Originally posted by vraiblonde
What are "orbs"? Those round white light things in the pictures?
"Orbs" are artefacts that show up occasionally in flash photography (they tend to show up a bit easier in digital rather than film cameras, for technical optical reasons that need not concern us here).
They are caused by very tiny objects (dust, snow) that are very close to the camera. Even dust motes small enough to be invisible to the eye, if near to the camera, will reflect light from the flash, and show up as out-of focus spots of light.
There's a bit more information
here , and if you search Randi's site for "orbs" you can find other descriptions of them.
I looked at the photos on the site mentioned, and they all look like these near-field reflective artefacts. Occasionally, you'll see pictures with long loopy out-of-focus thingies going through them, also passed off as ghostly photographs. These are actually the camera's wrist strap in the near field.