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.
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.
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!
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.
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'."
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."
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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.
