Have you ever heard a tale so tall that you refused to believe it unless you saw it with your own eyes? Or maybe you witnessed something crazy and just knew that nobody would take you seriously if you didn’t have proof. Thankfully, it’s easier nowadays to provide “receipts” of events. We can whip out our phones and quickly snap a photo or video as evidence that we aren’t spinning stories.
People have been sharing photos of things they’ve seen in the wild. Always prepared to be told, “Pics Or It Never Happened.” Bored Panda had a blast putting together a list of amazing, bizarre and sometimes hilarious photographs captured by those who felt they might have to validate their words. Each photo tells its own unique story, and quite frankly, we’d find it hard to believe that many of these moments could ever happen twice. Sit back and keep scrolling. Don’t forget to upvote the ones that made you look twice. Don’t miss the super interesting chat we had with expert mobile phone photographer Alessio La Ruffa. He shared some awesome tips and tricks on how to best capture pics that you might need to use as receipts.
#1 My Mom Said That A Monkey Was Sitting Outside Her Window And Kept Licking It. I Found It Hard To Believe. She Then Sent Me This Gem
Image credits: Scharfestahl
#2 The Denver Broncos Have The Entire Town Of ‘South Park’ In The Stands For Today’s NFL Game
Image credits: Exclamation_Marc
#3 Monopoly Man In Background During Equifax Senate Hearing
Image credits: ImNotLeet
Alessio La Ruffa shot to Insta-fame, armed with just his iPhone. His social media photography accounts have close to 30,000 followers. He previously told Bored Panda that his journey to becoming a professional photographer began on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, where he’d meet up with like-minded creatives. They’d walk around taking photos of anything and everything. The group soon became well-known, and many, including La Ruffa, have racked up some big-name clients. You can check out some of his architecture photography here.
While La Ruffa now uses his professional camera kit for most of his architecture and street photography work, he’s still considered somewhat of a genius iPhoneographer (someone who takes epic pics with their iPhone). We reached out to him for some advice on filming or taking photographs with a mobile phone. And he was more than happy to answer our questions.
#4 Passed By A Math Book Example Today
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#5 5 Years Ago I Promised My Sister I Would Bring A Llama To Her Wedding
Image credits: DJ117Xx
#6 My Friend’s Dad Found A Crab Holding A Donatello Pez Dispenser
Image credits: soFREAKINboss
We began by asking La Ruffa what to keep in mind when taking a quick snapshot of something. “Firstly, don’t shoot directly into sunlight or any light source,” he told us, adding that you should try to ensure your subject is lit from the side. “This creates more shadows and makes the photo a bit more interesting,” explained the photographer.
La Ruffa then went into a bit more technical detail. Photography, by definition, is all about light, and it can be tricky to get your image just right. “If there is a section or part of your photo that is slightly overexposed, you can reduce the exposure by tapping on the overexposed area and dragging the exposure slider down,” he explained, saying that this works for iPhones.
If you have a different phone, do some research on how to adjust exposure. “Many phones allow you to adjust exposure by dragging your finger up or down after focusing,” he says.
#7 Found The End Of A Rainbow
Image credits: xCnuty
#8 Heard A Noise Outside The Tent. Instead Of Peeking Her Head Out To See, She Reached Her Hand Out With Her Disposable Camera. When The Pictures Were Developed, This Is What She Saw:
Image credits: Deplorable_17
#9 Whole House Is Being Moved With People Still In It
Image credits: billyyshears
Framing and composition are also super important. After all, if you cut out a crucial piece of info in your pic, people might not believe it was there to begin with… “Have your grid turned on in your camera settings,” advises La Ruffa. “Then, instead of having your subject in the middle of the frame, have your subject aligned to one of the grid lines or where the grid lines intersect. This is known as the rule of thirds.”
He also suggests taking photos with your camera held upright to ensure the lines are straight rather than leaning back. “Don’t use the digital zoom!” cautioned the expert. “Take a few steps forward to get closer.”
To really take your photography to the next level, you should think outside of the box. “Use different angles,” advises La Ruffa. “We are very used to seeing things from normal eye level or eye height, so try to shoot from different angles. Shoot lower or higher for something interesting.” He also told us that mastering how to use light and shadows will make your photos much more interesting.
“Learn how to edit your photos,” adds the expert. “Snapseed is a great free app on iOS and Android.”
#10 I Was On The Boat With My Family In Florida And Sat On The Edge Of The Boat To Take A Picture Of Me With The Water And Two Dolphins And Their Baby Jumped Out Of The Water
Image credits: imgur.com
#11 Broke Into My Friend’s Car One Night, And Filled It With Several Hundred Pounds Of Popcorn. That Was The End Of A Long Running Joke War, We Quit At That Point While We Were Still Friends
Image credits: imgur.com
#12 Found A Crashed Plane In The Woods With No Information About It Whatsoever. Pieces Were Scattered Over The Area Of A Football Field But The Main Bits Were Mostly Together
Image credits: imgur.com
Nowadays, it’s easy to fake photos… You can use programs like Photoshop to manipulate a picture or even create a whole image with artificial intelligence.
La Ruffa tells us that one of the quickest ways to tell if an image is AI-generated is by looking at the hands and fingers. They often look a little strange, he says. “They usually have the wrong number of fingers. Also, facial features may seem a bit off,” he added. “If there’s text in the image, AI-generated text often appears nonsensical and looks like symbols rather than actual letters.”
The expert acknowledges that AI is “creeping into our lives in all sorts of ways!” He says another sign that an image has been manipulated is that the lighting and shadows appear inconsistent compared to the rest of the picture. “The textures often look a bit weird, almost plastic,” La Ruffa elaborated.
#13 Was Driving Along US50 Near Lake Tahoe When The Hill Above Us Decided To Give Way
Mudslide broadsided us with 0 notice. Pushed us across two lanes, came to a rest at a ~60º angle over a river. Crawled out the passenger side window and was just fine.
Image credits: imgur.com
#14 My Mom Always Told Me She Went To School With Adam Sandler And I Never Believed Her, Until I Found Her Yearbook Today
Image credits: teeejaaaaaay
#15 My Sister Accidentally Caught This Pikes Peak Proposal On Camera
Image credits: xar42
But real photographs don’t lie. You can get quite a bit of info from photo metadata, says La Ruffa.
“By quickly taking a look at one of my phone photos, I can see what camera I used, what lens, how many megapixels, the image size (in pixels and megabytes), the camera settings (ISO, focal length, exposure compensation, aperture and shutter speed), and the location where it was shot,” he told us, adding that if you look at an image on a computer, you can also see if the image was edited and what software was used to edit it.
#16 Raccoon Broke Into My Brother’s Garage, Ate A Ton Of Snacks, And In The Process Became So Fat He Got Stuck Under A Bureau
Image credits: Zerrish
#17 I Was Diving In Thailand And This Happened. When We Got Back, I Was Very Happy To Know That The Photographer Had Registered The Moment:
Image credits: MrNinoo
#18 This Is What Happens In My Town In October. Yes, Those Are Pumpkins
Image credits: BeejLord
We were curious to know a bit more about manipulating photos. Like how easy is it to place myself in front of the Eiffel Tower? Or to add someone else to my selfie? La Ruffa says he works in Photoshop quite a bit on a daily basis, so he’s able to quickly and easily manipulate a photo in post-production if he needs to. And he says that this skill is useful when it comes to removing items.
“Photoshop has a new generative AI tool that can help you remove or add elements to images,” he tells us. “It’s not 100% realistic, but I’m sure there are other tools that can provide a more realistic outcome.”
#19 Married On The Total Eclipse In 2017
Image credits: the_bouncy_kitty
#20 There Was A Pink Squirrel In My Backyard
Image credits: imgur.com
#21 My Co-Worker Sent An Email Saying He Would Be Late Because He Was Trying To Untie A Squirrel Tail Knot. I Asked For A Picture, And He Delivered
Image credits: mard86
Sometimes, when we are taking a quick snap as evidence of something, the action happens fast. Blink and you miss it. We asked La Ruffa how best to capture the drama. “If it’s something spontaneous, then I would say try to move your camera to follow the action,” he advised.
“For example, if you’re shooting a car while following it, the car will be in focus, and the background will be blurred, which helps convey motion. If it’s interesting, go for the shot. The motion blur adds movement to the photo!”
#22 So This Happened To Me Today
Image credits: acnh_nanaland
#23 Albino Deer I Spotted Walking Into Work Last Week
Image credits: boBByHiLL-4prez
#24 Mountain Lions Moving Back Into Boulder During Lockdown
Image credits: clicktosave
He added that if you are prepared in advance and know you will be taking photos of something moving, you should consider getting what’s known as a third-party camera app. “This type of app typically allows for manual control of your camera, enabling you to choose to slow down your shutter speed significantly or speed it up so you can achieve sharp images,” he explained.
#25 Cow In A Car
Image credits: MercyLights
#26 Last Night My Wife’s Uber Had A Duck In It
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#27 There Was A Massive Pirate Ship Driving Around My Neighborhood
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So, does La Ruffa have any of his own weird “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen” moments? Nothing crazy or strange, he reveals, before saying, “The most interesting thing I’ve witnessed was walking with cheetahs at sunrise on safari in South Africa. They were purring just like regular cats!”
#28 Bumped Into Two Strangers With The Same Tattoo
Image credits: LeumasGreen
#29 It Looks Like They’re Filming A Live Action Version Of Up In New Mexico
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#30 Saw This Lemur At A Local Grocery Store
Image credits: suck_ma_ballz
#31 I Saw A Gull Standing On Top Of Another Gull
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#32 Since People Didn’t Like My Original Text Here The Tree My Mom, Sister And I Saw On Our Road Trip In The Middle Of No Where
Image credits: Uwannnafukingo
#33 How Does This Even Happen
Image credits: B-L-O-C-K-S
#34 A Few Years Ago I Shot An Arrow Into Another Arrow, Perfectly
Image credits: imgur.com
#35 I Was Drunk And Snuck Onto A Red Carpet Event With A Friend
I was interviewed and pretended i was in the movie, spoke about how i connected with the character. I was never able to find the interview, but here’s a pic (i’m the one in a white dress shirt).
Image credits: imgur.com
#36 I Can Carry 20-Ish Wine Glasses In One Hand
Image credits: imgur.com
#37 I Didn’t Believe My Friend When She Said Her Sister’s Friend Bought An Ostrich, So We Asked For Pics
Image credits: DarkTribalCow
#38 So Costco Apparently Doesn’t Re-Take Membership Card Photos If You Sneeze
Image credits: BabyJesusAnalingus
#39 So, This Happened At My Hotel
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#40 Got Home From Work To Find This Tarantula Hawk Wasp Carting Off A Huntsman Spider (Sydney, Australia)
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#41 This Is Happening Right Now
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#42 I Couldn’t Believe What I Was Seeing When I Pulled Up Next To These Three Amidst A Snowstorm
Image credits: KINGK7
#43 My Boyfriend Refused To Believe I Had Met The Homeward Bound Animals, But I Think This Will Settle That Argument
Image credits: itactuallysucks
#44 Someone Towing A House In The San Francisco Bay Today
Image credits: NewSlinger
#45 My Cat Just Came Back From One Of Her Evening Strolls With Someone Else’s Keys In Her Mouth
Image credits: robrobxD
#46 A Chainsaw Carving Competition In Vancouver
They had five minutes to make a chair out of a tree stump. Everyone was carving their chairs, and one guy was just stabbing this stump over and over in weird ways with the chainsaw, we had no idea what he was doing. Then he made one last cut and four tiny chairs and a table came flying out of the pieces of this log. It was incredible.
Image credits: reddit.com
#47 A Man Joyously Riding An Ostrich
I was high as a kite in Kenya and really wanted to ride an ostrich. Eventually I called up a local ostrich farm, begged and payed more money than I care to admit. An hour and a bit later…
Image credits: imgur.com
#48 I Was On Shore Leave In Guam. Had A Few Cocktails And Saw A Guy Running With A Water Buffalo On A Leash. I Asked Him If I Could Ride It, He Obliged. The Rest As They Say, Was History
Image credits: imgur.com
#49 I Was Riding In An Jetliner That Narrowly Avoided An In-Flight Collision With A Single-Engine Plane
At the time I happened to be looking out the window taking photos and saw the other plane well ahead of us and slightly to the left, but on an intercept course. Because we were moving so much faster the amount of distance between the two planes was closing fast. The pilots of both planes apparently saw each other at the last second and both made evasive maneuvers. The other plane banked hard left and my plane banked hard right, putting some distance between them. As soon as I felt the danger had passed I took this photo.
Image credits: rspeed
#50 I Saw Some Lady Punch A Jawa In The Face At Disney World
Image credits: imgur.com
#51 I’ve Been Looking For This Forever. Finally Found It At My Parents House. Here’s My Twin Brother Eating Pizza With Some Famous Twins In 1991
When I was in 10th grade my high school friends didn’t believe that Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen used to be friends with my twin brother and I. We were labeled as compulsive liars and it was brought up whenever we would say anything they could perceive as a lie. We found a picture of them at our birthday party that shut them up. Brother posted it to reddit a few years ago and it made it to the front page
Image credits: imgur.com
#52 That Johnny Depp Was In My In-Laws’ Wedding Band
Image credits: imgur.com
#53 I Crawled Into A Bear Cave With Two Cousins To Video Tape Hibernating Bears When I Was A Teenager
They were not asleep. Our parents destroyed the tape in hopes that it would prevent future stupidity, but these pictures survived.
Image credits: imgur.com
#54 A Turkery Jumped In My Car Once. It Was So Funny I Decided To Shut The Door And Take A Picture Because It Looks Like The Turkey Is Driving The Car
Image credits: imgur.com
#55 I’m An Australian Idiot Student And I Once Interned For A Local Law Firm In The Middle East. I’m Not Hard To Spot
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#56 When A Firefighting Helicopter Refilled Its Bucket In My Neighbor’s Pool
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#57 My Brother Don Loves To Fish. One Day He Was Surf Casting On The South Shore Of Long Island When He Came Upon A Once In A Lifetime Fisherman’s Photo Op
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#58 My Buddy Told Me He Met Bill Murray As A Kid. I Didn’t It Believe Him And Then He Provided Proof
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#59 Delta Passenger Puts Down Mattress And Goes To Sleep At The Gate
Image credits: JOEY2X
#60 Couldn’t Do This Again If I Tried
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#61 We Were Playing Darts When This Happened… I Was About To Win
Image credits: RobGr
#62 So This Car Accident Happened Today In Amman, Jordan. My Brain Hurts From Trying To Understand How It Happened
Image credits: coraige7
#63 How I Snuck Into Lollapalooza ’93 And (Almost) Got Caught
My parents forbade me from going to Lollapalooza ’93 in Philadelphia on account of it being too dangerous. Went anyway. Came downstairs the next morning to find a picture of me crowd surfing on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer sitting on the kitchen table. Thought that I had been caught, but they had not noticed.
Image credits: imgur.com
#64 Saw This Guy Walking His Doggo And Bunny At The Store. He Said It Was His Dog’s Bunny, That His Dog Fell In Love It At A Flea Market And He Had To Buy It For Him
Image credits: wellsee2
#65 This Is What An Albino Raccoon Looks Like
Image credits: Dutch_Midget
#66 Buddy Of Mine Spotted This Dolphin In Lake Calcasieu, Louisiana
Image credits: sloshyjacob
#67 There’s A Free-Roaming Turtle With A Diaper At My Local Gym
Image credits: Boumy
#68 Open Lemonade Container That Landed Perfectly Upside Down Without Completely Spilling
Image credits: kayleela324
#69 While Playing Blackjack In Vegas, My Friend Got 5 Aces In A Row
Image credits: pinkshirtvegeta
#70 Saw A Dog With An Axe
Saw this on my mail route today. There’s a lot of reasons why your mailman might not deliver your packages, and this is one of them. I can handle a dog, but not a dog with an axe.
Image credits: tim.smith.9484
#71 So This Just Happened
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#72 Someone Is Free Soloing The Sales Force Tower Today
Image credits: SplungerPlunger
#73 Someone Planted Hotdogs All Over My Front Lawn
Image credits: Booooomkin
#74 Looks Like Someone Dropped Some Bagels
Image credits: Ok_Ad_285
#75 I Was On An Episode Of “Locked Up Raw”
I was on an episode of “locked up raw” when I was doing an internship for a max security prison and the tv show was filming there for the summer. The producer made it clear she didn’t want the intern in the shot. I managed to sneak in a shot just briefly after we had an interview with an inmate. My coworkers didn’t believe me till I found this half second shot of me opening the door for my boss.
Image credits: imgur.com
#76 Definitely Not The Most Wow Thing Ever, But I Never Got A Haircut Until I Was 13 Years Old
I had five feet and three inches of hair, right down to my ankles when you pulled it straight (it’s wavy/curly naturally). I cut three and a half feet off for my first cut!!
Image credits: imgur.com
#77 Friend Of A Friend’s Pooch Dragged The Sprinkler In Through The Doggy Door
Image credits: Spinolio
#78 Had A Flight To Myself And Sat In First Class With The Rest Of Crew
A couple years ago I had a layover in chicago while flying from philly to phoenix. There was a tornado or something in chicago so they decided to fly straight from philly to phoenix, so all the people who were going to chicago had to be rerouted. This ended up being everyone but me and the flight crew. they told me i could come sit up in first class, and the pilot made all his announcement directly to me like “we are arriving in phoenix protell, and the temperature is 90 and sunny”. it was pretty cool.
My flight attendants name was Bella, and she told me “just let me know whenever you need anything”. she sat in the seat across from me and we talked much of the flight. Since i was sitting in first class she said i was allowed all the perks of first class which included free alcoholic drinks and meals etc. it was kind of awkward when i did want a drink, i was sitting talking to this nice girl then, “hey bella, could you get me another piña colada?” But she said she didn’t mind at all since it was supposed to be a full flight and she would have been waiting on 20 people instead of just me.
Image credits: imgur.com
#79 Spider Takes On Snake And Wins
Image credits: The Aussie Farmer
#80 Yesterday I Saw A Pigeon Wearing An Onion Ring As A Necklace
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#81 This Dear With A Crazy Deformity Showed Up In My Brother’s Front Yard Today
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#82 When I Was 6, I Went To Brazil And A Monkey Stole My Ice Cream. No One Believed Me. I Finally Found The Picture
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#83 My Neighbor Is A Flight Attendant. He Just Posted This Photo Of Someone’s “Therapy Pet,” On His Flight
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#84 Someone Returned A Several Year Old Playset
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#85 Almost 12 Years Ago My Dad Caught A Picture So Rare That No One Believed Us When We Told Them. Today I Finally Found The Picture To Prove It
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#86 What The Hell They Got Going On Over There?
Image credits: WlTCHFINDER-GENERAL
#87 Saw A Pregnant Squirrel For The First Time Today. I’m Not Sure What I Expected But This Exceeds All Of It
Image credits: QuaaludeDreams
#88 Someone At My Stepdads Work Put Dry Ice In The Toilet By Mistake
Image credits: Samaraiii
#89 There Was A Man Teaching His Dog To Ride A Scooter
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#90 I Surfaced A Grenade
I went “magnetfishing”, this is where you simple tie a strong magnet to a rope and throw it in ponds and pools until you find some metal stuff on the bodom. Mostly you will find junk and bikes and scrapnel. But I live in Belgium, near Ypres where there have been great battles in WWI, and I just threw the magnet across a small pond just outside the city. And believe it or not, I surfaced a grenade
Image credits: imgur.com
#91 My Basketball Got Stuck Between The Backboard And The Wall Behind It, So I Threw A Rock At It. Then This Happened
Image credits: Bobskioner
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