The camera never lies, and it also adds twenty pounds. Often the camera acts as a glass eye peering into it's subject's soul. A photography can inadvertently capture the smallest detail that is hidden in plain sight. Spirits, colors, people, life moments that leave one breathless can often be immortalized from the lens, and all without anyone knowing. Later the photographer sees what they innocently stole out of thin air and it can leave them.... shooketh.
Redditor u/FandomFun wanted all the photographers out there to shed some light on what the camera sees by asking.... Photographers of Reddit, what's the scariest thing that you have (accidentally or not) caught on camera?
She's Here!
GiphyI took a picture of a mirror in my grandmother's house in dim light. Behind me in the mirror was a creepy pale FACE. I posted it to my live journal (yes, this was a long time ago) for help debunking it because I was terrified! After some daylight pictures of the room and a lot of discussion, we figured out the face was a bunch of flowers in the dark. I've never been so relieved in my life.
Seek help Jay....
This reminds me of something my Ex did to me (we are still friends, so no hard feelings over this at all). I used to buy those little disposable cameras and my ex and I would use them amongst each other. One time I went and got the film developed to find that my Ex had taken about ten photos of his poop in the toilet (it was huge, so I guess he was proud?) and a blurry picture of his family jewels. Thanks Jay. Persian_Housewife
The Foot!
The foot of a guy who was hiding in my apartment. He was on a big shelf that's tucked away in a small storage room in my apartment. Short story: took a pic of a friend at my place. Next day when I came home from work, the place was cleaned out with no sign of forced entry. It was a mystery.
Weeks later, I looked at the pic and saw the random foot behind my friend in my little storage room. The room was dark at the time, but I took the pic with flash so it immediately jumped out at me. He must have spent the night there, waited for me to leave and finally struck. Neither me or my friend noticed anything as we hung out that evening, nor did I notice anything during the night as I slept. 69fatboy420
Lucky Shot!
A water moccasin striking towards my brother's hand
I was on an observation deck that was surrounded by water that my brother and I had waded out to. As we were leaving, there was a big cottonmouth that had decided to check us out. I was taking pictures with my DSLR while my brother tried to prod it with a stick in an attempt to get it to leave. I got an incredibly lucky shot of the split second it lunged out of the water at my brother, fangs out and all. It was so quick that I flinched after I hit the shutter and couldn't believe I had gotten the pic. The feeling of being trapped out there still haunts me. gamblindan
They Never Left!
My parents traveled with me and my siblings to South America for a family reunion. All my sisters siblings (four in total) sat adjacent on a couch to pose for the photo. I was very young, about 10 or 11. My grandpas camera still had film in it, and I was asked if I could please walk to the corner store with my grandma and develop the photos. Well, they sat and smiled and we took some nice ones.
Then I got to see them.
Most of them came out pretty normal, some blurry because of my lack of skill as a kid, but one stood out to me even as a child. All of their faces were perfectly in focus, but around them there were these... light orbs. All the light sources in the room were not of the same shade and later on after I studied photography (secretly to try and debunk this) I learned the way light plays with a sensor and how that transmits to a developed image. Still, refraction was not the answer. What is even stranger is that the light orbs were three in number- the same amount of aunts my mom had before they all passed away.
They all surrounded her, almost as if to say "we are still here." Now I'm agnostic. But this is one of those things I can't explain. stringwizrd
On the Hunt!
Background: I took this back in 2013 (making me 12/13 at the time) and I come from a mundane rust belt sort of city with not much to do. Luckily for me there is a pretty nifty old cemetery in town so I visited it multiple times over the course of a few years, last time was in 2017 maybe? It's just something cool to do when I'm bored. On past experiences, I'd heard footsteps, weird voices and seen shadows darting around but this is the only instance I've actually captured anything. It was a nice stormy night which was perfect for "ghost hunting" at a spooky cemetery. There was a light rain and no fog. I'd learned from watching ghost TV shows and experienced people on /r/paranormal that when taking pictures to take multiple ones in quick succession, that way, if anything appears in one photo and doesn't in the next, it's more unexplainable.
I took three photos in quick succession of one eerie looking grave and got this. It only appeared in the middle photo, the other photos were on my old phone and I don't have them but I uploaded this online before since it had something in it. It was a cool night but warm enough to where my breath wasn't visible, so I'm pretty positive that wasn't it and usually when my breath appears in photos it's more cloudy and blotchy, this looks like some streaking mist. Is it a ghost? I'm not really sure tbh but I know it's definitely weird.
Note: due to people vandalizing tombstones and breaking in through the front gates in more recent years, I don't really want to reveal the name or location of the cemetery if that's okay :) Graveyard ghost photo: https://imgur.com/a/OveP1Sl_coyotes_
ROAR!!!
A few years back I did a session with a family at a local, semi-secluded waterfall. Everything went great: kids behaved, dog looked at the camera, and the light was perfect. Once I loaded the photos into Lightroom to start making adjustments, I noticed one of the pine trees had a tan spot--not unusual given a problem with pine beetles in the area. But, when I zoomed in it turned out to be a mountain lion.
Looked pretty young, but I still clenched my cheeks a wee bit. I showed the family proofs and they were delighted to put it up on their wall as a way to entertain visitors. While it was highly unlikely that it would have attacked anybody, it's still rather unsettling finding an additional prop in your photo.
In the Eyes....
GiphyI once got way too close to 200lbs of sleepy seal. At one point he sat up looked me dead in the eyes and then rolled over, I wasn't sure if I should have kept shooting or climb the nearest tree.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholas_m/25699181584/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholas_m/26277865976/nik282000
The Sad History....
I lost some photos on an old hard drive, tried really hard to recover them but no luck.
Spent a couple weeks in Tasmania and visited Port Arthur. This was obviously after the massacre. Place had a real heavy feel about it. Just felt like a real crap place to be. Took about 20 photos and 3 of them had weird stuff in them. One was a photo of a plaque listing all the victims name's which had a clear as day face in the top corner. My family thought surely I had edited the photo but I was showing the original on the camera LCD. The other two photos of where the cafe was and a half torn old building both had faces, not as clear but obviously something.
Really really creepy, and even before seeing the photos, whilst appreciating the history and significance of the site, I couldn't wait to leave. Never felt like that before In my life. freshchad
Join us Dad....
When I was 16, there was a whole month when my Dad just wouldn't talk to me and I had no idea why. One day, four years later, we were looking at our wild pictures and came across one of myself and three friends passing a joint around in our basement. And on the stairwell, my Dad, just watching. I guess we were too blazed to realize what was going on, because my friend who took the picture swears he hadn't seen it before. Still gives me shivers. CheddaHed
Medic!!!
A young women just as she started to have a seizure. I was taking pictures for my school's various sports teams in third year university, this particular day I was photographing a charity dodgeball game. My job was just to make sure I had at least one good picture of each player on the teams so that we could put them up on facebook as promotional material later. I remember taking a picture of a young woman and then looking down at my camera screen to see how the shot had turned out. As soon as the picture came up on screen I heard a bunch of people yelling for time-out and I looked up to see her seizing on the floor.
When I would later go through the photos for editing I ran across that particular one and it made me uncomfortable. You could see in the photo that she had just barely started to lose her balance and her eyes had begun to roll back. I'm happy to say that she is totally fine, she said it wasn't the first time something like this had happened and she was more embarrassed than anything else, but it was still a scary moment. EchosOfTay
ACTION!
I was making a short film (sorry, not a photo) in college. The assignment wast to showcase the city where the college is located. I accidentally filmed a drug deal. I kept it in my short film and made the lightrail the savior, sweeping the person the camera follows away to safety. Got an A but my film was not allowed on the college website with the others lol. krown24
The Orbs...
GiphyI was taking photos at an old house, and I captured ghost orbs. I took photos from different angles, different lighting, and they were still in the same position in the room. stealthyelfy
Seeing Fingers....
While visiting a friend in London, I saw this dumpy storefront. Sign reads: high tech security systems. I took a photo because, irony. Later I noticed fingers gripping bars in the front window. It appears someone is looking out the window. CREEPY. AF. Creepy London https://imgur.com/gallery/pNsMN77DrAudiologist
The Starling Pose....
I was the zoo taking photos. Later on when I was going through them I noticed I caught this Starling mid-pose with the most demonic expression.
https://imgur.com/gallery/UnwCIScJCarnacki
Look at the bird's back. I see the shape of a woman looking upwards. Not scary, just cool. ---ThisGuy
You Decide....
I tried to take a photo of a football player in a white jersey, but something got in the way that I can't explain. I didn't find out until I got home and downloaded the photos. Scared the crap out of me as I cycled through them.
Here's the photo. You can see the football player in the background that I tried to take a photo of. Don't look at it at night if you're by yourself.VictoriousMonk
The Blankie....
GiphyA bunch of my friends and I were staying at a mates place, and we recorded a short video because one of our friends was doing something stupid. When we watched the video back, we all saw a horror-movie-like face behind my friend. We were crapping ourselves. Turns out it was just a blanket that has some weird designs printed on it, and it was in the perfect position to make a scary face. Took us half an hour to figure out. bigmanspam3
baby you're a firework....
Was taking pictures of fireworks on Canada day at a friend's place. One photo showed a man with a red plaid flannel jacket staring at the fireworks. Nobody in the area was seen with that jacket and There wasn't anybody in front of the camera when it was taken. trapperelectrical01
The Source of Light....
About two years ago I went with my cousin to a hidden spot in the mountains, far away from any sort of civilization, to try and take a sick picture of the milk way. When we were done and about to come back, I started looking at all the photos I made that night and in one of them there was this creepy light that appeared to draw some random pattern (sorry, cant find the photo). Me and my cousin run away as fast as we could.
A few months later we try again but this time in a different and even more isolated spot. Same thing happens but this time the light appears to be even closer.
One year later I was working at a party when a friend of mine without me noticing set my camera shutter speed at 10 minutes (which basically means that the camera keeps capturing a photo photo for 10 minutes). Since I didn't want to wait I restarted my camera and when I turned it on there was a new photo with another creepy random light in it.
You can get a similar effect if you move a laser/torch in a long exposure photo like this one but I still have no idea what could be the source of the light. MajorTom99
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.