Defying perspective with photos

"I think I'm a bit too young for him," says Alla Shubina, who kissed the Great Sphinx of Giza during her 2010 trip to Egypt. Click the arrows to see a collection of forced perspective photography from travel destinations around the world.

It took Samuel Jacques 30 tries and 45 minutes to create this shot at Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. A visual effects artist, "I was trying to get rid of all the small things that made the picture look fake," he said.

Wedding photographer Daniel Stoychev was inspired to try his hand at forced perspective during a few of his engagement photo shoots in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico. "I mean who would refuse such a gift, the sun! I find it romantic and the women loved it," he said.

After spending the afternoon watching planes descend at London's Heathrow Airport, Gary Mantile tried to "catch" a plane. Flickr member Lee Mackey directed Mantile on where to position his hand. It took five tries to master this feat of airplane wizardry.

"Sometime in 2007, I came across a collection of photos where a person replaced famous landmarks with souvenirs or postcards in the foreground," says Ryan McFarland. He traveled to the Central Reserve Bank of Peru in Lima in 2009, where he matched up Peruvian money to the bank.

"It's best to find someone who's taken this photo before and understands the effect that I'm trying to achieve," says John Vogel, who posed for a shot in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, in 2000.

Self-described sweet tooth Alla Shubina confesses that this is her favorite shot. Shubina and her husband got some funny looks from people as she posed for this shot in front of the Hershey Store in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

While visiting Bolivia's salt flats, Salar de Uyuni, you can see many people taking forced perspective photos. Former tour guide Michael Moe has had a lot of practice taking these types of photos -- he is the man coming out of the bottle in this 2007 photo. "There just aren't very many places in the world that you can take these kind of pictures," he said.

Magda Bryla shows off her strength during her trip to Paris in July 2012. "The Eiffel Tower is not so heavy. I lifted it up," joked the Polish tourist.

"When I was younger, I used to take pictures of people from a distance and pretended that I was pushing them with my finger, or squishing them with my hand," says Jooliana Kim. She "touched" a hoodoo -- a tall, skinny rock formation that protrudes from the ground -- at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.

While honeymooning in Hawaii in 2008, Tara Abadir says she kept hearing the song "Puff the Magic Dragon." "In an effort to recreate that song visually, I instructed my new husband [on] what to do. In the end, I knew I had married someone who could set up the shot."

If Sheri D'Rosario could write a caption for this forced perspective photo, it would read, "South America on a shoestring." D'Rosario posed for this quick photo in 2009 while visiting Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. She had just spent a year traveling and volunteering all over South America.

Instagram member transitionpete used to host "squish" challenges asking for people to share photos of their fingers "squishing" an object in the background. The idea stuck with Chrissy Magnesi, who used the technique during her recent visit to the historic Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.

Seth Harrington's trip to Portland, Oregon, in March got off to a rocky start. He got sick after eating at a restaurant and spent the first three days of the trip in the bathroom. "When I saw this waterfall from a distance, I knew that I had to have a picture to symbolize my Portland trip," he said.

"It's only common courtesy that someone keep this thing from falling over on some unsuspecting locals," jokes Joseph Baca, who kept the Leaning Tower of Pisa from tipping over during his visit to Italy in June 2012.

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• After getting bored with travel photos, one couple started tinkering with perspective


• Forced perspective photos play off optical illusions, making objects smaller or larger


• Have you tried this style of photography? Share your images with CNN iReport

(CNN) -- It all started when she kissed the Great Sphinx of Giza.

Bored with taking the same, tired poses at monuments on their trip to Egypt in 2010, Alla Shubina and her husband began tinkering with perspective to create clever, funny photos. They left Egypt with some memorable pictures and the start of a new travel tradition.

"The tour guides take you to certain areas to take pictures, like half an hour at the same place. You don't want to get bored with your pictures," said Shubina, a Ukrainian native living in New Jersey. "This brings a little bit of change and fun to picture taking."

This style of photography, called forced perspective, uses optical illusion to make objects appear closer or farther than the really are. Google "Bolivia salt flats" and you'll see scores of photos showing exactly what we mean.

To create images like these, you have to be willing to look funny sometimes. It's something Shubina and her husband have grown used to doing.

While taking photos in Egypt, they noticed people watching them. The same happened at Half Dome at Yosemite National Park in 2012, when Shubina put up her arm to push the granite mountain. People looked at them in a questioning way, wondering what the couple was doing, she said.

Her husband knows the feeling.

"I'm the one who says move over a little bit, put your arm up," said photography enthusiast Christopher Stens. "People just kind of look at me like, 'What are you doing?'"

Stens is the behind-the-scenes guy, the visual thinker. His biggest tip for other forced perspective photographers is to be "open and free" while posing and to follow whatever "quirky vision" you may have. "Alla's the inspiration. She's my muse," he said.

"We have so many more [photos] where we missed the mark," Stens said. "Out of the 100 you take, you have a couple that are really cool -- other than you just standing in front of the monument."

But the couple isn't in it for the perfect shot.

"It's part of our trip. It's something which we can do together," Shubina said of the four-year tradition.

Stens agreed. "The important part for me is having fun with Alla."