Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Bored Panda

Entertainment

Aurelija Rakauskaitė

Reality Is Stranger Than Fiction: 50 Of The Most Unreal Photos

One might think that there’s not much left to explore or discover on Earth, which is why we began putting people in space. However, that’s not quite the truth, as around 58% of our world remains unknown to humans. This means that we can still come across mind-blowing things when we least expect them.

Some of them can be found in this list below collected by our Bored Panda team. Scroll down to find them, and don’t forget to upvote the ones that surprised you the most.

While you're at it, make sure to check out a conversation with conservation photographer and writer Marisa Marulli and wildlife and landscape photographer Melissa Alves, whose works can be found below, too. They also agreed to chat with us more about how they capture their incredible works. Read on to find their insights in between the photos!

#1 Saturn Through My 6" Telescope

Image credits: danborja

#2 Made This Today. The Black Dot On The Stem Is Me

Image credits: -KeyLime-

#3 This Is Narwhal. He Was Born With An Extra Tail On His Forehead. It Hasn’t Wagged Yet But He’s Working On It. 14/10 Always Read The Instructions Before Assembling Your Puppy

Image credits: dog_rates

Conservation photographer and writer Marisa Marulli tells Bored Panda that she got into nature photography after realizing that she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life.

"And that bothered me. I wanted a clear path, like the lawyers and the doctors. I didn’t want to ’stumble’ my way through life without answers! Thinking that way about it is funny now. I’m so glad I stumbled," she shared.

"I’m so glad I took a breather when I was so peeved in an office cubicle, not knowing what I wanted with my life, that I finally took a career and personality test and began to get some answers in some areas of work that might be of interest to me. Photography showed up as one of them, believe it or not."

#4 This Transparent Butterfly

Image credits: Mijaafa

#5 A Lightning Strike Happened The Moment I Took A Photo And Made It Look Like Daytime. I Took The Second Photo 10 Seconds Later

Image credits: thebookkeeper

#6 I Found A Baby Albino Oak In My Garden Some Years Ago, And Realized That Plants Can Be Albinos Too, But They Do Not Live Long Since They Cannot Photosynthesize

Image credits: Lunabora

Along with photography, the personality test presented her with about 20 other lines of work that she might like best, but after trying some of them, photography was the one that stuck with her.

"All of the forward motion into those few careers sort of stopped either due to my own disinterest or because I hit an exterior block. Photography stayed. In the beginning months of pursuing it, I took a photography workshop in Iceland. Now, this is an important piece of the story because I hadn’t been out of the country in over 10 years, and I was pretty scared of flying," she continued telling us.

"But the camera, the pursuit of photography of nature and animals in Iceland, weighed more than my fear. That was a victory. I found something I loved enough to jump over the fear of getting there. And it continues today, putting me in front of some of the largest bears in the wild, on the edge of cliffs when I am not a fan of ledges, even on multiple flights to get across the world to Siberia, and most recently, into the ocean to understand and explore the conservation of sea turtles."

#7 I Found A Bug Adorned With Gold Markings

Image credits: reddit.com

#8 This Water In Sweden Is So Clear It Looks Like There's None At All

Image credits: Suborb

#9 Holy Toebeans Big Foot

Image credits: Pirate_Redbeard

"Now, I will say, I always knew ‘I just want to save all the animals.’ The way that phrase comes off may sound childish, but I still allow myself to say it, just like that, today. It may be one of the few childish pieces I still allow in myself (I tend to be quite a serious person). And I honor that," she added, concluding the story of how she almost accidentally found herself with a career in nature photography.

#10 Rainbow Wrasse Caught Off Christmas Island

Image credits: Earl Harper / Harper Studios

#11 Found The End Of The Rainbow. Rangarping Eystra, Iceland

Image credits: mo0n_daughter

#12 A Rare Optic Sight, The “Brocken Spectre,” Which Occurs When A Person Stands At A Higher Altitude In The Mountains And Sees His Shadow Cast On A Cloud At A Lower Altitude

Image credits: Mind_Virus

Whereas wildlife and landscape photographer Melissa Alves tells us that what led her to nature photography was her love for nature.

"I have loved nature for as long as I can remember. I used to watch nature documentaries with my dad and imagine being one of the presenters in the show. I didn’t come across a lot of representation for women in nature photography when I was growing up, so I didn’t consider it as much more than a hobby until much later in life," she shared.

"I also recall my dad telling me as a kid to enjoy the tigers I was seeing on TV because they probably wouldn't be around when I grew up, and that had quite an impression on me. Photography has the power to change people’s hearts, and if even just one person sees a photo I’ve taken and wants to take better care of the environment, I feel successful."

#13 Lightning Highlighting A Tornado - Fort Worth, Tx

Image credits: crypticthinker

#14 This Red Only Rainbow I Saw At Midnight In Finland

Image credits: junn0

#15 Saw A Snail Today While I Was Outside And It’s Shell Is Crystal Clear

Image credits: ilovesIuts

During her career, the most mind-blowing and once-in-a-lifetime pictures that Marisa was able to capture were a close-up of an adult bear in Alaska and sea turtles in the ocean and at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

"When I was staying at Silver Salmon Creek Lodge in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska, we went out to the wild to observe and photograph some of the largest bears in the world: the coastal brown bear. At one point, a very large adult decided to walk our way. The bear continued and ended up walking right past us. It was absolutely amazing. It passed so close that I had too much of a telephoto (zoom) lens to capture it at one point!" she exclaims.

"When I was snorkeling and photographing in the ocean, I noticed there were a few jellyfish in the area. A young sea turtle approached one nearby me, and began eating it! I remember staying fairly still so I would not disrupt the sea turtle and sure enough it stayed long enough that its meal crumbs — little pieces of jellyfish — floated around and lightly stung me a bit!"

#16 Never Have I Ever Seen Something Quite As Magnificent As Jadayupara - A Mythical Eagle That Just So Happens To Be The Largest Bird Sculpture In The World

Image credits: jonny.melon

#17 Dinosaur Footprints On An Eroded Beach

Image credits: ArticleNew3737

#18 The Size Of A Full Grown Adult Male Moose

Image credits: DblockDavid

#19 This Baby Praying Mantis

Image credits: al_for

"Volunteering photography at Loggerhead Marinelife Center, an amazing force for conserving endangered sea turtles, I have witnessed so many beautiful moments; from sea turtles taking their first solo breath after being intubated during surgery, to the slow progress of emaciated turtles getting so large that they give the hospital team a bit of a challenge during check ups, to a sea turtle being released to its ocean home after almost a year of rehabilitating in the hospital," she adds.

#20 I Put Over 1,500 Blocks Of Jenga On 1, Creating A New World Record

Image credits: kelvin214

#21 Found This ‘Veiled Lady’ Mushroom On A Hike This Morning Near Seoul, South Korea

Image credits: Spudnut

#22 You Might Have Seen It Before, But Here's That One Place In Indonesia With A Volcano Behind Waterfalls

Image credits: malthezimakoff

Meanwhile, the once-in-a-lifetime photo Melissa captured was of shorebirds perfectly flying in front of Mount Baker.

"In December of 2023, I photographed some shorebirds (too far away to properly identify) taking off as a group in front of Mount Baker. I have seen the shorebirds in the area fly in massive flocks before, but I had never seen them leave the bay to continue on their migration in such large numbers, and directly in front of the mountain," she says.

"It was incredible, and I still have yet to see them fly perfectly in front of the mountain like that again. Because of the distance between the bay where me and the birds were and Mount Baker it appeared as though the birds were flying high above the mountain at some points."

#23 Caught This Incredible Exploding Meteor When I Went To Rattlesnake Lake In Washington, USA Last Weekend. Zoom In To See The Exact Moment It Explodes In Two

Image credits: chaibhu

#24 This Morning I Found By Far The Smallest Frog I Have Ever Seen In My Entire Life (My Average-Sized Fingernail For Scale)

Image credits: okgodlemmehaveit

#25 Went In For Teeth Cleaning Last Month & Mentioned A Numb Feeling In A Tooth- I Was Shocked To Find A Tumor Eating My Jaw Bone. This Photo Is My Ct Scan. Biopsy Surgery Results Were Non-Cancerous, Thankfully

I had surgery last week to take a biopsy to rule out bone cancer. Results came back as a central large cell granuloma. Next step are more tests and a surgery to remove the tumor/lesion completely. Possibly bone transplant/stem cell procedure later to help regrow some bone and pretty sure those teeth will need help later down the line too. 15-20% chance this thing could come back, too.

Image credits: KaLeXat

To be able to capture such amazing moments in images, Marisa says that light is the most crucial part. "It is all about the light, as much as possible. When capturing landscape photos, I aim to photograph during sunrise and sunset, when everything lights up in a special way than the rest of the day. For animal photography, natural light is important (and critical when it comes to an endangered species), as you do not want to disturb the animal. For night sky photography, lack of light pollution is super important," she explains.

For Melissa, her technique usually differs depending on what subject she tries to capture. "For example, when I photograph owls, I often use long-exposures, since the owls don’t tend to move much and it allows me to let a little more light in when I am already at a maximum aperture for my lens and do not want to bump up the ISO settings too much. For something like a macro shot of a mushroom, I take multiple images and stack them together in Photoshop later to get as much detail as possible."

#26 My Nails Pushing The Chemo Out Of My Fingertips

Image credits: llowreyy

#27 I Went For A Walk In The Forest And Came Upon This Ponderosa Pine Tree That Had Been Struck By Lightning

I Called The Forest Service And They Eventually Extinguished It, But Not Before I Had Time To Get Some Photos. Near Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

Image credits: EliasButlerPhotos

#28 Ants Build A Bridge To Cross A Gap

Image credits: lnfinity

Even after years of capturing breathtaking photos of our world, photographers say that nature never ceases to amaze them. "I can see the same trees and moss every day and still have more to learn about them," says Melissa. "Nature is always changing too, so there is definitely always a surprise waiting every time I go out."

"It manages to surprise me every time I am out with it," agrees Marisa. "That is the point, I think. When you love what you do (whether it’s your career or a hobby or on a vacation), you will be enlivened inside, open-minded with a childlike wonder, and see things that perhaps others do not. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder."