A perfectly timed photo isn’t something a photographer can manufacture, no matter how hard they try. The best ones happen through organic means. Usually it’s in an attempt by the photographer to capture something they notice. What happens next is harder to explain. Whether it’s divine intervention or pure luck, they happen to snap the photo at the most opportune time. Although they didn’t get the photo they probably wanted, they ended up with something arguably better: a one in a million shot.

Often what causes these is a photobomb. That’s when something flies unexpectedly into the frame. Not only does it disrupt the original photo, but lands in the perfect spot on the frame. A photo of a famous statue might suddenly look like it’s holding an airplane, for example. These images are impossible to plan.

One could argue that a perfectly timed photo involving a vehicle are the most impressive ones. They not only require perfect timing on behalf of the photographer and model, but also the piece of machinery. In some cases, it even requires the cooperation of more than one vehicle in the same frame working together.

We’ve collected pics of vehicles caught in the right places at the right time. These are cars, planes and boats snapped in picture-perfect poses. While they may not have been the photo that the photographers behind the camera originally conceived of, they ended up delivering something even better. These are the shots that only come once in a blue moon.

20 Monkeying Around

Corrie Ten Boom once said, as per Psychology Today, “Child, you have to learn to see things in the right proportions. Learn to see great things great and small things small.” We wonder what Corrie Ten Boom would’ve said had she witnessed this photo though. It looks as if an enormous monkey is crushing the car ahead with its giant fist. In reality, though, the monkey is sitting on the windshield of a car (from which the photo is being taken inside of). It’s still odd to find all these monkeys roaming the premises though, as many others sit off to the side.

19 Sticking Your Neck Out

It’s a photo that relied on the efforts of both an animal and man-made aerial machine. In the foreground is an adult giraffe and its calf looking ahead at an airplane coming in for a landing. It looks as if the adult giraffe’s elongated neck is in contact with the airplane’s wing though. The shadow on the side of the airplane even adds to this effect, looking as if it’s coming off of the giraffe’s head. This photographer had to have jumped for joy after they saw what they had captured in a perfectly-timed snapshot. Thankfully no harm came to the giraffes or airplanes.

18 In Plane View

Of all the vehicles on this list, planes go the fastest. It’s an obvious statement, but in light of perfectly-timed photos, it only highlights the difficulty. Surrounded by the beautiful architecture on all sides, the photographer looked up and saw a photo opportunity. When they looked through the viewfinder, they had to snap this airplane flying low overhead. It suggests there’s an airport nearby if the plane is already that low to the ground. What’s amazing though is how the landing path falls directly within this narrow opening that's large enough for a plane. If people could stage these images, there’d be more of them.

17 “Get In The Chopper”

National defense around the world use a vast array of vehicles. This photo appears to be at a base where helicopters and jet planes take off and land. In the foreground is a helicopter turned away. It’s completely at rest and its propellers are sitting still. In the distance, looking as if it’s sitting on a blade, is a fighter jet with its wheels still out. The photographer managed to capture this jet just as it was taking off. Even more, the trajectory of its ascent matches up cleanly with the helicopter blade bending down. It just proves how well aircraft coordinate with one another.

16 Missing Piece

Those with keen eyes will soon see the humor in this photo. While many of these pictures only require one area to focus in on, this particular photo has two areas of interest. The first key is the trunk of this yellow car in the foreground that appears to be a taxi. It’s an all yellow car except for a squarish imprint that’s painted white. Then, walking in the background is a man carrying a square-like shape that’s colored the same yellow shade as the taxi cab. It looks as if the pedestrian seized the yellow piece from the car and is walking away.

15 The Tipping Point

A photographer captured this nightmarish scenario of a boat tipping far enough to have its cargo topple over the side. Instead of snapping the photo a second later though, they managed to pull off an image that shows the incident at its apex. According to the site LifeBuzz, containers aboard the ship ended up crushed and four in all fell into the water. If one were to predict the damage as seen in this photo, it sounds like it could have been a lot worst. This is a photo that captures a horrible situation at the right time and manages to surprise viewers at the same time.

14 Don’t Put A Cart Before A Horse

This little waffle car may not be much of a vehicle, but it’s got wheels and travels on roads nonetheless. In the background are a few soldiers fully dressed in uniform while astride a pair of horses. The two horses are passing through this cart at the most opportune time. It looks as if it’s the same horse but stretched out behind the cart. If only the horses were the same color, then it would look more convincing. It’s like the enthusiastic gatekeeper from the famous movie The Wizard of Oz says to Dorothy, “That’s a horse of a different color!”

13 Freeze Frame

Here’s a photo that will cause many to do a double take. For those confused by what they’re witnessing, it’s a picture more fitting of a thousand bemused blinks than it is a thousand words. As BlazePress notes, it’s an icy encasing of a car’s front bumper that remained even after they vacated the parking spot. it’s hard to believe something like this could still stand on its own in light of the car’s absence. Yet here the ice sculpture stands for all to see, though it probably didn’t hold up on its own for very long, which is a testament to the photographer's alacrity.

12 Ice Bucket Challenge

The poor pilot in the foreground had no idea what was coming. What he doesn’t see up above and behind him is that a whole cooler of water is about to douse him from head to toe. The one above committing the prank looks like he’s having a blast with a smile across his face. Perhaps the photographer was in on the prank too, which explains why they managed to get the perfect shot. Any second later and it would’ve been too late. It’s funny to see the pilot below completely unaware of the waterfall that’s about to hit him.

11 Plane Sailing

Red Bull is always showing off extreme footage in their advertisements. This particular shot is of a film shoot they did, according to AbelCine, outside of Moab, Utah. They call the area Fisher Towers. Here, they were able to do the kind of stunts they wanted without any trouble. That’s partly what allowed for such a legendary photo to take place. During the shoot, a photographer managed to snap some photos including this one of an airplane upside down flying over an Audi RS 7. The photo is not only epic but happens to be a perfectly-timed photo that includes an awesome plane, car, and backdrop in one frame.

10 As Clear As Mud

Witnessing a car driving around in mud is nothing special. Seeing a car drive into a hidden pit of mud, however, is something else. This car appears to have blazed ahead without knowing there was a hole in the dirt road ahead. The car ended up plunging straight into the hole of mud and paying the price as a result. Fortunately, something good came out of it in the form of an epic photo. This photographer managed to capture the car driving into the mud pit before it submerged any deeper. It’s either a stroke of luck or the talents of a photographer prodigy.

9 Reflect On This

It’s one thing to spot something and another thing entirely to capture it successfully. This photographer appears to have done both though. The perspective in the photo looks out on the street from what appears to be inside of a cafe. In the reflection of the glass is a table crowded with people. Their reflection in the glass from this point of view happens to overlay on a van outside. The way they’re huddled together looks as if one is witnessing the contents of the van where a group of people are sitting together. It’s a perfectly-timed photo that drops one’s jaw.

8 A Car Jumps Over The Dog

It’s hard to judge from the photo alone whether this dog was brave, scared or a little of both. Either way, it’s dangerously close to a rally car that fortunately missed the little dog by flying over its head. As revealed on the site Adapt Network, there’s actually four different shots of this incident. The dog happened to be on the road and the rally car luckily leaped over the dog. It not only exemplifies perfect timing performed by the rally car driver but on behalf of the photographer as well. We’re just glad the dog ended up in one piece.

7 Friendly Elephant

There’s little a driver can do when an approaching elephant decides to make their car its plaything. All they can do is hope they come out of the encounter in one piece. The site Afternoon Special reports that this elephant resides in the Pilanesberg National Park located in South Africa. The poor “victim” in this photo is the Volkswagen Polo wedged between an elephant and a hard place. The photographer is the only winner in this situation, who decided to pull out their camera at the perfect time. The picture they got was priceless, although the repair bills for this car will be pricey.

6 Cool One’s Jets

Jet planes are some of the fastest vehicles today. According to Fox News, an F-16 jet can go over 1,500 mph. That only raises the unlikelihood of ever catching one in a perfectly-timed photo. As this snapshot shows, a lucky photographer managed to capture a jet plane on the edge of a smoke-trailed loop. The site Caters News posted quotes from the photographer who said, “I just love doing aviation photography as it's always a challenge when jets are flying fast through the skies, also trying to get the best settings with different weather conditions.” For this photographer, everything came together perfectly.

5 Whatever Floats One’s Boat

There are some photos that make one doubt the laws of physics. Somehow, this boat is able to lift up off the ground as it plunges in a rush into the water. The passenger looks proud with his hand in the air, though he probably should have both hands on the windshield to brace himself. It’s possible the boat took a brief detour on land, hit something that gave it air and then steering back towards the water. The photographer happened to be in the right place at the right time by capturing this flying boat in all its glory.

4 Making A Splash

In order for a perfectly-timed photo to be successful, it relies on several pieces falling into place. There are three elements in all that had to work for this photo to turn out the way it did. First, it needed a bus with this advertisement for a water park plastered on its side. Second, it needed rain to fill up the streets with water. Last but not least, it needed a photographer in the right place to capture it all. All of those things came together to make this perfectly-timed photo, which humorously makes it look as if the people in the ad are sliding into the flooded street.

3 On The Side Of Blue Angels

The engineering behind a jet plane is mind-boggling; seeing them in action is breathtaking; capturing them in a perfectly-timed photo though is a whole other level. According to Popular Mechanics, the Blue Angels are part of the U.S. Navy. They've flown F-35s and announced in August they’ll be moving over to F/A-18 Super Hornets. To capture these jet planes flying in unison requires a quick photographer. This one managed to snap them in a perfect formation that looks puzzling to look at. It almost looks like a stalled video that’s still buffering and shows the next frames before fully loading.

2 Are You A Man Or A Mouse?

This one’s a slight cheat in that it takes place inside of a subway, rather than on the outside. Still, all the ingredients came together to form this perfect photo. In a packed subway on the way to its destination, this photographer noticed something humorous: a balloon in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head covering an actual person's head. The placement of the balloon along with its angle make it look as if it’s Mickey himself smiling and texting away on his phone like anyone else. Look at it long enough though, and Mickey’s face starts to look a little creepy.

1 Shaking Things Up

When natural disasters hit, even man-made structures are susceptible to harm. This image is striking because it shows what appears to be an earthquake. The truck in the middle has the ground slipping out from under it thanks to the aftershocks. As if that wasn’t bad enough, rain is pelting down across the frame. It looks like the truck is empty, at least in the front seat though, which is good news. It’s scary to see a natural disaster make easy work of paved roads like this. It shows that even infrastructure isn’t invincible to phenomena that could strike at any moment.

Sources: Afternoon Special, BlazePress, Adapt Network, Caters News