Woman Takes A Photo At The Perfect Time And Totally Freaks Herself Out

Paula Northway Poland was on a trip with some friends in 2018 when one of them snapped a  photo of her casually feeding seagulls. But they had no idea the snapshot would turn out to be the ultimate animal photobomb.

The group of friends had traveled to Texas to escape the chilly Utah winter when they decided to take a walk on the beach. “This was our first day at the beach, and my friends sat on the shoreline while I went to the water to feed bread to the seagulls so I’d be away from people,” Poland told The Dodo.

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.