68 Incredible Photos Take: Rare Moments Caught on Camera
A Bored Panda collection brings together photographs of fleeting events, from a meteor streaking above a family portrait to lightning hitting a statue. The images include a historic view of Earth from Apollo 8 and a brief flash on Jupiter captured by an amateur astronomer.
Bored Panda published a collection of 68 incredible photos take in rare moments, including a meteor crossing above a family portrait and lightning striking behind a couple in British Columbia. The images capture events that photographers could not easily stage or repeat.
Some moments lasted only seconds. Others came after long waits, or through an unexpected alignment of events.
Weather and chance in the frame
Photographer Wil Cheung was taking a family portrait during a night of stargazing in Northumberland when a bright meteor streaked across the sky above them. The family held still for the photograph and did not realize what had appeared until they saw the image.
Cheung said he usually spots only a couple of meteors an hour. He described getting one in a neatly framed group photo as a “one in a million moment.”
In August 2022, photographer Danika Camba was taking what appeared to be a regular couples portrait on a mountain in British Columbia. Liam Duncan was actually proposing to Alisa Hemming, while friends and family waited nearby.
A lightning bolt struck in the background as the couple embraced. Camba later found three frames that captured it, and the group hurried off the mountain as the storm continued.
Another photograph records a lightning strike on Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. Photographer Fernando Braga spent hours waiting through a storm on February 10, 2023, taking hundreds of frames before one bolt hit the statue’s head.
Braga called the result a dream come true. The photograph went on to travel around the world.
Space and fleeting sights
The collection also revisits “Earthrise,” photographed by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders in December 1968. Anders had been assigned to photograph the lunar surface, but the Earth rising above the horizon was not in the mission plan.
Anders called for a roll of color film while crewmate Jim Lovell searched for one. Anders managed to take two color frames before the view slipped away; one became the image known as “Earthrise.”
During the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, NASA photographers captured the International Space Station crossing the sun. The station appeared as a small dark silhouette, moving at roughly five miles per second with six crew members aboard.
The image also includes the moon and several sunspots. Seven frames were stitched together to show the station’s full crossing as a trail of silhouettes.
Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley caught another brief event in June 2010 while visiting a friend in Broken Hill. His video camera was recording Jupiter through a telescope when a flash appeared for a couple of seconds.
Wesley quickly realized that something had struck the planet. The collection places that short-lived flash among photographs made possible by patience, timing and a camera already pointed in the right direction.
