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‘When You See It’: 40 Perfectly Camouflaged Things That Will Probably Take Too Long To Find, As Shared On This Online Group
I spy, with my little eye, something in the sky! Something blue! Something fuzzy! Something sharp! Something you can eat! Something that wouldn’t be allowed on an airplane! And something that I would love to get as a birthday present!
When you were a kid, did you fill long car rides and flights on planes with the classic game of I Spy? It’s been at least a decade since I’ve played it, but I still remember the thrill of feeling like I could read someone else’s mind and knowing exactly what they were spying on my first guess. Although this game has likely phased out of your regular routine as you’ve gotten older, there’s no need to miss out on the fun of frantically searching for a hidden object.
Allow us to introduce you to the “Find the Sniper” subreddit. Visiting this group is like scrolling through an endless game of I Spy with photos that just might make you feel like you’re going crazy. Down below, we’ve gathered some of their best posts, and I’ll warn you right now, it may take a few minutes (or zooming in, turning up your screen's brightness, and browsing through the comments) to find some of the hidden elements. From animals to puzzle pieces to bugs disguised as foliage, we hope you enjoy finding what’s hidden in plain sight. (Just be careful not to give yourself a headache!)
Keep reading to also find an interview with attention to detail expert, Chris Denny, and be sure to upvote the pics that would put Where’s Waldo? to shame. Then, if you’re interested in checking out even more photos from Bored Panda that might make you do a double take, you can find a list of “when you see it” pics right here!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
This Camouflage Is On Another Level
The Find the Sniper subreddit was created in 2014 and has been hiding in plain sight on Reddit ever since. That’s right, the group has a whopping 86.8k members, but if you’ve never heard of it, you’ve likely been overlooking it the same way we miss the details hidden in these photos. There is something equally frustrating and satisfying about these pictures featuring hidden elements that are way too easy to miss, and clearly, many people love challenging their brains by hopping onto this subreddit regularly.
I can’t help but feel like the pictures featured here are versions of Where’s Waldo? or the classic I Spy books on steroids. I used to love those brightly colored images splashed across large pages of books when I was a kid, and knowing that I had located Waldo or the perfect object always made me feel so brilliant. But the beauty of Find the Sniper is that many of these pictures were not carefully orchestrated or planned. Many of them were accidents, perfectly timed snaps, or only photographed after the person observed how challenging an object was to spot in real life.
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#2
Find The Threatened Burrowing Owl
#3
Find The Big Cat
glowworm2 1 year ago (edited)
Thanks! This one was hard! Also, I have an active imagination and started seeing the "cat" in a place it wasn't!
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A C 1 year ago
Oh I get it....it's behind you, about to pounce. (But really, I don't see any cat here!)
Little letitia 1 year ago
See the biggest patch if snow in the top 3rd? There's a little pointed part at the very bottom bit of that patch, it's pointed directly down (like a V) and just beneath it is the leopards head!
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Shyla Bouche 1 year ago
A toad? Really? *sharpens her murder mittens and glares menacingly*
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BOTW PANDA 1 year ago
It looks annoyed that we're here, yet too lazy to get up and scare us off, but is looking at us haughtily. But we don't know it's there because to the serious camo.
Illustrious G 4 months ago
The outline of the rock face is also cat-shaped! That’s what I thought “big cat” was referring to!!
SweetBananaHeartz 1 year ago
It looks like a tiger you make have to zoom in, underneath the top snow pile staring down the camera
Marilyn Russell 1 year ago
Look for the eyes first. That’s funny because I send my friends pictures titled “Spot the kitty” of my various cats hiding in plain sight in my garden. It’s a game that always amuses them.
absolutechaos 1 year ago
oh, but we didn't know that the picture was just a microscopical view of a singular hair strand....
Alexandra McCulloch 1 year ago
That took too long for my brain to figure out the scale on this photo!
fandomprincess (he/she/they) 1 year ago
Took me a full 30 seconds and a look at the comments to find it
Joe calbery 1 year ago
Wow, that cat is good, but never again can he hide from me...(in this pic)
Find the Sniper may have only been around for less than a decade, but the fun of searching for objects in images is nothing new. If you’re a fan of the I Spy books, you might be interested to know that the images featured in them are even more calculated than you might have expected. The photographer behind those vibrant and captivating images, Walter Wick, was interviewed by Insider in 2019 and explained his process for creating the photos. They were all made using real objects, rather than drawings or editing on a computer.
Before venturing into the world of I Spy, Wick had been working as a commercial photographer in New York City. One evening in the early 1980s, he took a photo of spare nuts and bolts that had been laying around his studio and used the image to promote his work. The author of I Spy, Jean Marzollo, ended up seeing the picture and asked Wick to create a photo for her magazine, Let’s Find Out. An editor at Scholastic Books saw that photo and reached out to Wick and Marzollo about creating a children’s search and find book, which soon became the beloved classic we know today.
#4
Find The Pug
#5
Find The Birb
#6
Find The Lizard
Creating one intricate images used in an I Spy book or a detailed drawing found in Where’s Waldo? could take weeks to accomplish, but if you develop a keen eye in your own life, you might be able to shoot pictures worthy of being shared on Find the Sniper every day. Do you have a rug or a bedspread with an elaborate pattern? Is your cat constantly hiding in furniture or objects around the house then just slightly peeking its tiny head out to give you a heart attack? Are you constantly tiptoeing around your child’s bedroom because hidden legos are appearing out of nowhere and attacking the bottom of your feet? If you keep an eye out, I’m sure you encounter plenty of “hidden in plain sight” occurrences on a daily basis!
#7
Discover The Cat!
#8
The Camouflage Of This Leopard
Some Cool Guy 1 year ago
Took me ages... you can see just the face next to the tree bottom right
#9
Easy To Find But At A Glance Near Impossible
If you love torturing yourself, this is the perfect list for you, pandas! Just kidding, these photos aren’t intended to cause you pain and suffering, but they are likely to make your brain work hard. Which can actually be a great thing! Staring at these photos and trying desperately to figure out what the heck is going on in them is like working a brain teaser, and if you want to keep your mind sharp, that’s a great way to do it. Regularly exercising our brains, through completing tasks like brain teasers, boosts our brains’ activity, reduces our risk of dementia, and improves our concentration and memory. And there are plenty of fun ways out there to do that, such as utilizing Smithsonian Magazine’s Daily Hidden Object, or spending 15 minutes scrolling through Find the Sniper.
#10
Find The Wheels
#11
The Way My Chameleon Hides On My Military Backpack
#12
Find The Cat
If you’re having a particularly hard time with the images on this list, don’t worry, I certainly am too. But one thing that might make it a bit easier to spot these hidden surprises is by improving your attention to detail. To gain more insight on this topic, we reached out to attention to detail expert, Chris Denny. Chris is a researcher, trainer, author, consultant, and owner of Attention to Detail Solutions, so we wanted to hear from him why this is a valuable skill.
"Attention to detail is important for just about every work role and even for many areas of personal life from relationships to style to putting furniture together properly," Chris told Bored Panda. "Employees with stronger attention to detail tend to be the best employees because they make fewer mistakes, deliver higher quality work, and require less management oversight. In short, they get more done and it's done better (at work and in personal life). In our surveys, something like 92% of executives agree that people who are more detail-oriented will be more successful at work. Attention to detail is often the difference between amazing and just 'okay'."
#13
Find The Second Hyena
#14
Find The Fourth Guy
#15
Roadtrippin
When it comes to how we can improve our attention to detail, Chris first explained that there are five fundamentals of attention to detail: Focus, Interest, Knowledge, Systems, and Attitude (sometimes referred to as Clarity). "Each of those elements has several important elements within, and they are not mutually exclusive," Chris notes. "You can work through the Five Fundamentals systemically to identify the areas you need to work on — to reduce weaknesses and improve upon your strengths — and address each with specific exercises and focused effort."
Chris also provided some of his top tips for exercising our attention to detail muscles. "Be mindful. One of my favorite components of Focus is mindfulness, which is about being aware in the moment of where your attention or effort is being directed right now at any given moment," he explained. "If you're working on a complex task, it's important to be aware enough in the moment to recognize that your mind has wandered and that you aren't fully engaged in the task any more."
#16
An Easy One But Still, Find The Owl
#17
Top Bunk Of Some Guys Daughter’ Bed. One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other
#18
🔥 Sneaky Giraffe
Chris also says it's important to know the "why" of what you are doing. "An element of Interest is understanding the value and importance of what you're working on," he explains. "It's amazing how often people don't fully understand why they are performing a task and, even worse, why it matters if the task is performed properly. If you don't understand the value of the task at hand, find out. Ask! Look it up or figure it out. The worst thing you or an employee can be thinking is, 'What's the point of this?' If you're working on a personal project or event, take a moment to consider the impact of that on others. How awesome will someone feel if you put in a little extra attention and effort to making their gift or a special dinner amazing instead of just 'nice'?"
Next, Chris notes that it's important to use systems: reminders, checklists, software, processes, tools, etc. to "offset your weaknesses in other areas". "For example, if your mind wanders often, use a timer that dings every five minutes to remind you to stay on task. Or, use a prioritized checklist to help ensure you're working on the right things throughout your day or project."
"Oh, and drink plenty of water, and get enough sleep," he added.
#19
She’s Gonna Get Burnt
#20
Something Hidden In The Rocks
#21
Nice Case!
Chris also shared some of the benefits we can experience from developing a greater attention to detail. "The primary benefit is better outcomes," he told Bored Panda. "You can pick what the 'better outcome' is for the situation at hand. That could be a better birthday party you planned, correctly completing all the fields in a form, creating excellent quarterly reports, coming up with a better sales strategy, better product innovations, getting a raise, or maybe just getting to keep your job for now (and getting the raise later)."
"There's an old saying that goes, 'There are two ways to do things — right or again'," Chris shared. "When you get more things right, you waste less time. You get to move on to the next thing instead of re-doing the last. Next, people with greater attention to detail not only complete tasks and/or projects more correctly and accurately, but they tend to do them better. This is especially relevant for projects where more creativity and/or qualitative features/aspects can be added. They tend to have thoughts such as, 'It looks good like this, but if I also did this is would be outstanding'."
#22
4 Kitties In The Forest
#23
Find The Husky
#24
Find The Owl
Harold Mosley 1 year ago
How the hell does it look exactly like tree bark? Nature is truly amazing!
"There are actually three types of attention to detail: Contrastive, Analytical, and Additive," Chris added. "Contrastive is about identifying and processing elements that have only one solution. It's either right or wrong. Analytical attention to detail is about finding solutions by identifying as many of the contrastive elements as possible and processing them to identify a great solution, and there are likely multiple possible 'great' solutions. It's up to you to figure out the best. Additive attention to detail is the most complicated and is about innovation. There are possibly countless great solutions."
#25
Find The Dog. Fairly Easy
#27
Spider On Cake Box
"Whichever type of challenge you are working on, you should be moving toward contrastive," Chris told Bored Panda. "Regardless of how complex the challenge, you should be breaking it down into its contrastive elements. Doing so ensure you are identifying more possibilities, removing the need for expert knowledge (and widening the opportunity for more people to help), and enabling systemization."
"People tend to use phrases such as 'pay more attention to detail' or 'you need to be more detail-oriented' for all three types of situations," Chris says. "But, if you think about the situation or task at hand and label it as one of the types of attention to detail (contrastive, analytical, or additive), the demand/instruction/guidance gets much more specific and useable — and solutions begin to present themselves."
If you'd like to learn even more from Chris Denny, the attention to detail expert, be sure to visit his company's website right here!
#28
A Little Unconventional But I Think It Still Belongs Here
Fantastic Mr Fox 1 year ago
I like this one. I saw something black that seemed out of place. What is it? A spider? A roller skate? Took several seconds and then suddenly...oooh :)
#29
Where Is The Puppy?
We hope this list hasn’t given you too much of a headache, but remember that using your brain is good for it! (And if you really can’t figure any of them out, look to the comments!) Keep upvoting the pictures that have you stumped, and let us know in the comments if you’ve ever taken a photo that had a surprising hidden element. And if you’re looking for even more pics that will make you do a double take after you’ve finished this list, you can find another article featuring “when you see it” pictures right here!
#30
Find The Car
#31
Snow Leopard Stalking A Herd Of Bharal
#32
Find The Frog
#33
Find The Fish 🐠 🐟🐡
#34
Loaf Of Cat - Level Easy
#35
There's A Mountain Lion Stalking An Elk
#36
Find The Second Cat. Yes There Are Two Cats
María Emilia Martínez 1 year ago
I found the second cat. But I Still can't find the first one...
#37
My Boss Sent This To Me Today. Find The Cat
Detective Miller's Hat 1 year ago
It would be helpful if these photos were actually a decent size and resolution.
#38
Find The Numbers
NY Redneck 1 year ago
Somewhere there's a Door Dash driver looking at this post and having an anxiety attack.
#39
Find The Dice That I Dropped
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Lindy Mac 1 year ago
Sasy... and how about your eyes..... mine are crossed.... hopefully they will straighten out after a nights sleep.
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VonBlade 1 year ago
A lot of these felt like a bit "Emperor's New Clothes" to me. You say there is something tiny and furry in this otherwise massively zoomed out photo of some grass, but I remain unconvinced. Was fun to try though.
Marley Nachi 1 year ago
some of them were pretty difficult. Was more motivated to find cute animals than ordinary objects lol
Lisia Smith 1 year ago
It was fun but I had to click on the link to go to the original post to enlarge the photos.
Lindy Mac 1 year ago
Lisia...well that's better than what I did.... I looked in the comments for kind strangers' comments.
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hello how are y'all 1 year ago
Some of them I could find in less then 5 seconds, yet others I can't find at all!
Lindy Mac 1 year ago
Come back soon and see what you can find when you have rested your eyes. 8-D
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Jessica Shookhoff 1 year ago
These need to come with solutions, like an old school Highlights magazine (for Kids!). But, I do really love these. Super fun!
LJ Robinson 1 year ago
A big thank you to those who actually found these things, and shared with others. I'd still be back on the top bunk bed one without help!
Kise Miarse 1 year ago
This was fun! Though I think trying these on a cell phone may have been half the challenge lol
Lindy Mac 1 year ago
Sasy... and how about your eyes..... mine are crossed.... hopefully they will straighten out after a nights sleep.
Load More Replies... VonBlade 1 year ago
A lot of these felt like a bit "Emperor's New Clothes" to me. You say there is something tiny and furry in this otherwise massively zoomed out photo of some grass, but I remain unconvinced. Was fun to try though.
Marley Nachi 1 year ago
some of them were pretty difficult. Was more motivated to find cute animals than ordinary objects lol
Lisia Smith 1 year ago
It was fun but I had to click on the link to go to the original post to enlarge the photos.
Lindy Mac 1 year ago
Lisia...well that's better than what I did.... I looked in the comments for kind strangers' comments.
Load More Replies... hello how are y'all 1 year ago
Some of them I could find in less then 5 seconds, yet others I can't find at all!
Lindy Mac 1 year ago
Come back soon and see what you can find when you have rested your eyes. 8-D
Load More Replies... Jessica Shookhoff 1 year ago
These need to come with solutions, like an old school Highlights magazine (for Kids!). But, I do really love these. Super fun!
LJ Robinson 1 year ago
A big thank you to those who actually found these things, and shared with others. I'd still be back on the top bunk bed one without help!
Kise Miarse 1 year ago
This was fun! Though I think trying these on a cell phone may have been half the challenge lol
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