Photo editing is a common practice these days. It’s used for everything from making celebrities prettier to creating comedic images involving cats. Even if you have a pretty rudimentary background in software, you can download a program and fiddle around with it. Want a picture of yourself with your favorite actor? Done. Jet-skiing on a shark down a lava flow while battling aliens? Done.
Anymore, we’re all a little jaded. When you see a cool photo, you may wonder how it was edited. But the incredible pictures you see below? Someone was just in the right place at the right time and took an incredible picture that no one will believe.
1. This rainbow laser mimics a Nyan Cat flyover
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The government doesn’t want you to know that it wasa Nyan Cat flyover.
2. This would be a terrible digital art piece, but it’s a great photo.
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The red-object-in-black-and-white has become the cheesy, art-school staple of Photoshop jobs. This is not one of those. This hibiscus bloomed after its surroundings were coated in ash following a volcanic eruption in Indonesia.
3. Color in the gray.
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Like the hibiscus, this image was taken after the eruption of Japan’s Mt. Ontake in September 2014, which killed at least 50 people and trapped others under rock and ash. These are rescue workers arriving on the scene.
4. At the end of the rainbow you’ll find…an SUV?
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Probably more useful than a pot of gold.
5. Ever want to go aboard a UFO?
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This is actually a suite in Sweden’s Tree Hotel, where each suite, perched in the treetops has a unique design. This one was created by Bertil Harström.
6. Here’s a less Earth-bound UFO
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“No one will notice us if we pretend we’re a cloud.”
7. Keep this enormous moth away from your sweaters.
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The Attacus atlas is the world’s largest moth, with wingspans up to 10 inches. The tips of their wings also look like snake heads!
8. Just a splash of color. A square splash
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French artist Georges Rousse has been painting his perspective pieces in abandoned buildings since the 1980s.
9. More perspective art…
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This was created by street artist Aakash Nihilani using fluorescent green tape.
10. Even more perspective art!
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Artist Felice Varini is known for creating optical illusions with perspective art, making concentric circles and swooping lines across buildings and cityscapes, as well as (relatively) smaller pieces like this.
11. That’s a lot of sheep.
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This is the San Boldo Pass in the Italian Alps. It experiences regular sheep jams.
12. Go deep sea diving without getting wet.
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The Radisson Blu Hotel in Berlin offers visitors the chance to take and elevator ride through its two-story cylindrical aquarium, which is home to more than 1,500 fish. Scuba diving for aquarium personnel only. (Sorry)
13. 8-bit cosplaying.
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There are plenty of awesome Samus Aran (of Metroid fame) cosplays out there, but this clever, retro take on the iconic character also makes you do a double take.
14. A perfect sunbeam sets this mountain alight.
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Sometimes the sun comes through the mountains just right.
15. No, look again.
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It’s almost like these rhinos choreographed this. “Heh heh, silly humans.”
16. “Just waiting for my pixelated train.”
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This is a sculpture called “Maya” in the Bristol Temple Meads station in England. It was created by Luke Jerram, and was created using 5,000 12-mm square stickers on water-cut aluminum sheets. It’s three-dimensional
17. A rooftop island
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Someone in Beijing got sick of city life and constructed this mountainous oasis on the roof of their building. Of course, it’s not exactly legal, or safe, to do this, and the structure gained some notoriety.
18. The day the ocean turned into beer
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This is an actual weather phenomenon known as a shelf cloud, which happens when warm and cool air collide, forming a weirdly regular barrier, and they’re usually followed by a storm. This one may have picked up some dust, or is filtering the light at a certain angle, accounting for the color.
19. They should probably put up a fence.
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Artist Erik Johansson created this street illusion in 2011 in Stockholm’s Sergelstorg Square. Passerby had a lot of fun playing with it.
20. The ghost of a tsunami.
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These low-lying clouds swept over the Florida coast in 2012. This happens when air holding a lot of moisture experiences a drop in temperature. Cooler air can hold less moisture, so all the water condenses and forms a mist. These mist clouds evaporated again when they fell over the buildings and came into contact with warmer air again.
21. A miniature, waterless aquarium.
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This is known as an “ocean opal,” and features light-refracting facets as well as veins of other minerals, making it look like a tiny underwater scene trapped in stone.
22. This house disappears into its desert surroundings
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Lucid Stead is an art installation project by Phillip K. Smith. This 70-year-old homesteader’s shack was given a makeover with mirrored slats that make it appear to disappear into the landscape. It also lights up at night.
23. The world’s fluffiest bunny
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It might just be me, but the rabbit inside all that fluff (it’s an Angora) cannot possibly be enjoying this.
24. Where the goth kids come from
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This was actually an abandoned–and condemned–house in Germany. It was a popular spot for graffiti artists and could be seen covered in bright pieces of art. However, it was slated for demolition, and, as a farewell, artists Erik Sturm and Simon Jung painted it all black. The house was demolished, but you can still see it on Google Maps.
25. Stained glass landscape
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These are terraced rice paddies in China’s Yunnan Province. The colors come from algae that grows in the water-saturated paddies, as well as from reflections of the sky.
26. Projections turn trees into faces monstrous and serene.
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These light projections in Cambodia transformed ordinary trees into gods and demons. They were photographed by Clement Briend
27. A dizzying cathedral ceiling
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The Sagrada Família Cathedral in Barcelona was designed by Antoni Gaudi, who designed a lot of the city’s famous buildings. Construction on the church began in 1882, and is still not complete. It’s projected completion is in 2026, a century after Gaudi’s death.
28. Rendering car…
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It might look like an artist is about to place an image of a car in this photo, but that outline exists in the physical world. It’s a wire sculpture by artist Benedict Radcliffe.
29. Do not adjust your screen
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Though it looks like a screen glitch, this is actually an intricately-carved wooden cabinet by designer Ferruccio Laviani. It combines traditonal woodwork with a very modern visual phenomenon.
30. World arm-wrestling champion is tired of your sophomoric jokes.
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We’re sure Matthias Schlitte has heard all the jokes before; he even has the nickname “Hellboy.” He was actually born with a genetic defect that resulted in his right forearm bone 33% larger than his typically-proportioned left one. Which makes for good arm wrestling.
Now if those aren’t notable, I don’t know what is. You can chalk these up to deliberate creativity, being in the right place at the right time, or just plain weirdness. However they happened, it’s amazing what really goes on in the world!
