16+ Pics That Have Way More Going On In Them Than They Seem

The more online we are, the more likely we are to see more photos in a day than we can remember.

And while most social media platforms offer some space to write a caption and provide some sort of context for what we’re seeing, it’s still possible for some of these images to pass by without making much of an impression.

And considering how much we see in our lives, it’s entirely possible that we’ve looked at hundreds if not thousands of photos without grasping the most significant thing that’s going on in them.

After all, sometimes that hidden sight isn’t even clear to the photographer who happened to snap it for other reasons.

But while it’s fascinating to wonder how much our eyes have glazed over, we have a prime chance to at least appreciate the deeper context behind the pics we’re seeing today.

It’s hard not to notice how ominous this crow’s eyes look, but not to worry. There’s nothing actually wrong with the bird.

Rather than some eye condition or otherworldly possession, the uploader has simply captured what their “crow buddy” looks like while its eyes are in the middle of blinking.

I suppose this shouldn’t come as a surprise since we can also find that blinking at the wrong time can make us look evil too.

It’s hard to even recognize this as a shoe and in a way, that’s why it exists.

Although it would be much more clearly a shoe if we weren’t looking at it in a black and white photo, the real purpose for this design is to obscure the footprints.

This shoe was used by bootleggers during Prohibition in the hopes that police would simply see unremarkable cow hoof prints on smugglers’ secret routes.

Unfortunately, this photo isn’t red because of any filter from a photo editor.

Instead, this eerie red glow is simply a fact of life in parts of Australia as a side-effect of the staggering number of fires consuming the land down under right now.

Depending on how things go, this nearly unrecognizable piece of rubble could have severe consequences for the world at large.

That’s because this was once the vehicle of Qassem Suleimani, a military commander who was considered the second most powerful person in Iran before he and an associate were killed by a U.S. airstrike while traveling towards an airport in Baghdad, Iraq.

Both the quality of this photo and what it’s depicting isn’t necessarily remarkable by today’s standards, but this was a marvel at the time.

That’s because this 1838 photo is the oldest surviving photo we have that depicts a living being.

That’s right, if it weren’t for that figure in the street, this photo wouldn’t have made history.

If this heartfelt notice seems a little strangely-worded, there’s a good reason for that.

The uploader’s dad received a charging dock and this nice thank you letter from the team he works with, but that team apparently doesn’t speak much English.

So they did what a lot of us do when a lot of have to communicate in a language we don’t speak: They turned to Google Translate.

It clearly had some limitations, but let’s not pretend we wouldn’t also love to get tender treatment from the whole world.

Despite how it may appear on the screen, this McDonald’s is actually in front of this car.

What is apparently happening here is that the uploader’s backup camera has a weird bug (feature?) where it will sometimes sync up to a nearby model of the same brand.

So while the McDonald’s is in front of this driver, it’s behind another one nearby who owns the same brand of camera. Seems like an annoying and confusing glitch.

This statue may leave a lot to be desired nowadays, but it’s actually very impressive when you consider its age.

This statue is known as “The Nike of Samothrace,” and it is at least 2,200 years old.

This makes it both older than Paris, the city it now stands in, and makes it very easy to understand how it lost a few limbs along the way.

I don’t know about you, but I’d find it pretty hard to be so whimsical if I were in this picture.

The “path” that this family is pretending to walk along is actually a massive crack in the frozen surface of Lake Baikal in Russia.

As you can see, that crack is only one of many here, which makes this frozen lake nowhere near sturdy enough for comfort.

If you guessed that we’re looking at something under a powerful microscope, you’d be right.

However, you might not have expected that this is actually what a caffeine crystal looks like up close.

It’s also worth noting that this image was originally taken in black and white and later colorized.

Believe it or not, none of the bottles in this photo are actually made of glass.

Before their Reddit account was deleted, the uploader said that they were actually specially painted wood and that only the window in this picture was made of glass.

Others pointed out that they forgot about the picture frames, but their response disappeared along with their account.

This seems like a fairly average suitcase, but you’d have a handy way to tell it’s yours at the airport baggage claim.

Namely, the fact that whoever manufactured it forgot to replace the “sample text” next to these whimsical hot air balloons.

Technically, this photo actually has less going on than it seems to at first glance.

While a lot of people would likely be startled to see a headless person when they walk into this room, it soon becomes clear that they just managed to stick their head in their jacket like a turtle.

This is an extracted human nervous system, but it may surprise you to learn how rare such displays are.

According to Livescience , only four intact nervous systems sit preserved and dissected like this in the world.

The difficulty of extracting a whole system has a lot to do with it, as this display was only possible because medical students M.A. Schalck and L.P. Ramsdell spent 1,500 hours surgically removing the system from a cadaver in 1925.

You’re not likely to notice anything unusual about this McDonald’s location in Taiwan unless you actually walk into it.

At which point, you would discover that the woman in pink shown on the left isn’t just a particularly cheery patron, but a greeter.

That’s right, Taiwanese McDonald’s locations are known to hire greeters much like American Walmarts.

If you walk through a forest, you may look up and find a scene like this where none of the trees appear to be touching.

This is a phenomenon called “crown shyness” and according to Ada McVean at McGill University , this often occurs when trees that aren’t of the same species approach each other’s space.

Some trees will exhibit this behavior with the same species, but it’s considered less common.

As for why it’s happening, the most widely accepted theories either hold that the trees are careful not to grow in places where the wind has knocked their branches into other trees or they’re doing it as soon as they sense nearby plants.

It’s likely hard to imagine why it’s so special that someone drew on this picture of a hill.

And the answer is that nothing of the sort happened at all and this structure is really there.

Thanks to an expertly-crafted and placed system of bent poles, New Zealand sculptor Neil Dawson was not only able to make his giant sculpture look two-dimensional, but cartoonish.

If you arrange common sights in the right way, it’s possible to make them seem completely alien.

For instance, unless you’ve been lucky enough to catch this at this exact angle, you might not recognize that we’re actually looking at the reflection of ceiling lights in a bunch of tiny coffee bubbles here.

This isn’t the case where the ice just happened to take the form of a familiar shape. Instead, this is a “ghost apple.”

When enough freezing rain coats a rotting apple, it can hold the fruit’s shape and remain there long after the apple’s insides turn to mush and fall out.

This attachment isn’t meant to turn these artillery guns into super cannons. If anything, it’s supposed to make them seem less impressive.

That’s because we’re looking at a suppressor for artillery.

Much like the suppressors made for small arms, it doesn’t exactly silence the weapon. Still, the less that others hear the big guns, the less time they have to counter them.

A propeller wouldn’t accomplish much on the front of a train, so we’re actually looking at the back of this experimental vehicle.

The Schiene Zeppelin was an attempt to make a faster train by borrowing some features of zeppelin designs during the 1920s.

Although the results ran as intended during the early ’30s, they were never open to use by the public due to safety concerns.

This dazzling spectacle of light looks a lot like a train and there’s a reason for that.

We’re actually looking at a long exposure shot somebody took of a train as it was leaving. Apparently, there were enough lights on it to make it seem like it was traveling at warp speed.

It may be hard to recognize this thing, but it’s something that a lot of us see every day.

Although each one tends to vary depending on what’s in it, what we’re looking at here is a single grain of sand.

According to the uploader, this cat has 10 extra toes.

Oddly enough, commenters tried to argue with them about this, but they insisted that the cat’s front paws have three extras each, while the back ones have two extras apiece.

Maybe the angle makes some of them hard to see?

The way that this woman is posed goes a long way to make it look like she’s sitting under a Stargate.

Obviously, that isn’t really going on. Instead, she’s laying by a pond in what seems like a very uncomfortable position as a drone takes an aerial shot above her.

This isn’t just a lost family photo, but one that was intentionally placed here.

And where’s “here?” Why, none other than the Mmoon.

Apparently, astronaut Charles Duke felt bad about being away from his family for his training and 1972 mission to the moon. So he told them that this was his way of taking them with him.

Considering how sharp straight razors are, a barber has to make careful use of them to ensure any return customers.

So back in the 1950s, it apparently wasn’t unusual for those learning the craft to practice their shaving skills on balloons.

It’s kind of genius when you think about it. Not only does such delicate “skin” ensure a close shave, but the pop simulates how startling it would be to mess this up for real.

It’s probably much harder to notice this detail when this tiger’s roaring in your face, but one of its massive teeth is a different color from the others.

That’s because it lost a tooth in an unspecified accident, so its carers installed this gold replacement instead.

You may notice that some of these stones are glowing in the dark in this image.

I missed the memo on this, but it turns out that so-called driveway glowstones were very popular over a brief period for this exact gimmick.

But since only small effects like this could be considered a cost-effective use of them, they quickly fell out of favor.

I’m sorry to disappoint any mythical beast hunters out there, but this isn’t a picture of Bigfoot or any such creature.

Instead, it turns out that this tree farmer decided to put a large cut out of the beast in their field.

I’d be curious to know whether they’ve ever heard anybody shoot at it, though.

Thanks to this “pop-out” rendition of the painting, this art gallery has something to offer its patrons who can’t see.

While one might be able to get a sense of what the artists created from a description, being able to feel each detail in the piece makes it a lot easier to appreciate the artistry behind it.

The teacup ride that you may experience at Disney World apparently looked a lot different than those ridden by previous generations.

I’m not sure how this specific spot was worn down enough to reveal this fact, but it looks like there were as many layers of paint on this thing as there are rings on a tree.

This is lovely view of the San Francisco Bay, but once upon a time, you probably wouldn’t be happy to see it from here.

If the rusted out fence wasn’t a tip-off, I’ll spell it out. This photo was taken at the former Alcatraz prison, which is now a tourist attraction.

If you’re wondering why there’s a necklace in this wall, so is this image’s uploader.

They’re doing some construction work in an old house and just happened to discover these stashed away.

So far, all they have to go on were that the previous owners were from Hawaii.

This patch of ground in Sweden is so cold that internet provider employees had to lay this furnace down before they could dig through it.

I can’t say I have any idea how hard it normally is to maintain underground copper wires, but I imagine it’s much harder when this is a necessary step.

This 17th century ship looks good enough to seem like it must be a model, but we are indeed looking at the real thing.

Although the Swedish ship Varsa wouldn’t be recovered for over 300 years after sinking in 1628, it was somehow almost completely intact when it was discovered in 1961.

This is a much sadder situation than it may appear at first glance.

The water level of this river ended up rising about 30 feet higher than normal and flooded this nearby area as a result.

Unfortunately, the affected area was also the site of a homeless camp, so this mud-covered tarp was once where somebody was living.

The first thing you’re likely to notice about the antelope jackrabbit is its ears and they’re as big as they are for a pretty special reason.

The creature’s ears are actually large enough that they’re able to help regulate its body temperature.

This is accomplished by expanding and contracting the prominent blood vessels we can see throughout the ears.

Although this public restroom is in Switzerland, you’re likely to find others with blue lights installed like this throughout the world for the same reason.

Namely, so that intravenous drug users will have difficulty finding their veins when they try to inject themselves.

Unfortunately, an NPR report suggested this idea might actually do more harm than good.

This is because drug users surveyed weren’t necessarily found to be less likely to shoot up in a room like this, but rather more likely to damage their veins or create abscesses during the attempt.