In 2018, Paula Northway Poland was traveling with several friends when one of them casually photographed her feeding seagulls. However, they were unaware that the picture would contain the ultimate animal photobomb.
When they made the decision to go for a walk on the beach, the group of friends had flown to Texas from the frigid winter in Utah. The Dodo quoted Poland as saying, “This was our first day at the beach, and my buddies remained on the shoreline while I walked to the ocean to feed the seagulls so I’d be away from people.
Little did Poland know that Christine Mather-Poole had aimed her phone camera at the solitary moment. “Christine snapped this picture, and it wasn’t until later that we noticed that this magnificent photobomb had taken place,” Poland said.
At the exact moment that the shutter clicked, a seagull took off in flight, creating a terrifying trick of perspective. Looking through the images later that night, the friends discovered a prehistoric-sized bird towering over Poland.
While the effect looked like something made with Photoshop, the optical illusion was created by forced perspective.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime picture, and they knew it; especially when they looked at the other seagull photos they’d snapped that day.
“Christine wasn’t even aware he’d flown into the picture. She didn’t notice it at the time,” Poland said. “It was just luck.”
Poland printed and framed the image of the giant seagull, which now hangs in her living room as proof that everything really is bigger in Texas.
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