It looks like a creature from the most terrifying nightmare. A true demon from another world. But she’s just one ant view from very, very close. This is one of the outstanding photos of the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Contest.
The snapshot, captured with a Canon R7 and a 5X magnification Mitutoyo lens, was taken by Lithuanian Eugenijus Kavaliauskas and it didn’t even win him the first prize. However, he did manage to get into the gallery of distinguished images and a voucher for $35 worth of Nikon products. And go viral, of course.
In addition to being simple, it is not what it seems
Users of the forums Reddit they have gone completely insane with the monstrosity of the ant and have begun to unravel it. Some explain that what look like red eyes are not. This is a visual effect: they are actually the bases of the antennae, since the eyes are not even visible in the photo as they are further back. Also, the eyes are bigger.
The image has earned its author a check redeemable for $35 worth of Nikon products
It’s not that the ant is angry or, at worst, possessed. It just is like that and our mind erroneously tells us that something is happening to the ant. It is a pareidolia, which is a phenomenon by which forms are recognized where there are none. In this case a horrible and angry face.
Kavaliauskas himself has recognized Insider That photo doesn’t have too much merit. He was bored of always doing the same thing and he decided to put her under a microscope. This Lithuanian photographer lives near a forest, so he had no problem capturing the insect. “I always look for the details, the shadows and the corners that cannot be seen. The main objective of photography is to be a discoverer”, he has said.
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For the rest of us mortals, these types of close-ups of insects are amazing. However, for him it is now very normal to capture all the details of the faces of these insects: “When I started microphotography, I also thought that all beetles looked a bit like monsters. But now I’ve gotten used to it and It’s amazing that there are so many interesting, beautiful and unknown miracles under our feet.”
The beauty of the winning photo
Kavaliauskas’s words already reveal the reason why the jury did not opt for her at any time. On the other hand, the winning photo is more complicated to take.
Swedish photographers Grigorii Timin and Michel Milinkovitch managed to photograph the fluorescent part of the foreleg of a giant day gecko embryo from Madagascar to win $3,000.
The amazing winning photo of the contest
To document the tiny veins and bones of the hand they used 63x magnification and had to merge hundreds of images to create the final photo.
We want to give thanks to the author of this article for this awesome material
You’re not watching a horror movie: this is the face of an ant in extreme close-up