You’ve seen the thumbnail. It’s usually grainy, maybe a bit over-saturated, featuring a glowing streak of light over a hospital bed or a shadowy figure hovering near a car crash. Your brain does that weird thing where it tries to reconcile what the eyes see with what it knows about physics. It’s a glitch. Or maybe it isn't.
The phenomenon of angels captured on camera isn't just a relic of the early 2000s YouTube era. Even now, with 4K sensors in every pocket, these images surface constantly. They go viral. They get dissected by skeptics and held up as proof by the faithful. But what’s actually happening when the shutter clicks and something "impossible" appears?
The Jakarta Video and the Physics of Light
Back in 2011, a security camera in a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, recorded something that still circulates in paranormal circles today. A bright, flickering shape seems to descend rapidly from the sky, hit the pavement, and then bounce or vanish. It’s fast. If you blink, you miss the impact.
Most people who watch it are looking for a miracle. Skeptics, however, point to something much more terrestrial: lens flare or a literal insect. When a small bug flies very close to a security camera lens, especially one equipped with infrared (IR) LEDs for night vision, it reflects an immense amount of light. Because the bug is out of focus, it doesn't look like a bug. It looks like a glowing orb or a "winged" entity.
This isn't to say people are lying. They aren't. They’re seeing a real artifact on the film. The gap between "I see a light" and "I see an angel" is where human psychology does the heavy lifting. We are hardwired for pareidolia. That's the same mental process that makes you see a face in a piece of burnt toast or a cloud that looks exactly like a dog. When we are in a state of grief or high stress—common environments for these sightings—our brains crave a sign. We find one.
Why Quality Cameras Didn't Kill the Mystery
You’d think that as camera technology improved, these sightings would disappear. They haven't. If anything, the "glitch" has just changed shape.
In the days of 35mm film, double exposure was the culprit. A photographer would forget to wind the film, and a previous image would ghost over the new one. Presto: a translucent figure standing behind Grandma at the picnic. Today, we deal with "rolling shutter" artifacts. CMOS sensors, which are in basically every smartphone, don't capture the whole image at once. They scan it line by line, usually from top to bottom.
If something moves incredibly fast—like a bird’s wing or a piece of dust caught in a breeze—the sensor captures it in different positions at different times during a single frame. This creates elongated, distorted shapes that look nothing like the original object. These "rods" or "light streaks" are frequently labeled as angels captured on camera because they seem to possess a divine, non-physical glow.
The Case of the "Angel" Over the Michigan Fire
A few years ago, a man named Glen Thorman in East Jordan, Michigan, shared photos from his motion-sensor security camera. The camera took two consecutive photos of a figure hovering above his truck. It looked remarkably like a traditional angel—outstretched wings, a distinct head, and a glowing body.
The local priest called it an undeniable sign. The local news picked it up. It went global.
Then the experts stepped in. Most photographic analysts noted the shape was identical to a common moth (specifically a Noctuid or "owlet" moth) caught in mid-flight. Because the camera’s shutter speed was slow relative to the moth’s wingbeat, the wings blurred into that iconic "V" shape.
Does that make the experience "fake"? For Thorman and his community, the timing was the miracle, not necessarily the optics. That’s a nuance often lost in the "debunking" videos. For a lot of folks, the fact that a moth happened to fly by and look like an angel at a moment when they needed hope is the point. The "how" matters less than the "why."
Investigating the Digital "Glow"
Sometimes, it's not a bug. Sometimes it’s a hardware issue.
- Internal Reflections: Light bouncing between the various glass elements inside a complex smartphone lens can create "ghosts." If there’s a bright streetlamp just out of frame, it can create a glowing shape in the center of your photo.
- Sensor Noise: In low light, digital cameras "gain up" the signal. This creates grain. Sometimes that grain clusters in a way that looks like a figure.
- Compression Artifacts: When a video is saved or uploaded to social media, the software throws away "unnecessary" data to make the file smaller. This can turn a smudge of light into a structured, geometric shape.
But let’s be honest: not everything is a lens flare. There are accounts—rare, but documented—where multiple witnesses see the same thing that the camera captures. These are the cases that keep the "angels captured on camera" niche alive.
The Viral Nature of Hope
We live in a weirdly cynical age. Most of what we see online is curated, filtered, or generated by a prompt. Maybe that’s why we’re still obsessed with these grainy clips. There’s a raw, unpolished quality to a doorbell camera video that feels more "real" than a multi-million dollar CGI movie.
When a video of a "guardian angel" pulling someone away from a speeding car surfaces, it taps into a universal human desire for protection. We want to believe someone—or something—is looking out for us. Even if 99% of these videos are moths, dust, or clever hoaxes, that 1% remains an open door.
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How to Analyze a Photo Yourself
If you catch something strange on your phone, don't just delete it. But don't call the news yet either. Start by looking at the light source. Where is the sun? Is there a flash? Most "spirit" photos are the result of the flash reflecting off a tiny particle of dust (this is called an "orb").
Look at the metadata. Modern photos have EXIF data that tells you the shutter speed. If the shutter was open for 1/30th of a second, anything moving will be a blur. A bird becomes a streak. A person becomes a ghost.
Moving Past the "Hoax" Label
It’s easy to dismiss everything as a hoax. Plenty are. People want clicks. People want attention. But a large portion of angels captured on camera photos come from people who are genuinely confused and moved by what they found on their SD cards.
The intersection of faith and photography is a messy place. It’s where the objective (pixels, light waves, sensors) meets the subjective (grief, hope, belief). You can explain the physics of a lens flare to someone, but you can't explain away the feeling they got when they saw it.
Actionable Steps for Evaluating "Anomalous" Footage
- Check the original file. Screen-recordings or social media reposts lose too much detail. You need the raw data.
- Identify infrared triggers. If it’s a security camera at night, remember that insects and dust reflect IR light like tiny disco balls.
- Compare the "entity" to surrounding objects. Is the blur consistent with the movement of trees or other people in the frame?
- Look for contextual witnesses. If the camera saw a glowing 7-foot tall being, did the neighbor’s dog bark? Did the lights flicker? Physical evidence often accompanies genuine anomalies.
- Research local conditions. High humidity or light rain are the primary causes of "orb" photography.
Whether these images represent a thin veil between worlds or just a dirty lens, they continue to be a massive part of our digital culture. They remind us that even in a world where everything is mapped and measured, we’re still looking for a sign from above. Keep your eyes on the sky, but keep your thumb off the lens.