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If you've been reading Bored Panda long enough, you might remember Jon Rafman. He's the legendary artist who "walks" around in Google Street View and takes pictures of the funniest and most interesting sights he comes across.
From a lone toilet in the woods to a shredded FedEx truck, I bet even Google didn't expect to capture these things. And who knows how long it would have taken us to spot these gems if it wasn't for Rafman.
Rafman finds hope and honesty within the vast digital map, and whether he's running with wild animals or exploring software glitches, he's the one who makes the matrix a little warmer.
More info: jonrafman.com | Instagram | YouTube | tumblr | Twitter
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
After Rafman graduated, he discovered a community of artists on the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. He said it really felt that an incredible artistic dialogue was taking place informally: a new vernacular was being formed online.
"There was so much energy to it," Jon explained. "The dialogue was so exciting, mixing humour and irony, critique and celebration. Del.icio.us was the platform on which I really started working with the Internet. At this point, Facebook and Tumblr have pretty much replaced it."
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#2
ALEXIS CISNEROS 4 years ago
I kid you not i just got f*****g bitch slapped with nostalgia from you
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Vlado Ivana 4 years ago
This is not real dolphin. This is sculpture and it is located in little place called Bijela in Montenegro https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x134c308b053f04a9%3A0x3813c1536006b1ae!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP4g38-wXFAN5_HyuT4B_hKw_VOcDahIjFDpxIc%3Dw312-h176-k-no!5sdjeci%20dom%20bijela%20delfin%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipP4g38-wXFAN5_HyuT4B_hKw_VOcDahIjFDpxIc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicoKP8787vAhVlposKHdV5BXwQoiowE3oECCAQAw
Mona Khadra 4 years ago
Plus that water is way too close to shore for a dolphin to be there
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#3
third molar 4 years ago
"Heyy, what is this. No privacy for bears. Can even bathe peacefully ""
He had known about early Internet art but was never attracted to its glitchy aesthetic. So when he discovered this community, Rafman felt like he had found what he had been searching for all through art school.
"Del.icio.us led me to various different collectives like Paintfx. That is the period when I started my Google Street View project," he explained.
#4
Fixin'Ta 4 years ago
I feel like this is in New Zealand somewhere -- sheep, dude in semi-stubbies and gumboots, sheep...
Wreathy 4 years ago
Definitely NZ. The scenery, road, powerlines and trees confirms it.
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Stille20 4 years ago
Not sure what is happneing but the guy leaping out of his truck is hilarious... also do we think the dog in the truck is one of the herding dogs?
LC Greenwood 4 years ago
He's all crazy like those sheep are blocking the Suez Canal lol
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RoseTheMad 4 years ago (edited)
I bet this is NZ , would be nice to know the actual locations of these to check them out though
Barrie 4 years ago
Definitely NZ, you can tell by the shorts the guy is wearing. If it were long trousers I'd say Wales.
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#5
Janina Prado 4 years ago
LOL!! I spit up my tea on my table. You owe me paper towels.
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Daria B 4 years ago
Thank you! Was curious. It must be a lovely sight. Talking from experience (saw the Gundam in Odaiba - beyond amazing).
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"The project started out as PDF books. And then I started to print out the images just like photographs," Rafman said.
"I experimented with the printing for a while and eventually decided to print the images as large format C-prints. In 2009 the art blog Art Fag City asked me to write an essay, and that was when the project really took off, but I already had a huge archive of material by that stage. The 9-eyes tumblr blog came directly out of that. I had already been working with Google Street View (GSV) for one or two years when I created 9-eyes."
#7
Draco's Dragonfly 4 years ago
That looks impressive and scary! What is that? Some kind of sandstorm approaching?
Theoretical Empiricist 4 years ago
Reminds me of the Shamal I saw when deployed to Operation Desert Storm.
third molar 4 years ago
I want to check other street views at this location to see if the storm is chasing the camera
Mary Hurst 4 years ago
Yikes! I don’t care how tight the seal is on your windows and doors, you’ll be finding dust and sand for months.
#8
Raven Sheridan 4 years ago
Run!!!!! Morgan Freeman's back to narrate another penguin documentary!
Mark Wolfe 4 years ago
"Don't turn right after the last glacier? But would you listen?!!?....nooooo" - Phil
#9
Noemie Houtekie-N'Da 4 years ago
almost dying in the process... life's good you know?
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The Canvas Lamb 4 years ago
This happened in Seattle a few years ago. The bus slid down a steep, snowy street.
ChickyChicky 4 years ago
This is not a Google photo. Google cars would not be out that day in Seattle.
At first, the project consisted of long, arduous surf sessions. Rafman went to places he wanted to visit, mainly in America (GSV had not been launched in many countries at the time), but not in a systematic way. As the project grew, however, he learned certain tricks.
"For example, the best place to go for images is to check where the Google cars are and to follow those. Otherwise, Google may have removed any ‘anomalies’, which often make the most interesting images."
#10
Irina Deneva-Slav 4 years ago
I did this once, with a friend. It was 3 am, so the road was empty but there was a certain unease involved. :D
#11
Julia Atkinson 4 years ago
Another mystical animal slips through the Google street view net - the unicorns and sea serpents are usually edited out immediately
Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
Honestly, ever since "you can't have your kayak and heat it too," I just upvote anything you say.
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#12
Amanda Hunter 4 years ago
It's when she's still in your rear view mirror when you pull in the driveway.
After the project went viral, Rafman started getting tons of submissions from other people who were also exploring GSV. Some of these he used directly and some would act as a departure point to search for images.
"I was working a bit like a street photographer: keeping an open mind and responding to my intuition," Rafman said. "The process was really about editing down. The entire project is a process of subtraction: since everything has already been captured on GSV, it is about editing down until you find the core, essential moments. I think it could be considered as a major editing project."
#13
Skyler Delzell 4 years ago
I actually know that place!!!! The city made them cut their fence in half because they live on a corner and the fence was an "obstruction" for drivers. This was their form of protest. They go out and move the mannequins periodically or dress them up appropriately for the holidays
#14
Robert Beveridge 4 years ago
"I told you idiots you're not supposed to turn on the abduction beam until we find the sheep in the other pictures!"
Vic 4 years ago
That's an Einstein-Rosen bridge.. Or a Rainbow bridge, if you are from Asgard..
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Noemie Houtekie-N'Da 4 years ago
HAS BEEN RESURRECTED AGAIN. (Imagine if it was Easter.)
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#16
Eyealone 4 years ago
Light of the moon by Igor Mitoraj, you can see it in Scheveningen (Netherlands)
Randolph Croft 4 years ago
There's one in Florence, Boboli Gardens, I think.
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Samtheperson 4 years ago
Lalala just frolicking in a field *gigantic face shows up* lalala running for my life
Ila in Maine 4 years ago
There it is! I've been looking for that missing puzzle piece for days.
Rafman has also discovered online communities that also explore GSV. "There is a forum for pretty much anything you can think of. There is a forum where people only collect images of prostitutes, some of which I used in 9-eyes. I don’t like fetishizing labor. I don't want to play up the amount of time I spend finding these images. This can become a kind of artistic crutch. The greatest works of art for me can be a single gesture that took very little time at all."
#17
RiaDeCatterpillar 4 years ago
one of the sheep is a person in disguise! you can tell because the face is blurred out.
JohnFinch 4 years ago
This is a common scene on Dartmoor, and local Farmers have put up signs showing the number of sheep that are killed by cars every year.
Kira Okah 4 years ago
Sheep in Wales do this too, drape all over the road without a care in the world.
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#19
Draco's Dragonfly 4 years ago
Very pretty colour! But what happened here? Does anyone know? Are these trees sick?
Alexandru Bucur 4 years ago
I'm guessing the IR filter on the camera must have failed, because that is what trees look like under IR (infrared) light...
Barb Holland 4 years ago
actually i think ur right, the road is is black and white
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Let’s All Just Try And Be Decent 4 years ago
The road is back and white, so it's a colour error in the photo, that's not the real colour of the trees or ground in that section
#20
BlackLabOwner 4 years ago
ooh I live somewhere where planes fly like this the house even shakes sometimes
Jan Hutcheson 4 years ago
Can the pilot fly any lower??? Like, don’t get your landing gear caught in the electrical lines🤦♀️
The artist was already aware of photographic history when he began working on this project. "I really believe that photography was the medium of the twentieth century, because of the ambiguity surrounding the question of whether it was or was not art, due to photography's mechanical nature," Rafman said, adding that he saw GSV in some way as the ultimate conclusion of the medium of photography: the world being constantly photographed from every perspective all the time, as if photography had become an indifferent, neutral god observing the world.
#21
Let’s All Just Try And Be Decent 4 years ago
Doesn't google street view show as much as it can? Like, not only actual "streets", but all landscapes, bodies of water, parks, places you can only walk etc. I don't think it has to be a legal "road" as long as it's somewhere on a route that people use / may ever need to use? I could be wrong?
Stuart Smith 4 years ago
The new Google Camera Car has now been equipped with a built-in time machine!
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#22
Katherine Boag 4 years ago
If you wanna be judgemental about sex work, dont judge the workers but judge the buyers.
Valley Girl 4 years ago
He looks pretty fancy to be frequenting THIS place. Please find a cleaner pickup spot. I itch just looking at this pic!
#23
WubiDubi 4 years ago
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.8585534,-7.1291419,3a,75y,144.5h,99.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sxG2HF7E-X--YfZ_OaYCOVg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
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#24
LadyDelynn 4 years ago
The best part of riding a horse is you don't need to have or follow a road. Just pick a direction and pitch them their head, it's a beautiful view from the top of a horse.
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LadyDelynn 4 years ago
There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse. Winston Churchill
Colleen Garland 4 years ago
I love the beauty and the freedom. They don't know how lucky they are.
Aaron Wetherill 3 years ago
ohhhhhhhh im gonna take my horse 2 the ol' town road im gonna riiiidde til i can't no mo,
Mary Hurst 4 years ago
Run and hide. BLM has already rounded up your relatives and sent them to the slaughterhouse!
Linn Shonta 4 years ago
Run, before they decide to give us a free trip to the “glue factory “!!
"The perceaphy ption of reality associated with photogris very modern. In the past, representations in the form of images were always imbued with a certain magical quality. The photograph shows a world that is empty of that. It is just a reflection of the surface of things. In that way, the photograph is the perfect embodiment of our perception of the modern world. More than specific photographic history, I was thinking of photography from a philosophical point of view."
#25
Sum Guy 4 years ago
Clowns are creepy... how did this become the norm at children's birthday parties?
Justin Seagull 4 years ago
Clowns were suppose to entertain, it was made creepy by the pop culture.
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Julia Atkinson 4 years ago (edited)
Another graduate of the John Wayne Gacy School For Children's Entertainers
Rain WhiteBuffalo 4 years ago
As a clown, We are NOT creepy. Too many B movies created that problem.
Exadoor Rising123 4 years ago
Nothing to see here, just another creepy clown taking a drive to McDonalds. Lol
#26
Joshua Seaman 4 years ago
Well, I think that answers the question: Does a bear s**t in the woods? 😆
Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
The Doctor really should not have repaired the "disguise" function.
#27
Leo Domitrix 4 years ago
I think that's the photographer who took these pics by tracking google's mapping cars.
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#28
#29
Noemie Houtekie-N'Da 4 years ago
You see???? People CAN"T live without Google!
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Kelli from Fitness Blender 4 years ago
With songs they have sung for a thousand years!!!!!!!!!!
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Colleen Garland 4 years ago
I love those buildings. Then I think how freakin' cold they had to be in the winter.
#30
Panda-riffic 4 years ago
Would like to know the context. Maybe it's not "wheee" but instead "aggghhh, there's a snake"!
#31
Lisa Chambers 4 years ago
Probably a moving truck carrying no less than two families worldly goods. This happened to me during a change of station move in the military. Sure there is insurance but you have no idea the amount of small but important stuff you have (photos, books, children's mementos) that just cannot be replaced. Cause of fire? Someone stole an ejection seat from an airfield and the movers packed it. It went off.
Barb Braun 4 years ago
I think it's a road crew with their paving vehicles and somehow a fire started.
#32
Gabby M 4 years ago
Did you also walk to school, UPHILL Both Ways, with only cardboard for shoes?
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Vorknkx 4 years ago
Definitely a Slavic country. Such residential buildings can be found in many other places outside Russia as well...
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Izolda Bronstein 4 years ago
Every town in any former-USSR country has architecture like this. Can be even my hometown
Load More Replies... Kathleen Saville 4 years ago
Just when you think the walk of shame can't get any more embarrassing! 😁
#34
Tina Hugh 4 years ago
You don't have a festival for the Google van in your country? Weird....
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Onion rings like to make your breath smelly 4 years ago
wait how did the google car just drive through
#35
#36
marianne eliza 4 years ago
Low tide can bring with it a nasty stink. I'd wait for high tide.
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fro_st puppy 4 years ago
Maybe their doing a play..?? or its some kind of drill?
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Colleen Garland 4 years ago
I can't say that this looks amusing. This is probably their daily life. Be happy you live where you do.
RedPanda 4 years ago
Have you guys never seen a drill before? They do it differently in other places but look how they cover their heads and lay on the ground.
#38
Crochet lady 4 years ago
We were at the mall with our identical twins once and a little girl was approaching from the direction, looked at their faces, did a double take then walked right up them and stared. She then turned back to run towards her mother screaming "they've got the same face!!!!". The poor kid was freaked out. Lol.
The Aussie Gal 4 years ago
Ayyyye great minds think alike! I didn't even see ur comment and wrote it. DAMN what a coincidence
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Let’s All Just Try And Be Decent 4 years ago
Only one shadow. Same plant above their heads, same exact pose, same item in same hand, it's just a frame duplicated of one person. Which is a shame, as scary twins or some paranormal stuff would have been way more fun!
#39
Raven Sheridan 4 years ago (edited)
The Franciscan Monks patrolling their territory in their gang colours.
#41
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#44
Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
Street luge! I haven't thought about that since the 90s. (RIP X-Games)
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Paul Aguilera 4 years ago
i thought it was a barren plane at first, then i saw the curve. unless it's the new model Frisbee plane
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Easily Excitable Panda 4 years ago
Kind of in love with this. The composition and contrasts are amazing. It should be higher up.
#51
#52
Raven Sheridan 4 years ago
Timeout punishments weren't just an idle threat in Carlos's family.
Noemie Houtekie-N'Da 4 years ago
exactly what I was gonna say (without the Carlos part)
Load More Replies... Abhainn 4 years ago
uh oh. this looks like something I would have done when I was younger
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#58
Brian D 4 years ago
All my friends know the low rider The low rider is a little higher Low rider drives a little slower Low rider is a real goer
John Carr 4 years ago
Low rider knows every street, yeah. Low rider is the one to meet, yeah
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#65
Kendra Miller 4 years ago
This ugly s**t is tagging, but some graffiti is real art. I like the art kind of graffiti, it gives a street and a town character. It shows you the personality of it's people and adds a pop of colour in dreary colourless winter. I wish more boring bare walls were opened up for experimentation (with the understanding that anything like hate speech would not be tolerated.
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Kendra Miller 4 years ago
Depends on how long the cleanup crew/truck takes to arrive
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#72
LadyDelynn 4 years ago
Forget the stretch Hummer and look at that magnificent giant tree on the right in the background!
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
When you really need the world to know that you're a douche, you hire one of these.
Heaven Gooch 4 years ago
it's a hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmer....i'm sorry. that was bad.
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Rob Chapman 4 years ago (edited)
What's happening here? Fight? Drunk? And why is there a person in an office chair in the middle of the sidewalk?
InfectedVoice 4 years ago
Just your standard UK council estate drunken family argument, very common in the streets of benefits.
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troufaki13 4 years ago
-Are you sure we're not gonna get caught? - Trust me, there's no-one around
ojjunior 4 years ago
Brazilian license plate. Hard to tell the exact location but it is written there. If someone with good software could zoom it...
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#85
Yort 4 years ago
Just a weird thing that happens with the camera sometimes.
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#88
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Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
I'm pretty sure this is the same bridge as is in #31--I just realized that
Jihana 4 years ago
Yep, definitely. Still want to know where it is though
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#95
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#100
Horse lover 4 years ago
Erm no, that is a very colorful saddle pad for ya
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Alexandru Bucur 4 years ago
Ah yes, the ol' US of A. "Girls Work for Tips, Minimum Tip $5" - anything to shift the burden of actually paying the employees to the customer... That's on top of the sexual exploitation, of course.
Nic Dudley 4 years ago
I thought perhaps this wasn't American but it is...it is in Florida, shocking (sarcasm)
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#105
xHinatax 4 years ago
You really had me looking for the second... and then I realized you were talking about the ocean. Boy I’m tired 😓
Load More Replies... Paul Aguilera 4 years ago
when you drop your phone in the ocean and know you stand no chance of getting it back.
#106
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Paul Aguilera 4 years ago
wow i thought it was a photoshop first. then i thought it was an amputee. took me a while to realize it was a little drop off hill.
#109
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
6 people working and no 16 supervisors around? In what fairytale land is this?
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WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Do the google-drivers get paid extra for driving in slums and ghettos?
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#125
Michał Jastrzębski 4 years ago
air blast pre-heater stoves for the iron smelting great furnace in the center, the furnace itself behind them.
#126
Michał Jastrzębski 4 years ago
guessing by the hardhat and the car, power company employees resting a bit
Load More Replies... Mark Howell 4 years ago
From the name on the van, they are taking a break from rolling those rocks up the hill ;o)
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Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
This is the best real-world example of a liminal space that I've seen in a long time
#136
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clever username 4 years ago
The term “sex worker” recognizes that sex work is work. Prostitution, on the other hand, has connotations of criminality and immorality.
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ButterScot 4 years ago
Before everyone had GPS on their phones, hookers were the only way to navigate cities.
Load More Replies... Cain Hargreaves 4 years ago
Each time I've seen a picture of s** worker on the street on this list, it just seems like such a hard way to live, you know?
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Kelli Girouard 4 years ago
If a fire starts inside a garbage truck while in transit, they dump the load onto the street and then the fire department douses it. After it cools off, they load it back onto the truck and off they go. Better than a flaming garbage truck barreling down the road.
Kendra Miller 4 years ago
Are there smoke detectors in the garbage area? How do they not get squished with all the crushing?
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
After extensive discussion, it was decided to set up the city park as a rubbish dump, given that everyone left their rubbish there anyway.
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Zucchini 4 years ago
I want to know the thought prosses that led up to this. But don't get me wrong: if I could be part of whatever this group is, I would!
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Krissy Bulan 4 years ago
It's changed since but this used to be the Google maps pic of our house: featuring my hubby's butt while he bends over into his car! 10153247_1...d88deb.jpg 
Bryan Hamilton 4 years ago
Caught my uncle walking out into his yard. He was 87 and shocked how technology worked. He died a year later. I still keep a screen shot of that photo.
Paradise 4 years ago
For awhile I played the apps where you are put somewhere on Earth in maps and you have to figure out where you are (Geocities). Normally you're on city and rural roads. Once I was plopped on a Hawaiian beach. Followed both directions forever just because it was pretty. When I backtrack I saw the Google person's footsteps. At one pont I saw trash, some items belonging to the little boat, shoes, etc. Never did I find where the person got onto the beach. It was so pretty, I did this one for several minutes.
Lyone Fein 4 years ago
So many of these are really extraordinary photographs, just from a purely artistic perspective. You see so much of human life in them.
Rannveig Ess 4 years ago
When I'm bored I look on Google Earth for all kinds of odd things. I have a ton saved. Last month I saw what I think was a body frozen and slumped over in a remote mountain area. It had on a hoodie and was somewhat deteriorated, part of it into the ground. As I panned to the side a bit there were 2 women. One looked as if she had taken a leg or arm..part of something long was clearly under her coat. There werent any raods right there for Google to be photographing it. It bothers me so much but I keep hoping I just caught some glitches in the photos and it's not what I'm seeing.
Zucchini 4 years ago
I want to know the thought prosses that led up to this. But don't get me wrong: if I could be part of whatever this group is, I would!
Load More Replies... Krissy Bulan 4 years ago
It's changed since but this used to be the Google maps pic of our house: featuring my hubby's butt while he bends over into his car! 10153247_1...d88deb.jpg
Bryan Hamilton 4 years ago
Caught my uncle walking out into his yard. He was 87 and shocked how technology worked. He died a year later. I still keep a screen shot of that photo.
Paradise 4 years ago
For awhile I played the apps where you are put somewhere on Earth in maps and you have to figure out where you are (Geocities). Normally you're on city and rural roads. Once I was plopped on a Hawaiian beach. Followed both directions forever just because it was pretty. When I backtrack I saw the Google person's footsteps. At one pont I saw trash, some items belonging to the little boat, shoes, etc. Never did I find where the person got onto the beach. It was so pretty, I did this one for several minutes.
Lyone Fein 4 years ago
So many of these are really extraordinary photographs, just from a purely artistic perspective. You see so much of human life in them.
Rannveig Ess 4 years ago
When I'm bored I look on Google Earth for all kinds of odd things. I have a ton saved. Last month I saw what I think was a body frozen and slumped over in a remote mountain area. It had on a hoodie and was somewhat deteriorated, part of it into the ground. As I panned to the side a bit there were 2 women. One looked as if she had taken a leg or arm..part of something long was clearly under her coat. There werent any raods right there for Google to be photographing it. It bothers me so much but I keep hoping I just caught some glitches in the photos and it's not what I'm seeing.
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