on facebook]
After we heard the giggles along the trail and took the picture it was my nieces that ran into the woods (off the trial) to see if they could find anyone. My nieces are mixed-race so they could not have been even remotely the image in the picture.
My daughter recalls the others and I asking her if she and my nephew had somehow snuck into the woods to play a joke on us by hiding in the woods and giggling. They said they hadn't and she remembers to this day how I kept at her to "admit" that she had, because it was so odd to see this in the picture. That coupled with the fact that this would have been virtually impossible due to the time frame and the conditions in the woods. This was also backed up by my Mother who said that they had all gone to the store a few minutes after we left. After hearing all this, I finally believed her.
So the event as my sister remembers it is the same as I stated earlier, however my daughter was not with us. That and she also said that she remembers not being able to find us on the trail for a period of time and that it was disconcerting.
"Extreme close-up of the curious face"
I emailed my psychic pal Anya Briggs and asked her to look at the photo. Here is part of her excited response:OMG! That's an awesome picture! Kim. that's an honest-to-God elemental you caught! No lyin'! Straight up fairy person, a "wraith fairy" who stirs up energy! WOW! She's an inter-dimensional and looks a lot like some models I know- very "pixie-"ish, "Pictish" is more correct my guides are saying- they interbred with humans eons ago my guides are saying - WOW WOW WOW this is the real deal, how beautiful! That's really special and rare, most elementals do things in private away from the "humans beings" They are attracted to us but also fearful so she must have exhibited a lot of trust to make that picture happen the way it did! Wow!There's a hyper-clarity that is the outline of her that is interesting as well- hyper-real almost- yep, that has the look and feel of a paranormal experience for me.
Funny- my guides are calling her a "hyper-dimensional shape shifter" and she is well known to the Native American spirits as well as the "white woman who walks among them" from time to time.
She doesn't seem to have the rest of a body! I just see a head and the faint inkling of a torso fading off into air. Definitely a shape shifter - of what origin beyond what I described, however, I really don't know!
Right on for you, Kim for taking that completely awesome photo! Wow! I am really impressed! I'd heard about the fairy people but really didn't resonate with it too much- this makes a lot more sense for me about how they could exist and how they choose to appear and so forth- all that info is my guides, btw, I don't pour over books about fairies
So right on for my guides with that very beautiful explanation as well!
"Click on image for a HI-rez view. There are details and colors "that show up in this photo that are exetrmely curious."
This is Mike again, with a summation. Now, if I wanted to fake this photo, I would take a magazine image of a smiling girl, cut it out, a hang it in the trees, take 50 photos, and pick the most mysterious looking one. My gut tells me to trust that Kim didn't do anything like this.
Oddly, this photo matches other images I've seen taken by other "experiencers" - that same "magazine cut-out" look. I get the feeling that whoever (or whatever) is feeding us these clues, they are doing it in a way that is purposefully elusive. I mean, they are staging these photos so they look mysterious, but not TOO mysterious.
Stan Romanek and Robbert van den Broeke have both taken photos that seem to have the same mood as this photo. I cannot vouch for the validity any of these photos, Kim's included. All I can say it it's quite interesting.
"size comparison"
I was curious about the potential height of the fairy image. I pasted two stock photos of girls next to the fairy image in among the branches. I tried to match the size of the fairy girl's head to the other two images. Nothing exact here, just an estimation.
The younger girl (far left) is as small as I suspect the hidden image might be. The older girl in the center is as large as the hidden image might be. The white line is positioned to show the height of the hidden girl's mouth, the only detail that can be easily used to gauge the height.
PLEASE NOTE:Much of this dialog was posted on facebook or was sent to me via email. I have edited the text slightly for clarity and continuity"