Most of the time we see the world from roughly the same height, at the same distance and from the outside. Change any of those, by cutting something in half, looking straight up inside it, or zooming in until its structure shows, and even the most ordinary object becomes surprising. A garden hedge turns out to be a hollow shell of leaves around bare branches. A phone screen dissolves into a grid of coloured dots. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, seen from inside, is an empty stone tube.
This collection brings together 25 photos and clips, mostly shared on Reddit, Imgur and Instagram, that do exactly that. Some are cross-sections, some are tricks of distance and haze, and a few are not quite what they seem, such as a giant python that is actually a silicone prop. For each one we explain what you are looking at and why it looks the way it does, with credit to the person who first posted it.
Tricks of distance and scale
1. A motorway that seems to climb into the sky
A long, straight expressway rises up a slope and fades into low cloud, so it looks as if it simply carries on upwards. Posted by © funkystay/imgur. The effect comes from a steady gradient seen head-on, plus haze that hides the crest of the hill and the land beyond.
2. The world's tallest man and shortest woman
Sultan Kösen of Turkey, at about 2.51 metres (8 ft 3 in) the tallest living man recognised by Guinness World Records, stands beside Jyoti Amge of India, the shortest living woman at roughly 63 cm (2 ft). They met at the Giza pyramids in early 2018 for a photo call promoting tourism to Egypt. Shared by © mahabaho/reddit. Strictly speaking Jyoti is the shortest living woman rather than the shortest person, since the record for shortest man is held separately.
3. Your shadow on the bottom of a frozen lake
Ice that freezes slowly in calm, cold weather can be almost perfectly clear, so light passes straight through it and a skater's shadow falls on the lake bed below. The post credits the photographer as @marynsimrak, shared via @ifyouhigh. Clear "black ice" is beautiful but can be thinner than it looks, so local advice on ice safety always comes first.
Nature from the inside
4. Roots that grew into a cube
The roots of a city street tree, confined by a square opening in the pavement, have wound around the trunk and built up into a dense, box-shaped mass. Photographed by © jobrody/reddit. Urban trees often struggle for space, and their roots will follow whatever gaps the concrete leaves them.
5. A hedge cut in half
When this hedge was cut through, it revealed a network of bare woody branches inside a thin green shell. Leaves only grow where they get light, so in a dense, regularly trimmed hedge almost all the foliage sits on the outside surface. Original poster unknown, via © unknown author / imgur.
6. A tree inside a tree
Two long slabs cut from a forked trunk show a dark tree shape inside the paler wood. The darker part is heartwood, older wood at the centre that no longer carries sap; the lighter outer band is the living sapwood. Shared by © frenzy3/imgur. Woodworkers prize slabs like these for tables and benches.
7. A snail tucking into cucumber
A large land snail, probably a giant African land snail or similar pet species, munches through a slice of cucumber. Posted by © Phasechange/reddit, the photo became a popular challenge on Reddit's Photoshop Battles. Many pet snails are fed cucumber, though keepers also add calcium for healthy shells.
8. Tomatoes ripening in a perfect gradient
On this truss of cherry tomatoes the fruit closest to the stem has turned red first, followed by orange, yellow and finally green at the tip. Shared by © lwatt/reddit. Fruit nearer the main stem usually sets first and so ripens first, which is why many trusses look like a living colour chart.
9. Three bananas in one peel
Peeled back, what looked like one large banana turns out to contain three fingers fused under a single skin. Posted by © parano1dandro1d/imgur. Bananas grow in tight clusters, and occasionally neighbouring fruits develop together inside one peel.
10. A python that does not bite
This 15-foot albino python is a silicone prop made by Vincent Van Dyke Effects for the first episode of the Fox drama 9-1-1. According to the studio's post, it was used alongside a real python named Angel, which the team had to match in colour and texture. A reminder that not every giant animal online is real.
Everyday objects, opened up
11. Porcelain drinks cans
Crushed drinks cans reimagined in blue-and-white porcelain, the decorative style long associated with Chinese ceramics. Shared by © Dannythegirl/reddit. Artists have used the contrast between throwaway packaging and precious china to comment on value and waste; the maker of these pieces was not named in the post.
12. A phone screen under magnification
Seen through a microscope, an image on a Samsung Galaxy S8 becomes a pattern of tiny red, green and blue sub-pixels. Posted by © idontlikepickingusername / imgur, who said it was magnified about 300 times. The S8 uses an AMOLED panel whose sub-pixels are arranged in a diamond-like pattern rather than simple stripes.
13. The ball inside a spray-paint can
Cut open, the can reveals the small marble that rattles when you shake it. Shared by © Nocturnal_Majesty/reddit. Often called a "pea" or agitator, it helps mix pigment that settles to the bottom back into the liquid, which is why the instructions say to shake for a minute before spraying.
14. A vintage bulb with a flower filament
Instead of a glowing wire, this bulb holds a metal flower that lights up in orange. Posted by © Proteon/imgur. Novelty bulbs like this, often linked to the American maker Aerolux from the 1930s onwards, use low-pressure gas that glows around coated metal shapes rather than a hot filament.
15. Inside the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Look straight up from the bottom and the famous bell tower turns out to be a hollow stone cylinder open to the sky. Shared by © Wicked_Aviator/reddit. Its stairs, nearly 300 steps, spiral up inside the thickness of the walls. Building began in 1173, and stabilisation work between 1990 and 2001 reduced the lean to about four degrees.
16. Fireworks in cross-section
An aerial firework shell sliced in half shows its inner workings: rows of round "stars" packed around a central bursting charge, with a time fuse at the top. Posted by © RPBot/reddit. When the fuse burns down, the charge explodes and throws the burning stars outwards in the pattern you see in the sky.
Weather, sky and sea
17. A road that seems to float on cloud
A wintry view taken near the A82 in Glen Coe, in the Scottish Highlands, where deep snow and low light flatten the landscape until it looks like a sea of cloud. Shared by © yohanfunk/reddit. Glen Coe is one of Scotland's most photographed valleys, and the A82 is the main road through it.
18. A purple morning sky over Australia
A long, low bank of cloud stretches over a truck depot, lit purple by early light. Posted by © ITALIAWAYNE/imgur. Formations like this are often shelf clouds, which form along the leading edge of a storm's cold outflow, and they can look far more dramatic than the weather they bring.
19. A storm seen from a ship's bridge
Filmed from the bridge, a large ship rises and plunges through heavy seas as waves break over the bow. The clip is credited to @isaac__ford via @processvideo. Ships are built to ride these waves, but footage like this shows why crews secure everything on board before a storm.
20. A cloud that looks like a mushroom
Lit by the setting sun, a towering storm cloud spreads out at the top into a mushroom shape, with lightning flashing beneath it over the sea. Original poster unknown, via © unknown author/imgur. Storm clouds flatten out like this when they reach the stable air of the upper atmosphere, forming what meteorologists call an anvil.
21. Toronto as a Blade Runner set
Neon billboards, rain-slick streets and a lone figure make downtown Toronto look like a frame from Blade Runner 2049. Shared by © RenegadeMoonshine/reddit. Strong colour grading of night photos became a popular style around the time the film came out in 2017.
22. A lit bridge in the fog
A footbridge lined with warm lights curves away into darkness and mist, making it look as if it is suspended in nothing. Original poster unknown, via © unknown author/imgur. Fog scatters artificial light, so each lamp glows with a soft halo.
Machines in motion
23. A robot doing parkour
Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot Atlas jumps from block to block in this clip from late 2017, the same demonstration in which it performed a backflip. Atlas balances using sensors and constant adjustments to its legs and body. The company later released longer parkour routines.
24. "That's not Titanic"
(The Instagram post originally embedded here is no longer available.)
The clip that stood here showed an icebreaker forcing its way through thick sea ice, credited to Ruhann Steyn on YouTube. Icebreakers have strengthened, rounded hulls that ride up onto the ice and crush it with their weight, rather than cutting through like a knife.
25. Poodles waiting at the vet
Two large standard poodles sit upright on waiting-room chairs beside their owner, as if waiting to be called in. Posted by © ZeroDestro3r/reddit, whose father runs the clinic. Standard poodles are tall, intelligent dogs, and these two seem perfectly comfortable on human furniture.
Why a new angle changes what we see
Most of the surprise in these images comes from three simple techniques. A cross-section shows the structure we normally never see, as with the hedge, the firework and the spray can. A change of scale, through a microscope or by placing very different objects side by side, breaks our sense of size. And unusual conditions such as fog, low sun or clear ice hide the clues our brains use to judge depth.
It is also worth checking what a picture really is before sharing it. The python is a prop, the Toronto scene owes much of its look to neon light and colour editing, and the "mushroom" cloud is a thunderstorm, not an explosion. Knowing the story behind an image does not make it less impressive; it usually makes it more interesting.
For more photos that change how you see familiar things, try Nature's Unusual Appearances: A Photo Collection.
Sources: photos and clips by the Reddit, Imgur and Instagram users credited under each item; Vincent Van Dyke Effects; Wikipedia: Sultan Kösen; Wikipedia: Leaning Tower of Pisa; Wikipedia: Atlas (robot).
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