A Note on the Photographs:. After Sheer opens the shutter of his 4x5 view camera, he walks into the frame of his shot (sometimes accompanied by a model) to create figures in darkness. Black clothes allow him to be invisible to the negative. To create a Spirit Shadow, he stands facing a wall with a flash device hidden in his hand. He flashes a circle of light onto the wall behind him and partially blocks the bounce of this light going back to the camera with his body. This produces a black silhouette surrounded by an aura on the negative. He then exits the pose and allows a little moonlight to slowly transform his silhouette into a translucent shadowy figure by brightening the entire scene over the course of the lengthy exposure. Since the negative can’t see him moving around, once he creates one Spirit Shadow, there’s nothing to stop him from creating more presences on the same negative. If the background is already lit, Sheer dresses in black and blocks the light with his body for a portion of the exposure. In some images, Sheer outlines a model with a flashlight pointed towards the camera to create a glowing contoured figure. Sheer’s star-trail photographs are exposures which are between five and seven hours long and record the movement of the stars across the night sky. During the exposure, a lantern often illuminates objects in the foreground. All photographs are copyright Robert Kawika Sheer and may not be reproduced without express permission from the photographer.

"The Agent Angel with a Cellphone at the Hollywood Sign." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Ingela Sheer writes: Using a flashlight to create the halo, it took my husband seven attempts over three nights to paint a perfect ring above the angel's head. I believe the angel is calling Mr. Gold on HBO's 'Entourage' to exclaim, "Ari baby, have I got a great photograph for your office wall!"

"Homage to Eiffel." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. In the City of Light, I point a small flashlight toward the camera as I outline a girl's body. It takes me one minute to create this human Eiffel Tower. You can't see me behind the model because I am wearing black.

"The Ocean Spirit." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Ingela Sheer writes: At Pupukea, this apparition hold a paddle as he watches over the souls of all those who journey into the ocean along Oahu's North Shore. Kawika wears a haku head lei and a maile leaf neck lei. At first, there's no foam near him. Minutes pass. Out of the darkness a wave arrives, and he flashes its white foam to create a silhouette. My husband was forced to stay in this pose longer than expected which allowed the moonlight to reveal his skin -- the result an ethereal presence of both body and spirit. During this half-hour exposure, the white surf pounding the shoreline gets smoothed out on the negative. Mother Nature is the artist here, and she could not paint a more beautiful picture."

"Aliens at the Sequoias." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Apparently aliens enjoy giant sequoias as much as we do. These two alien tourists think the California Tree in Sequoia National Park is simply out-of-this-world. Where do they come from? Their home exists somewhere in the star trails of this 5-hour single exposure.

"The Great Star-Circle, Lake Powell." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Four billion years before the Swiss and Germans were making watches and cuckoos, stars were appearing to circle the North Star keeping time to the rotation of the Earth. Here their paths are recorded on the negative. A quarter turn of a star-trail line (90 degrees) equals six hours. So just eyeing it, this photo looks almost five hours long.

"Wine Spirits at the Castello di Amorosa." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. My wife sips from the bottle and I join her with a glass of Merlot as we celebrate a beautiful California evening in front of a small chapel that the owner of the winery imported from Italy. Our Spirit Shadows are actually created five minutes apart from each other during a half-hour exposure.

"The Fairy Princess Levitating Planes into the Night Sky at LAX." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Ingela Sheer writes: I portray the fairy princess assisting and blessing take-offs at the angels' airport as planes streak through the sky. Trust me, it's actually no fairy tale being out here. I'm walking around on a dark uneven hillside trying not to tumble and ruin my wedding dress as Robert blinds me with flashes of light.

"Bird Cage Theater." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. The most famous building in western lore is up the street from the site of the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Ingela and her "two spirit sisters" audition for a role on the stage of the Bird Cage, and I think they got the part. Certainly, the spirits of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp inside the theater have a better view.

"The Spirits of Stonehenge." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. From left to right, the figures represent: a druid, a Camelot knight, the Norman invader, a Roman soldier, a Christian, and in the back-center, the original creator/architect/artist -- whoever she or he might be. With English Heritage's permission, I hide my costumes behind the stones and enter the frame at 3 a.m. to re-create the figures from Stonehenge's past. I work totally alone on a moonless night. Uncannily, I started to sense children giggling around me. I'm a very down-to-earth guy, but I did grow up in Hawaii -- a vibrant spiritual place -- and some say the stone circle is a vortex, so I thought if there was to be any spiritual energy it would be of the ancient curmudgeonly sort with a British accent. So why kids laughing? Perhaps Stonehenge is a spiritual Fountain of Youth!

"General Grant." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Stars etch into the negative in this six-hour exposure in King's Canyon National Park. I light up this giant sequoia with a lantern for 30 minutes. Inside the trunk are circular growth rings that mirror the curving star-lines in the sky behind the tree.

"India Spirits." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. In this 30-minute exposure, I flashed a light towards me four times to create my very first Spirit Images. I knelt to create one figure, and this made the other three presences appear to float like genies. Above the figure on the right, a faint rainbow appears in the Rajasthan night sky.

"Graveyard Spirits." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. My favorite photograph is a homage to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride that my grandfather helped construct. It's a solo endeavor and the hardest shot I've ever done. This is attempt #8. It's my third night in the graveyard, and this eighty-minute exposure was taken between midnight and 1:20 a.m. at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California. From the camera, I can't see anything in the shot. It takes about 40 minutes to create all the characters on the tombstones. Then I spend an additional forty minutes sitting next to the camera continuing the exposure to allow enough time for a little moonlight to brighten and color the negative.

"Balanced Rock, Garden of the Gods." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. My niece Christina models as I outline her body with a flashlight to create a "balancing presence" at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. Perhaps a mischievous alien positioned this boulder here many centuries ago as their idling spaceship glowed in the distance.

"Calico Ghost Town Gunfight." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. These spirit gunslingers are still battling it out on the silver-mining streets of Calico, California. I portray both gunfighters, so I'm shooting myself. I'm also a photographer, so I'm shooting myself shooting myself. I never see the facade of the building from the camera position. Two distant and barely lit lanterns eventually brighten this hour exposure.

"Young Mr. Lincoln." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Ingela Sheer writes: My stovepipe hat-attired husband and I visited President Lincoln the night after his birthday (hence the wreaths). After opening the shutter, Robert stood perfectly still in front of the statue for 45 seconds. He then exited the frame allowing the "light of Lincoln" to shine through his silhouette. (To Robert's schoolmate from Punahou: we would like to hang this photograph in the Lincoln bedroom!)

"Madame Pele Re-ignites an Old Lava Flow." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Ingela Sheer writes: At Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kawika and I venture onto this 40-year-old lava flow in the dark of night. He then fires off a light towards me to create the figure. Next, I exit the shot while he journeys out to where the pahoehoe (smooth flow) meets the a'a (rough flow). He points a big flashlight toward the camera and walks slowly across the frame to create the glowing lava line. After finishing this one-hour exposure, we thank the location's spiritual energy and hope that the shot will turn out.

"Aliens in Goblin Valley, Utah." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. Look closely and you'll see my ears on the neck of the center alien. The over-sized head and the hands are cut from cardboard. The alien lawyer Martock from Tubac (Arizona) gave me the licensing rights to portray our extraterrestrial friends. As he put it, "It's all about licensing now." By the way, Martock is the brother-in-law of Stephen Colbert's alien financial advisor Gorlock; it's a small universe.

"Rainbow Bridge Star-Trail." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. An earthly wonder along the shoreline of Lake Powell is the world's largest natural bridge; it stands almost a football field high. My camera faces south toward the equator to record straight-line star-trails. During this six-hour exposure, a lantern lights up the bridge for three hours.

"Palace of Fine Arts." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. My wife portrays Greek goddesses holding Greek vases in front of Greek columns in San Francisco, California. She has to hold a heavy vase still for 30 seconds while I light up each column behind her.

"Spirits in Corkscrew Canyon." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. It's daylight outside, but it might as well be nighttime inside Corkscrew Canyon. This is my darkest location ever, I could barely see five feet. During this 45-minute exposure, a little imperceptible light brightens the foreground and makes five out of my six silhouettes translucent. See if you can find the natural face profile in the wall that stretches down the entire left middle of the photograph.

"Spirit Surfer, Manhattan Beach." Photograph copyright Robert Kawika Sheer. This tribute to surfing and lifeguards is my first deliberate Spirit Shadow. I open the shutter, grab my flash and my surfboard, and walk up the ramp in darkness. Pressing my back against the handrail, I flash a circle of light on the door. I then exit the frame and continue the exposure for 35 minutes so ambient light can brighten the shot. I attempted four exposures. Three failed.