I've got half an hour, so I'm going to try and post the child's story.
A small group of us, including 2 young children (5 and 6) were on a riverside walk. The 6 year old repeatedly wandered up to the river staring, almost walking into it, and seemed a little distracted. Nothing unusual so far.
Took some photos, returned home.
The 6 year old spontaneously starts talking about the walk, saying that there were "dragon people" walking up the river with us, that they were our friends and were looking after us because the bad shadow people were coming down off of the castle on the hill and we should have gone back. They said the "dragon people" would disappear if you looked at them, that they didn't like lights and the camera flash makes them disappear. I asked what they looked like, was told they looked like dragon people (naturally
) but were greeny white. I asked how big. The reply "bigger than me, but not as big as a grown up". I just said something indistinct about it was good to have friends looking after you, and left it.
The one thing that made me go :shock: a bit was the castle on the hill. I know there is a hill which had a castle on top towering over where we walked, and have climbed it a couple of times. Topography and trees meant the fact there was a hill there at all was completely hidden from both the path and the road, and there is no visible remnant of anything remotely like a castle even if the hill had been visible. The child had never been to the hill, been told about it or it's history in any detail, and it had certainly not been mentioned that day.
I uploaded the photos, and didn't initially notice the anomaly. Said child looked at photos, and:
"Oh, look, it's the dragon people! They're peeping out from behind that tree. Why are they orange? Dragon people are greeny white. They're hiding because they don't like camera flashes"
Into slightly more :shock: territory by this time.
Then started to ask around, people who knew the area, and more importantly knew about photography (inc relative who is a professional press photographer). The general consensus was a lot of shrugging. That no one could say I know what that is, it's x, y or z, almost surprised me. There had to be an explanation.
About a year afterward, I decided to show the picture to the child again (among a set).
Again: "That's the picture of the river people (NOT dragon this time) hiding behind the tree. Look, there's 2 of them. Why are they orange? They are supposed to be white"
And again, something about them being friends, disappearing when the camera flashes or you look at them, and "black shadows" coming through the trees that were bad. Also that the river people didn't like the shadows in the trees.
The child's story and the anomaly in the photo could, of course, be a coincidence. I have literally thousands of photos taken over 20 years, quite a few in reputedly haunted places just in case I could catch anything on film 8) , and not a dickie bird. Nothing even slightly odd.
Any more ideas about the photo, or comments on the child's story, would be very welcome