The Horrifying Photo of…. an Ant
There’s a viral photo of a creature that is straight out of a horror movie. A terrifying mouth and exaggerated dark eyes… you’d never want to run into this creature in real life, except that you do run into them. Maybe even on a daily basis. It’s a magnified, horrifying, nightmare inducing photo of…. an ant.
Check it out. A photo of an ant has gone viral. It’s one of the winners in a Nikon photo competition. Not even THE winner. The top prize in the Nikon photo contest was a magnified photo of a gecko’s hand. A really beautiful photo too. Who knew? A gecko’s hand? But that’s not the photo that is being ‘passed around’ the internet. In fact, the viral photo wasn’t even a runner up in the contest. It won image of distinction – and distinct it is. Pretty perfect for this time of year too. Just in time for horror season, the horrifying up close image of an ant’s face. A photo of an ant. Its face. Aside from Ant Man and Honey I Shrunk the Kids, I never thought about what an ant might look like up close…like, really close. It’s not like the cute little “ants go marching” bugs you imagine.
The contest photo shows the real face of an ant, magnified multiple times so that you can see it up close. It’s pretty scary. Easily buy-able as the killer creature in a scary movie. The photo was submitted to the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. It’s meant to highlight tiny details in the world – capturing what we’re not able to see with the human eye. Enter the Nikon camera. Such a cool idea for a contest. Highlight the Nikon camera as a product, while highlighting the tiny incredible details that are there, if we were only able to look close enough.
The ant photo was submitted by Lithuanian wildlife photographer Eugenijus Kavaliauskas, and again…. he didn’t win. His Images of Distinction prize was given to 57 photos. They’re all pretty neat too. The prize Eugenijus Kavaliauskas took home for his photo was not much to speak of, but the photo’s new viral status is a prize in itself.
Have an idea for next year’s contest? Want to highlight something very tiny? You can enter too. The ant and gecko photos were a part of the 48th annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. There were 1,300 entries this year, and they are already accepting submissions for next year’s 49th annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. Interested in competing? You have to submit your photos before April 30th, 2023.
