Zoom in on something far enough, or photograph it at a micro angle, and it’s easy to distort just what it is that you’re looking at.
You’ll recognize these things eventually, either through our explanation or squinting at the photo for long enough. But some of this stuff is borderline unrecognizable.
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“Took a close up picture of my tattoo and the colors make it look fake!”
It’s really cool to see the colors of a tattoo against the contours of a person’s skin. From a distance, tats usually obscure skin texture.
“Close up of a movie theater screen.”
I never would have guessed this one in a million years. I guess the perforations make the screen more flexible? I have no idea what their purpose is.
“A close up of the scales on my lizard’s leg.”
We all know that dragons aren’t real, but when you look at a lizard, you can see exactly where people got the idea from. Just look at those little thorny scales!
“Close up of my pants fabric using the new camera on the iPhone 13 Pro Max.”
I promise this isn’t an ad for iPhone (I’m an Android person myself). That said, those cameras on new iPhones are pretty impressive.
“Extreme close up of water droplets on moss.”
I love how water droplets cling to objects, seemingly defying gravity, until they slowly drip down. Here’s an up close and personal view of the phenomenon in action.
“Close up wood grain after removing bark.”
We all know what wood grain looks like, and it…well, it doesn’t usually look like this. Zoomed in, the grain almost looks like piles of soft thread.
“Shined a light through a floppy disk. Close up photo of the melted film looks like an angry sun god.”
Part of this photo is dependent on how the film melted, but part of it just shows what happens when floppy disk film melts. I never would have guessed there’d be so many colors.
“Leaf looks like roadways and developed areas.”
Sure, it still looks like a leaf from this angle, but if you squint a bit, it does look like a satellite photo of human habitations. You even have the main road, secondary roads and suburban roads.
“Close up photo I took of mold.”
Mold is something I never want to deal with in real life, but I can look at photos of mold all day. Just look at how it grows. I’d be impressed if it wasn’t so gross.
“A close up shot of a dead plumeria leaf. The hole is 1mm wide.”
When it’s zoomed in like this, you can really see how decay seeps in to something that was once living. There’s still plenty of green, but the brown areas are slowly taking over.
“A turkey’s feathers close up.”
Most people would probably recognize this as a feather, but they wouldn’t be able to identify the bird it came from. Well, it’s a turkey. Mystery solved.
“A gigantic snapping turtle close up.”
I have a similar picture I snapped on my phone on a trip to a marsh, and it’s a sight to behold. Snapping turtles will bite your finger clean off, and they’ll look incredibly scary while they do it.
“A high-security key.”
I have no idea how keys, let alone high-security keys actually work. All I know is that this key looks very complex.
“A Black and White portrait using only colored Lego pieces (close up on the right is the eye).”
This is the kind of thing you could only do with the help of a computer. It’s kind of similar to the way that thousands of colorful pixels combine to create a coherent image on TV.
“Close up picture of my cat’s nose.”
This is obviously a cat’s nose, but take a second to take it all in. I love how different the hair on the bridge of the nose is from the fur everywhere else.
“An eye close up with a magnifier.”
Close-up pictures of eyes usually don’t bother me, but for whatever reason, this one is pure nightmare fuel. Maybe it’s zoomed in a little too much.
“Inside a Fazioli Grand Piano.”
This looks like some kind of neverending hallway, but it’s the mechanism of a grand piano. This kind of craftsmanship is impossible to duplicate with a machine, and explains why pianos are so expensive.
“The wing scales on a butterfly.”
If I had to guess, I’d say that these are the scales of a goldfish. I guess I’m correct in that they’re scales, but a goldfish is pretty different from a butterfly.
“A candle in the snow.”
There’s something about the way the light spills out over the snow that makes this look like a glowing planet in the middle of a starry, cloudy sky.
“A sweet pepper.”
This looks like the interior of a vast, fiery cave that’s full of dragon eggs. Or maybe that’s just my overactive imagination. Sweet peppers are weird from this angle, that’s for sure.
