Orb Insights and Inspirations: A Wonderland of Possibilities

by Lexene Burns

Overview

This book describes the way orbs in photographs fi rst became known to Lexene and then gives us insight into how her journey through orb photography progressed. She has taken tens of thousands of orb photographs and has chosen over 200 of her best to include in this book. There were some startling surprises for Lexene in her photographs, and she now shares their magic with you in a humourous, inspirational, magical work. The orbs and other luminosities intrigue and captivate as they abound in the beauty of nature that surrounds them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452597102
Publisher:	Balboa Press
Publication date:	07/29/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	106
File size:	33 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Read an Excerpt

Orb Insights and Inspirations

A Wonderland of Possibilities

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By Lexene Burns

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2014 Lexene Burns
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-9709-6

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CHAPTER 1

PART ONE

My Amazing Journey

Orbs in photographs became my passion, as I delighted in the wonderful mysteries they presented to me. I had always enjoyed taking photographs but it now became a challenge for me to capture more and more images with orbs and other intriguing luminosities in them.

On holidays and weekends, Terry and I would fish and catch mud crabs in the nearby creek and carry out maintenance around our block. Of an evening, I would pick up my camera and take photographs around our cabin, as standing and walking eased back pain from an old injury and also helped me to recharge before another hectic week at work.

Terry also became interested in the orb phenomena and has now been 'orbing' with me for some years (we use the word orbing as the verb for taking random photographs, mainly in the evenings, in the hope of capturing an orb or other anomaly/luminosity, not seen with the naked eye).

In the area in and around our barbecue and campfire, orbs were plentiful at times, but more often than not there were none. We were unable to capture again the magical rainbow orb, but I found that other orbs and luminosities appeared in our photographs taken in the evenings around our cabin, as well as in the grassy clearings and the bush farther out.

Some of the luminosities appear to me to be posing for photographs, or have a sense of fun, a curiosity, or even an attitude; and others present me with new mysteries and possibilities:

There are orbs that appear to enjoy being around Terry:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

These orbs seem to have put on a great display of colour and some of them even an added brilliance, for our cameras:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Many orbs appeared in this photograph, taken after we returned from our fishing trip:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This orb appears to be watching over the mud-crab that Terry was about to tie:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

These photographs were taken in the same area within a five minute timeframe and I feel they must be of the same orb. This small, bright, light blue orb seems to me to be a little mischievous even, sneaking up behind Terry and me, or maybe it was just curious:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Anyone who is interested in photographing orbs will know the excitement that is felt when a rare, bedazzling orb is captured:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Other luminosities look so amazing to us they take our breath away, while some have a glowing aura and baffle the senses:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

These exquisite luminosities seemed to have orbs within them moving in many directions at once, however, they were very elusive. I kept an open mind as to what they were, although my first thought was that I could be capturing a spirit energy or entity in my image. I called them whizzy because of what looked like the movement effect that I have described above.

As well as the white or colourful whizzy effect, I noticed that the colours of orange and yellow often appeared on one or two of the whizzy ends of this type of luminosity:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Around some of these energies/entities there also appeared a red glow/aura that I thought may be the camera picking up on a life-force energy as can be seen in these photographs:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

There is a clearing on our property where I had captured this luminosity several times and it was here I began to seek out the whizzy orbs (which I had come to nickname Muffin), by calling out "Muffin,Muffin" into the darkness; and I would on occasion, be rewarded with the perfect shot. "How could I be so lucky? Had Muffin answered my call???"

Sometimes Muffin appeared huge and sometimes very small. Over time I observed that there could be more than just a single Muffin in any one of my photographs, as in the following images:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Never knowing when or where I may capture orbs, I soon found they frequently appeared in my photographs taken in several areas on our property, if I stood my ground and took many:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

But the locations and times I captured Muffin/s in my images constantly changed:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Bush Reveals Its Secrets

Whilst walking around in the evenings, I am inadvertently a magnet for the local mosquitoes as well as the sand-flies (midges), regardless of what I wear or which insect repellent I apply. However, they rarely deter me from my orbing adventures and on occasion I have ventured farther into the bush on my orb hunt; such is the magnetism, power and intrigue of the orbs/ luminosities; so compelling and so, so mysterious that I often keep taking photographs until my camera battery has expired and sometimes, the spare battery as well.

"I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.

-Lewis Carroll

I am very grateful to the orbs and luminosities for leading me onward regardless, as I would not have ventured that far into the bush especially so late into the evenings, and would have missed the opportunity to appreciate and photograph the many magnificent sunsets and the landscape:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of Truth lay all undiscovered before me."

-Isaac Newton

While anticipating the magical moment of capturing a unique luminosity;

"I discovered - uncovered amidst the chaos
Of bush undergrowth, fallen trees,
Broken branches and changing seasons;
The beauty that reigns in the bush:
The fresh vibrant colours and the innocence
Of emerging shoots and new leaves;
Nature working her miracles quietly and effortlessly.

My flash gladly exposed this kaleidoscope against a mauve sky,

And also the jewels that the rain had left On the leaves of a Kakadu plum tree.

The power of Mother Nature is so breathtaking it pays To stop for a moment and smell the bush (roses), And to drink in her energy."

-Author

It was in my wanderings throughout the bush that I also discovered a wildflower growing from a ground vine.

We see this flower only occasionally whilst orbing at dusk or later in the evenings; and we found that its white petals were very delicate, when the light from our torch made them wilt.

A small bug it seems, had indulged in a feast from a petal, and then bathed in the raindrops and the radiance of this flower.

"Observe the marvels as they happen around you. Don't claim them. Feel the beauty moving through and be silent."

-Rumi

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

-Henry David Thoreau

Other Wonders of the Night

As well as a wonderful array of luminosities that float and flow unseen; my camera captured other images that often didn't show all of their magic until after they had been enlarged on a computer screen. I was blissfully ignorant of the detail in most of these images until I had downloaded them and found I was fortunate enough to have captured;

and this spider's silken web, an unusual creation by nature; her work of art.

A moth spread her wings as she flew under the cover of darkness until my flash illumed her beautiful presence.

A luminosity appears to be flying towards this native orchid, growing on a cycad.

This beautiful luminosity has a red halo and until my camera flashed, was engulfed by the darkness of the night.

I think this could be a beetle, looking quizzical and fearless in its illuminated state.

Some may say that many bright luminosities are fairies, pixies, elves, angels, energies of spirits, or entities possibly from other dimensions. Regardless of what they are, I feel that they are very present in our photographs, and may be there to teach us to be present in our own lives. I am so grateful for the privilege of being in the presence of these beings silently and unpretentiously witnessing the evenings. We could learn from them and just be. And so it is with the orbs and other luminosities in our photographs, they just are. We don't need to label them, but just relax, enjoy them, join in their fun, and share in their happiness.

"Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are."

-Osho

These Livistonia palms seem to have put on their evening dresses to dance with the orbs

When I captured this stripy orb, I laughed for some time. I haven't captured anything at all like this since, and I have a feeling it may have been some sort of flashback from our corrugated iron tank that created the stripes. I still enjoy the wonder and absurdity of this orb. There could be a clue in this image that brings about a better understanding of the nature of how orbs are captured in photographs, but as yet I have not intuited it....

"Everything is funny if you can laugh at it."

-Lewis Carroll

Laughter is the best medicine. I write this with a light-hearted reverence for the unknown and the unseen.

"When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don't state the matter plainly, But put it in a hint; And learn to look at all things, With a sort of mental squint."

-Lewis Carroll

"It is sweet to let the mind unbend on occasion."

-Horace

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

-Lewis Carroll

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

-Albert Einstein

"In a wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die: Ever drifting down the stream - Lingering in the golden gleam - Life, what is it but a dream?"

-Lewis Carroll

Denise and I took a few evening photographs and captured some interesting orbs as we walked through a rainforest near our campsite in Scottsdale, on my holiday with her in Tasmania, Australia:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

As we made our way through the darkness of the rainforest walk, we came across this pademelon wallaby which had come out at dusk to graze on the forest floor by the creek:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Healing Power of Nature

I have had an appreciation of nature from a very early age. As a teenager I would venture into the bush behind our country home often taking my guitar, my confidant, with me. Here I would find and sit under the biggest tree and leave my troubles behind. It was so peaceful the feeling of oneness, of being, of belonging.

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."

-John Muir

"Happiness flutters in the air whilst we rest among the breaths of nature.

-Kelly Sheaffer

As we travelled through the East Macdonald ranges near Alice Springs in Central Australia, my sisters Denise, Adele, Carmelita and I stopped to take in the views as the sun rose over the escarpment. Connecting with the powerful energy of the early morning and the land, we lingered a while to take photographs. The cover photograph has in it a colourful orb of rainbow rays - seeming to be a gift to Adele from the sun, that morning.

"Nature is my medicine."

-Sara Moss-Wolfe

And so it is when I journey into nature taking photographs, and also as I work with my photographs:

"I still feel the freedom, a connection, An exhilaration, an uplifting of spirits, A rush of energy that can leave my skin atingle. It is then I become a child/teenager again At the wonder of it all."

-Author

"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift."

-Albert Einstein

I feel pampered by the natural therapies which abound; colour therapy as the sun sets, aromatherapy from bush vegetation especially after the rains, and the sound therapy of nature - perhaps a rustling of leaves, or a bird call.

"Mans' heart away from nature becomes hard."

-Chief Standing Bear

Orbing at Dusk/Dawn

I prefer to begin orbing at dusk when the auto flash starts to fire and orbs/luminosities appear in some of my photographs in the dimming light.

It is also the time of day I often see interesting cloud formations shape-shift softly and slowly:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

These photographs are some of my favourites, whether or not they have orbs in them:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Nature is man's teacher. She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence."

-Alfred Billings Street

"If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere."

-Vincent Van Gogh

"And I have felt, A presence that disturbs me with the joy, Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime, Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit, that impels, All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still, A lover of the meadows and the woods, And mountains; and of all that we behold, From this green earth."

-William Wordsworth 'Tintern Abbey' 1798

I fully embrace this time of day, when the colours in the sky weave their magic through my soul, softly urging me to question: Who am I?

The bush breathes its breath of life - hushhh.

As the sun was setting, these twisted branches seemed to reach out and greet the evening:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

At our cabin, these orbs came out to play:

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better

-Albert Einstein

"I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright

-Henry David Thoreau

Dawn has other special sights to offer. In this photograph the moon sinks in the sky, as the beams of the rising sun strike the tops of the background trees, heralding the start to another precious day. I am grateful to be alive to witness and absorb these moon and sun energies:

The Sounds in Silence

Excerpt from my diary June 2007: 'generator shut down, now have perfect silence in the bush, only nature, wind - profoundly healing.'

"Come, drink the mystic wine of Night, Brimming with silence and the stars; While earth, bathed in this holy light, Is seen without its scars."

-Louis Untermeyer

Recently, as Terry and I sat under the stars, he said that he could hear something. I asked him if it sounded like the very distant roar of an ocean; he was surprised that I could hear it too. I could feel it as well; a raw pulsating energy, deep within my body.

"It was the sound of silence. We paused, And absorbed this energy, As the stillness of the evening encompassed us; This life force of nature, the Earth and the Cosmos, In unison singing their healing hymns In this our cathedral, our temple."

-Author

"Most glorious night! Thou wert not sent for slumber

-Lord Byron

"Then stars arise and the night is holy."

-Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

"Dark the night, with breath all flowers, And tender broken voice that fills With ravishment the listening hours, whisperings, wooings, Liquid ripples, and soft ring-dove cooings In low-toned rhythm that love's aching stills! Dark the night yet is she bright, for in her dark she brings the mystic star, Trembling yet strong, as is the voice of love, From some unknown afar."

-George Eliot

Often birds can be heard after the sun has set, particularly the cockatoos calling to each other, the native pigeons cooing and/or the crickets, cicadas and grasshoppers singing their sometimes shrill songs. In this symphony of nature we now and again hear a kangaroo hopping through the bush, fruit bats raucously squabbling, and at other times the eerie sounds of the dingo's haunting howl or the mournful wail of a bush stone-curlew.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Orb Insights and Inspirations by Lexene Burns. Copyright © 2014 Lexene Burns. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

PART ONE,
My Amazing Journey, 6,
The Bush Reveals Its Secrets, 19,
Other Wonders of the Night, 27,
The Healing Power of Nature, 41,
Orbing at Dusk/Dawn, 46,
The Sounds in Silence, 57,
Moonlight Magic, 62,
Orb Energies, Entities and Apparitions?, 64,
Communicating with Orbs, 64,
Apparitions?, 65,
Spiritual Energies, 67,
PART TWO,
My Observations of Orbs and Other Luminosities, 76,
Lens Flare Orbs, 79,
Orb Peculiarities and Other Characteristics, 81,
Photographs Taken in the Rain, 86,
Orbs Seen with the Naked Eye, 87,
Hair Experiments, 88,
Recurring Patterns, 90,
Out of Focus Images, 91,
Images in Sequences, 96,
PART THREE,
In Conclusion, 97,
ADDENDUM,
A Wonderland of Possibilities, 99,