Treasure Aura Camera and Filter Set-up

I get quite a few questions about filters and camera settings so I have put together a short video on the subject.  You can view it here: http://www.truetreasurebooks.net/treasure-aura-camera-and-filter-set-up

Accidental Treasure Auras

 Auras can be photographed without even trying it seems.  I am grateful to Rich Labate who has given me permission to publish his photograph above.  Using a Nikon L1 pocket digital camera on automatic, with no filter, Rich was just taking a picture of the view across a valley in New Mexico. The resulting picture shows a bright green flash on the hillside – local knowledge says that there is a copper mine or copper deposit under the hill.

This is not an isolated case of auras accidentally appearing on photographs.  I was sent a photo of the site of an Iron Age village in continental Europe, culled from the Internet, which shows what can best be described as a fog patch immediately above the village site.  Similarly, my friend Dave was investigating a treasure site and turned up Google Earth aerial and street view photos of the site, which both showed a patch of isolated fog.  Unfortunately the site turned out to be a scheduled ancient monument so it cannot be investigated without government permission.

The moral of this story is to take a close look at any photographs of possible treasure sites you have, or come across and if you spot anything that looks as if it might be an aura, you could soon be digging up a fortune.

I am extremely grateful to Richard in California, who generously sent me the above book as a gift, along with a very interesting collection of aura photographs. The book was first published in 1941 as an English translation of the 1938 second French edition. Considering this was written over 70 years ago I am absolutely astounded by the accuracy with which it explains in detail how:
Under the action of the electric field of the Earth, any body emits:
1. On all surfaces and both in the direction of the zenith and in the opposite direction, a thick bundle of vertical rays.
2. On a special line of that surface, two thin sheets of rays with the respective inclination of 45° and 135° on the vertical.

The author goes on to say:
We shall conclude that, from the dowsing point of view, it is as if, from ultra-violet to medium green, light waves were accompanied by ES [Electrical Specific] waves and of MS [Magnetic Specific] waves, from infra red to medium green with alternation of polarities, at the passage of each of the seven neutral colours, and that the same carriers, with similar alternations, of polarities, extend to the ultra-violet and infra-red parts of the spectrum.

The book, in effect, not only explains how dowsing works but also aura photography and many long-range locators, which weren’t even dreamt of at the time of writing. Reading this book has been an enlightening experience for me and I am sure I will be referring to it often. A reprinted version of the book is available at $19.70 from: http://www.healthresearchbooks.com/pages/book_detail.php?pid=84

Bronze Age Founder's Cache

My latest treasure find is a Bronze Age founder’s cache consisting of broken axes and ingots – some twenty pieces in total. Bronze was a very valuable material 3000 years ago and the founder would have buried it for safe keeping until he wanted to use it to make new axes and other tools. Although not precious metal and of nominal intrinsic value, the find qualifies as potential treasure under the UK Treasure Act on account of its historical importance. I found the first part of the cache (as photo) in wintertime, quite unexpectedly as there are, of course, no real leads to anything this old. As such, I wasn’t using the camera but I was using a dowsing rod, which led me right to the main area of the scattered cache at the start of my metal detector search of this section of the field. I recovered twelve pieces on the first occasion. A week or so later the temperature had risen sufficiently to make use of the IR camera as I wanted to know if the main part of the cache was still in the ground. Although I had a weak aura from where I had recovered the Bronze Age material so far, there was no indication that there was a substantial amount of material in one place, waiting to be recovered. Extensive metal detecting of the area has so far recovered nine more very scattered pieces of the cache.

Can YOUR Digital Camera See Buried Treasure?

One of the most exciting recent developments in treasure hunting is aura photography and among the most frequently asked questions is: can my model of camera see auras? We know of a few cameras that definitely photograph auras and hope to add others to our list from the vast number of makes and models out there, once we are certain that they work. Meanwhile, here are some low cost ideas on testing your own digital camera and please let us know if your camera can see buried treasure.

The basic requirements for testing are:
A buried sample of either one ounce (30 grams) of relatively pure gold or two ounces (60 grams) of relatively pure silver. By relatively pure we mean around 90% precious metal so 22 carat gold or sterling silver (92.5%) will be ideal but if using 9 carat gold then you will need around 2.5 ounces (75 grams). Bury your sample in open ground or a planter for at least 24 hours.
Infrared filtering medium in the range 720nm to 1000nm. Digital cameras are extremely sensitive to infrared radiation and have to be fitted with an internal infrared blocking filter to prevent most infrared reaching the sensor. There is much variation in the amount of external infrared filtering necessary to photograph auras. Too little external infrared filtering produces false color infrared photographs and too much filtering results in pitch black images. Auras are photographed between false color and pitch black. The most reliable but more expensive option for testing is to buy either a 720nm infrared filter, or a range of filters, from a camera equipment supplier or Ebay. A minimal cost approach would be to use the black leading ends from exposed processed color film, which has infrared filtering characteristics (one sheet is approx 720nm; two sheets approx 850nm and three sheets approx 1000nm). These are the film pieces that were exposed to light (unless the film was loaded in a dark room, in which case the leading end pieces will be clear) when the film was run out over the sprockets during loading into the film camera. As most popular film is 35mm and some lenses are larger, you may have to mount the film in a slide or between thin card in which a suitable central aperture has first been cut.
Fix your filter material in front of the lens (try snug fit and leaving an air/light gap) then photograph your sample on a warm day, preferably above 13 deg. C / 55 deg. F with the Sun behind you. Adjust the level of filtering until you achieve a dark image that you will need to process with enhance, fix or gamma increase using photo editing software.

Beware the 'Professional' Photographer

A couple of weeks ago, I arranged for my colleague Brian to test his Canon EOS 400D (Rebel XTi), with my lenses on my buried targets. Brian is a keen amateur photographer and as such likes to take control of the camera so I let Brian shoot the targets in his own way. The results were very mixed and even using the Sigma macro lens (which gave the best results), Brian didn’t capture many auras and most shots just resulted in a ‘noisy’ blank. Strangely, shots of the same target produced auras on one shot but blank on another. My own experience was that if a target produced an aura once, all things being equal, it would produce an aura every time, so I went for a lie down in a darkened room to contemplate the problem…

Although I’m a technician by trade, I like to keep things simple especially with complex instruments like DSLR cameras so I put my camera on automatic and just point and shoot, letting the camera take care of everything, including focusing. Brian had set his camera on automatic but was pre-focussing without the IR pass filter in place (so the focus would lock on visible light), compared to my method which was to autofocus through the IR pass filter, and effectively focus on infrared light. Brian returned to retest his camera using the standard lens and autofocus through the IR pass filter. The results were great --The picture shows the aura on a single British gold sovereign coin. I used Brian’s camera hand-held and achieved an aura on all targets except the three aluminum beer cans; Brian used the camera hand-held and tripod-mounted and achieved auras on all targets. Brian achieved slightly better results than me, with tripod-mounted producing the best results and I put this down to operator technique – the more stable the camera is held the better the results.

A couple of other interesting facts emerged from these and other recent experiments. 1) The auras have definitely become stronger over the two years that the targets have been buried. 2) I removed the four gold coins for the benefit of the video and did not re-bury them. One week later we were still getting a faint aura over the empty hole.

Digital cameras can see buried gold

The Successful Treasure Hunter’s Secret Manual: Discovering Treasure Auras in the Digital Age

David Villanueva, the author of several metal detecting titles, has discovered that digital cameras can be easily adapted to reveal the location of buried treasure from up to several hundred yards away. In his latest publication, The Successful Treasure Hunter’s Secret Manual: Discovering Treasure Auras in the Digital Age, David explains clearly how anyone can turn a digital camera (possibly one they already own) into an amazing treasure hunting tool.

Having successfully used a Polaroid camera for photographing auras given off by buried metal for a number of years, David was horrified when Polaroid stopped making the film in 2005 and usable original film quickly became unavailable at any price. In the short-term alternative film is available, which photographs treasure auras at least as well as the original film but Polaroid’s recent decision to cease all instant film production would make photographing treasure auras history…unless digital cameras could be used.

However, digital camera technology is very different to that of film cameras and what worked with Polaroid failed with digital. A complete re-think was needed! The breakthrough came after David learned of treasure hunters successfully using a highly specialised digital camera to locate caches buried along Spanish mule-train trails. So clearly it was possible to photograph auras digitally but could it be done without spending a fortune on high-tech equipment? After three years of intensive research the answer is absolutely yes! Some, possibly many, popular digital cameras are up to the task.

Using readily available photographic accessories that anyone can easily attach, without causing damage, the digital cameras tested were able to record an aura, from a distance, on a single quarter-ounce (seven-gram) gold sovereign coin buried six inches (150mm) underground. In extensive field trials cameras located buried metal over two feet (610mm) deep and could discriminate between different metals. The cameras could be hand-held or tripod-mounted and could capture auras anytime during daylight hours in a wide range of weather conditions. A colleague invited to test the system, with his own camera, clearly demonstrated that no special skill or ability was necessary by obtaining an aura on the first attempt.

After reading The Successful Treasure Hunter’s Secret Manual, well-known treasure hunter and author Stan Grist said: “If this is for real, it will dramatically improve my treasure hunting results for the rest of my life! I am in the process of assembling all of the recommended gear so I can get out into the field as soon as possible. From a scientific perspective, my associates and I all agree that this may actually be the modern-day solution for a specific, huge treasure in Ecuador that we have been seeking for years. I am REALLY excited!”

The Successful Treasure Hunter’s Secret Manual: Discovering Treasure Auras in the Digital Age, ISBN 978-0-9550325-5-4 is published (2009) by True Treasure Books. Soft back, 84 full-colour illustrations, A5 size (210mm x 146mm or 8.25 inches x 5.75 inches), 68 pages, price £19.97. Visit: http://www.treasurehunterssecretmanual.co.uk/ A 52 page, large format digital version is available, price $19.97 at http://www.treasurehunterssecretmanual.com/