Every now and then, we’ll encounter a photo that either doesn’t make much of an impact on us, or we think it looks nice, but that’s about it.
However, as soon as we see the comments, we can sometimes get an unexpectedly extreme vibe from how they read. Either they’re very angry, very sad, or overjoyed and it’s difficult to figure out why.
Indeed, some seemingly run-of-the-mill photos can have some captivating backstories behind them. And in the interest of closing that contextual gap, let’s dive into those stories.
One clue as to what’s going on here involves knowing that the McDonald’s cup in this kid’s bucket isn’t his.

While he was walking on the beach, he came across a dead fish caught in a plastic bag. After his parent explained the effects that someone’s waste can have on the ocean, he started his own little #Trashtag.
Despite being on vacation, he soon busied himself with picking up trash until he ended up with 10 buckets full of the stuff.
Very nice work!
It seems like this little girl is angry at the beach, but it’s actually quite the opposite.

This is her first time visiting one and this moment was preceded by her running and spinning around. What she’s really saying here is, “How are you so awesome?”
The perspective makes this look vaguely like a dumpster, but it’s actually a prison bus in Bangladesh.

Here we see a soon-to-be inmate trying to feel the rain for what could be the last time. Without knowing what they’re in for, we can only allow this sad moment to exist in and of itself.
The sign conveys its message very clearly, but the clever part is a little hard to notice at first.

Despite what the blue and white checkers would lead us to believe, this notice wasn’t put up by any police department. That’s why it’s a “polite notice” and not a police notice.
It’s likely that street art with this much detail and that fit this building so well was commissioned, but it’s still striking to see.

Not to mention, if we only had the “after” photo as a frame of reference, we might not appreciate how well they made their mural blend in.
We might figure the people aren’t real, but the roof is a little harder to spot.
A close look at the roof tells us that this tree was supposed to grow through the house like this.

One commenter worried about the roots cracking the house’s foundation, but according to the Arborist Network in Australia , it’s not even particularly common for them to damage and enter pipes.
Depending on what it was made of, the foundation should hold firm.
There’s a reason this young woman grew her hair out so long before she trimmed it down.

She ended up getting 30 inches of hair removed and her mission for that hair was to donate it to make wigs for children with cancer.
It seems odd for this Sacramento FBI storage facility to keep a cabin lying around, but this one is more infamous than most.

That’s because it once belonged to Theodore Kaczynski, who is better known as the Unabomber. He lived in this cabin in the wilderness for seven years before he started his bombing campaign in 1978.
The cabin is now on display at the Newseum in Washington D.C.
It might seem like a hospital bill this large would cover a rare and complicated procedure, but that’s sadly not the case.

Unfortunately, this is just how much it can cost to break your leg in the U.S.
Although insurance can cover some of the costs, the uploader’s family had the misfortune of losing the job that provided it shortly before this happened.
It’s hard to tell without knowing this language, but this store’s layout wasn’t planned very well.

That’s because the anti-theft alarm was placed so close to the change rooms that it goes off whenever sometimes tries to use a fitting room.
It’s certainly not uncommon to see a rock with moss growing on it in the woods, but that’s not what we’re looking at.

It’s actually a bag of cement that somebody threw into the woods for unclear reasons and the moss showed up after it got wet.
A tattoo artist added this statue to the basement of her studio because she thought it looked haunted and creepy.

She thought that of the basement, by the way, not necessarily the statue. If she wanted to enhance the creepy factor, however, she definitely pulled that off.
I’ve had to explain the context for most of these photos, but the uploader helpfully filled that part in themselves.

The only thing that may be a little hard to make out here is that they deliberately wrote this message in Comic Sans just to express how unpleasant their customer experience was.
It’s nice to know that font’s good for something.
If this skull is unpleasant to look at, it’s important to know that it feels even worse to experience.

That’s because this is actually what it looks like to have bone cancer.
According to The Journal of the National Cancer Institute , cancer causes the most pain when it spreads to the bones and this photo is very illustrative as to why.
It’s hard to make out from the sign, but this rage room was installed at somebody’s workplace.

Apparently, you’re supposed to take off your shoes before using it and the receptionist will provide the key to the room and some boxing gloves.
Presumably, the idea is to punch the walls or whatever else is in there until the pent-up aggression has been released.
This would be annoying, but fair if the notice about using this kettle was placed here to begin with, but that’s not what happened.

Instead, the guest at this hotel in the Czech Republic had to dig through a drawer to find the folder that tells them the price of using this kettle.
Whether they actually know somebody has done that or not, it’s pretty sneaky.
Those who recognize this as the 9/11 Memorial are correct, but some might not know why that white rose is there.

According to the 9/11 Memorial and museum’s website , volunteers will place the roses on a victim’s name when their birthday comes around.
The person who is perhaps the most dedicated to doing this is museum volunteer George Mironis, who actually survived the tragedy.
If you’re wondering how they managed to get this shot, it involved having a drone fly in a circle over this guy’s head.

The photographer also said they stitched two photos together so there wouldn’t be any motion blur.
They also set their shutter speed to about 20 seconds and kept the circle up until the shutter closed.
This is a photo of all the scientists who worked on getting the first image of a black hole.

It’s incredible how much teamwork it took to achieve a single photograph. The sheer amount of brilliance in one group is amazing.
The whole neighborhood is keeping a careful watch of this swan mom.

She and her mate are yearly residents of the park, but the mate was found dead the previous week. They thought the nest had been abandoned, but mom returned to protect her eggs.
It’s possible to see pink dolphins in the Amazon.

The river valley, not the online store.
The males are pink as part their ways to attract mates. They will also hold plants in their mouths or balance turtles to attract the ladies.
Careful photo editing gives an amazing view of Andromeda.

The galaxy is 2.5 million light years away and the farthest celestial body we can see with the naked eye. The photographer carefully brightened it for a more detailed look.
This dentist office has a tiny mouse house.

That’s because in Spanish and Hispanic cultures , it’s not a tooth fairy but a friendly mouse called Ratón Pérez who exchanges baby teeth for small gifts.
This angel sculpture in Coventry, England is made entirely of knives.

More specifically, the 100,000 knives enclosed were either confiscated or surrendered to police throughout the U.K. and messages from the families of knife crime victims are engraved on the wings.
Supposedly, this student in Brazil was given the option to draw life in the Neolithic and Paleolithic periods rather than take a written test.

I say, “supposedly,” because the comments don’t seem to believe this story, but since they haven’t found any evidence to confirm or disprove that this is what happened, we’ll just call it “unconfirmed.”
It’s pretty fascinating if it’s true, though.
Last Updated on April 10, 2019 by Mason Joseph Zimmer