We are not experts. We have been asked what it is that we do when we "ghost hunt". If you believe that this is something that you want to do, then it is up to you to educate yourself until you have an understanding to what it is you are going to do. All groups and individuals do their investigations the way they believe is the correct way. There are no experts on ghosts, or ghost hunting. Some people are more serious than others. Hopefully reading this article will give you a few pointers to start with.

Location: We start every investigation with good directions. Sometimes these are easy to find, or we have to ask around until we find out a location. We personally like to investigate places of urban legend. We have found most to be just that, legends. This is the fun in it for us. Always find out before hand if the place you are going is public or private or if you will need permission to access the area. Sometimes these places are a good drive away, so why waste your time or gas if you cannot legally access the location. If you are unfamiliar with an area or location and there is a possibility it may be dangerous be sure to scope it out in the daytime.

Equipment:Flashlights with extra batteries is a must. A camera. It seems there is an argument (civil of course) amongst different ghost groups and organizations on the use of digital cameras. Some say use them, some say don't, others say use them with a regular 35mm camera. Our thought is this. I believe most newer digital cameras are of good enough quality that you can use them as the only camera during a ghost hunt. I do think that your camera should be at least a four megapixel camera. We mostly use a 5 megapixel and a 7 megapixel. Some argue the fact that there is no negative, so therefore you will have a hard time proving the photo is real. I truly feel like if you do capture a full fledged in your face apparition with any camera, people will probably doubt the photo anyhow. There are many photography tricks that people can use with any camera to fool others. We personally feel like we are not looking for the ultimate proof of ghosts that will convince the entire world of their existence. We don't believe any photo will do that. So that being said, other equipment you may use is thermometers to measure the air tempeture. Often it is reported that ghosts create cold spots from pulling the energy they need to survive from the surrounding environment. Extra batteries are important also, energy can be pulled from those as well. We have personally experienced that phenomena several times. Even having new batteries suddenly go dead. A voice recorder is helpful if you are trying to capture ghostly voices and sounds. EMF is an amazing technique and there are many good examples on the WWW of these. EMF meters are sometimes used. We currently do not use one. A video camera is another option for gathering evidence. We use one at times.

Some things to not do:
Any type of drugs and alcohol should not be used. Not only does it turn a safe situation into an unsafe one, but how in the world do you expect anyone to believe what you find if you cannot even remember where you found it. Have the party after your hunt if thats your thing.
Have fun but be serious enough to be safe.
Never trespass. It is illegal and that reason in itself is good enough to not do it.
Do not leave trash or damage anything. If you have to disrespect someone elses property then I think most other ghost hunters would agree, stay away from ghost hunting and find another idea of fun. It is a fun, exciting, relaxing hobby and we do not need anyone to give the honest people who enjoy it and are respectful of locations a bad reputation.
Do not smoke at a location, it will give you photos full of smoke which of course is not the type of activity you want to capture. You may even take the risk of masking true anomalies with the smoke, which of course defeats the purpose of going.
Do not go hunting in the rain, fog, high humidity, or other similar weather conditions. All of these conditions will cause false photo results.

Some things to do:
Take lots of photos. I have taken a 100 to only get one good photo, and do not delete photos from your digital camera at the location. Always load all of them to the computer to double check.
Tell the photo place you want all of your photos, even the bad ones. If you are using a film camera. They might throw out something because they thought it was bad.
Note the time, weather, placement of any lights, shiny objects or odd feelings. Also note the place of the moon, we had a photo that produced a strange bright orb, only to remember the moon was in that area.
Most important-Have fun!

Some Flase Photos:
Here is a small collection of things that are not ghostly photos for reference. (We are new to this also, we still do not know the cause of all anomalies. We still at times seek the advice of other trusted ghost enthusiasts)

Ecto? Ghostly fog? Nope just Cigarette smoke!

A moving orb? No just a streetlight far off in the background. Why it is important to note all visible light sources around you.

I used this photo as good example of lens flare from a shiny object. In this case the rearveiw mirrior and car windsheild.

Rain. It started raining as soon as we got to this location.