mindbending

This Guy Bends Time and Space in Slow Motion

"Playing With Time" is a new mind-blowing 1.5-minute video by Macro Room in which a man bends time and space in slow motion. It was created entirely with a high-speed camera with clever planning and editing.

This Photo Shows an Ice Cave Being Lit by a Flare

Here's a beautiful and mind-bending photo captured by photographer Daniel Kordan. While at first glance it might look like some kind of Photoshopped composite showing a river under a sunset with unusual clouds, it's actually a photo of an ice cave being illuminated by a flare.

This Guy is a Master of Mind-Bending Camera Illusions

Back in May, artist Kevin Parry released a viral illusion video of himself walking into a mirror in a forest and emerging out the other side. If you liked that one, check out Parry's new video above featuring a compilation of many similar illusions.

How to Shoot Inception-Style Drone Photos

If you have been following anything drone-related lately, chances are you have seen one of the mind-bending images like the one above that are very reminiscent of the scene from Inception when the ground is bent up at 90-degree angles.

13 Mind-Bending Thoughts About Photography

Photographer Matthew Rycroft put together this video containing 13 strange, random, and mind-bending "facts" about photography. These are short and seemingly obvious statements that may make you stop and think.

Mind-Bending Recursive Illusion Created Using Printed Photographs

Whoa. If you enjoy watching mind-bending concepts that confuse you and make your brain hurt, check out this experimental short by Willie Witte, titled "Screengrab."

Nothing in the video is computer generated trickery: it simply uses clever camera tricks and a whole lotta printed photographs to create the seamless transitions. "All the trickery took place literally in front of the camera," Witte says. See if you can understand what's going on through the entire 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Perspective: Objects in Pictures Are Not Always As They Seem

The video above is only 44 seconds long, but we'll bet it'll take up at least a minute and a half of your time -- you'll just have to watch it twice. It was created by British psychological professor Richard Wiseman, and demonstrates the power of perspective. It's titled, "Assumptions."

Anamorphic Illusions Created Using High-Res Prints of Photos

YouTube illusion and science channel Brusspup recently did an anamorphic illusion project in which he photographed a few random objects resting on a piece of paper (e.g. a Rubik's cube, a roll of tape, and a shoe), skewed them, printed them out as high-resolution prints, and then photographed them at an angle to make the prints look just like the original objects.

Mind-Bending Reflection Portraits Shot Using a Wet Plate Camera

Last week we issued a challenge asking readers to shoot a creative mirror self-portrait using an alternative style of photography. Reader Agustin Barrutia took us up on that challenge, and created a pair of wet plate photographs that take the concept of "mirror self-portrait" to a new level (they're unlike anything we've seen before). Both photographs are straight-out-of-camera wet plate photos that weren't manipulated digitally. Barrutia simply used "mirrors" (one doesn't involve a mirror, per se) and "reflections" in clever ways.

The wet plate above is a self-portrait of Barrutia shooting the wet plate. That camera in the frame is the camera that captured the wet plate.

Trippy Portraits Shot at a Photo Illusion Museum

World travel bloggers Michael Powell and Jürgen Horn recently visited the The Trick Eye Museum in South Korea, where visitors can snap humorous and mind-bending pictures of themselves interacting with various painted rooms.

Mind-Bending Portraits That Defy Gravity

French artist Philippe Ramette captures surreal self-portraits in which he appears to be defying gravity. Rather than use digital trickery, Ramette -- who started his career as a sculptor -- builds metal support structures that allow him to stand or sit at impossible angles.

Trippy Photos Shot From Inside a Box Made of Mirrors

These photos might look like they were computer generated, but they're actually unmodified photographs. Ron Brinkmann took 6 mirror tiles and made a box with them with the help of some duct tape. He then placed a camera inside and triggered shots using the timer.

Amazing Optical Illusion Shows That Our Eyes Are Horrible Light Meters

Here's a mind-bending video in which someone created the famous checker shadow illusion in real life. The optical illusion takes advantage of the way our brains process lighting and shadows.

As with many so-called illusions, this effect really demonstrates the success rather than the failure of the visual system. The visual system is not very good at being a physical light meter, but that is not its purpose. The important task is to break the image information down into meaningful components, and thereby perceive the nature of the objects in view. [#]

Interesting huh? Our eyes aren't very good as a light meters, since they're easily deceived by context.