A balloon depicting the face of alien movie character E.T. is seen in the sky at the 15th Solar Balloon Festival in Envigado, Colombia December 31, 2015. (Photo by Fredy Builes/Reuters)

This latest photo series by Anelia Loubser, a photographer in Cape Town, reminds us that even the simplest change in perspective can change how things look drastically. By selectively cropping and flipping the dark portraits in her “Alienation” series, Loubser makes basic human portraits look like creepy alien close-ups.

An alien-shaped hot air balloon flies during a mass launch at the annual Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, near Bristol, Britain, on August 8, 2025. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

A mongoose growls at a startled lion on September 10, 2011 in Maasai Mara, Kenya. Four lions were left with their tails between their legs when a mongoose bravely took on the predators. Despite being under two feet tall, the aggressive mongoose growled at the felines and even bit one on the nose. The shocking fight, which was photographed in 2011 but has just been released, began in the Masaai Mara National Park, Kenya, when photographer Jerome Guillaumot came across four young lions surrounding the terrified marsh mongoose. The lions chased the mongoose into a hole in the ground but the small animal reemerged to fight the predators once again before running for cover. (Photo by Jerome Guillaumot/Barcroft Media)

Vegas Golden Knights center Mattias Janmark (26) punches Nashville Predators center Nick Cousins (21) in a fight during the third period at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 24, 2022. (Photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sports)

“These eerie formations in the sky may look like alien ships. But as the Daily Mail points out, they’re actually a natural occurrence called lenticular clouds”. – Claudine Zap. Photo: Lenticular clouds hover of the mountains of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. (Photos by Denis Budkov/Caters News)

Artist Sayna Soleimanpour performs a photoshoot in protest against the mistreatment and alienation of Turkish women based on their clothing, during a two-day curfew amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on a deserted street in Istanbul, Turkey, early December 6, 2020. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters)

Artist Sayna Soleimanpour shaves her legs in a bathtub as she performs a photoshoot in protest against the mistreatment and alienation of Turkish women based on their clothing, during a two-day curfew amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on a street leading to the historical Galata Tower in Istanbul, Turkey, late December 25, 2020. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters)