I think you'll find this quite interesting. You can find it on the "Findagrave site for (Sumner Drew) in Orono,Maine-in Penobscot County." It'll take a minute to go through the search on the site, but it'll be worth the time.
We have taken over 950 cemetery photos for geneology research purposes. While we were taking photos, I was joking with my wife about not finding any orbs in at least one of the photos. There it was clear as day, the image appears to the right of the headstone. A few people have said they see a few images to the left of the headstone also, but they aren't as clear. We have looked for a photo of Sumner to see if this is him, but we haven't been able to find one.We'll continue searching to see if we can match him to a photo and find out who this is.
An earlier cemetery located here in town, down on Water street was relocated to this old part of the cemetery. The railroad bought the rights to put tracks right through the area, so between the seasonal floods and the construction going on in this area some of the stones were lost and unmarked graves were left behind and some were even filled over. Some of the older residents in town say some were washed away before the railroad came to town, they would retrieve the ones they could and buried in unmarked graves into the new cemetery. My father's uncle used to do the work, so the stories have been passed down on the generations. Its also talked about in the history of Orono. Progress was coming through town one way or another and I often wonder how many other towns were affected this way. Neighborhoods were already in place around the cememtary so that didn't leave them many options, but still its seems pretty invasive once your supposed to be laid to rest. The town did finally approve of the construction after a lot of opposition over the proposal and the railroad covering the cost of relocating the graves. This photo may just be one of the folks that were upset about being moved or might even be from a lost grave. Its hard to explain the unexplainable sometimes.
Thanks Richard
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I was intrigued by your photograph. To the right of the monument there does appear to be a rudimentary oval shape similar to a man's head. I couldn't get it to line up with the lichen patterning on the stone, which is what I think would have happened if the image been caused by a water droplet refracting the image (this also would have accounted for the odd "layering" effect in the background). I blew up the image to 400x, and what had appeared to be the shadows under a prominent brow ridge now appeared to be part of a structure seen through brambles.
HOWEVER, to be fair to your image, I then went onto google maps and used the 3D mapping images to contextualize the shot. There are brambles and trees which could create the effect, but they appear to be in the wrong sight-lines for the monument to align with nearby structures. The topography seems to work against my hypothesis, also, as the nearby University of Maine is across the Penobscot river, and the brushy growth is clearly on the riverbank side of the slope, not between the marker and any structures in the sight line. There are a few structures, both in the cemetery and nearby, but they don't appear to have any bushes, etc. One structure does look like it would cause the image in the manner I've speculated, but it is *downhill* from the cemetery, not level with it, and it is much further away than the 20' I approximated would cause an illusion of a face.
Additionally, the potential for wrought iron fencing causing an optical illusion occurred to me, but the grounds do not seem to be encumbered with Victorian fences.
Strangely, now that I've been through all of these steps to explore the image, I'm still having trouble believing it to be a paranormal phenomenon. I think you've captured an intriguing optical illusion, I have no idea how this image was created, and I think you've submitted it here in good faith because you've not set out to dupe anyone with some outlandish story. You are a genealogist who took a simple photo of a marker while chatting with his wife in the late afternoon on an overcast day, and you wound up with an inexplicable result.
It's weird and interesting, but I doubt that it is a spirit. Thanks for letting us all take a look at it, though. 😊
Best,
Biblio.