Freaky Photo Appears to Be of a Giant Seagull Towering Over a Woman at the Beach Accidentally Snapped by Her Friend
Paula Northway Poland thought she was just feeding seagulls on a beach trip in Texas, but one accidental photo turned the moment into something much stranger. A friend snapped the picture while Poland was standing near the water, and the result looked like a giant bird had landed right behind her.
Poland had traveled with friends from Utah to escape the winter, and the beach outing quickly became the kind of memory nobody could have planned. What looked like a bizarre photo edit was really just a lucky case of forced perspective, with the seagull and Poland lined up in a way that made the bird seem enormous.
The photo is still hard to look at without doing a double take.
Poland was not aware that her friend, Christine Mather-Poole, was taking a picture of her while she was feeding the seagulls.
Poland shared, “Christine snapped this picture, and it wasn’t until later that we noticed this magnificent photo-bomb had taken place.”
While Poole was taking the picture, the trick of perspective came into play. Just as the shutter clicked, the seagull flew up.
When Poland was going through the pictures with her friends that night, they saw a large bird looming over her. It was both hilarious and freaky at the same time.

The photo looks edited, but it was just a lucky accident.
It looks like the larger-than-life bird has been photoshopped into the picture, but it was the effect of forced perspective.
It was a coincidence, but a very memorable photo for all of them.

Christine wasn’t even aware it had flown into the picture. She didn’t notice it at the time. It was just luck.
For another viral optical illusion, see how a woman accidentally photographed an endangered bird.