50+ Unreal Realities You Must Explore: Photo Contest Finalists

Thank you to all the photographers that shared their best photos showing surreal sceneries in this photo contest with chances to win a Sony Alpha a6000 Interchangeable Lens Camera and more. A special thanks to friend and professional photographer Michiel De Lange for his collaboration as a guest judge in this photo contest. Michiel de Lange was born in the late '60's in South Africa, but have been living and working as an architect in a number of countries for the past ten years. His photography work, which he’s been practicing since the late ‘80’s, mainly focuses on capturing people, and their daily lives within different cultural, religious and social environments.

"Most of the finalists selected are of excellent quality, and the intriguing nature of these images, made it hard to select an ultimate winner." - Michiel De Lange

Congratulations Grand Jury Winner "Websters Happy Meal" by Masabus

"What makes this striking image different from many others here is that it is a "real" photograph (as opposed to many fantasy "creations"). What Masabus managed to achieve is to evoke in the viewer a feeling of sympathy for the fly. By placing the focus on its eyes, and leaving the spider as an ominous blur in the background, the viewer cannot help but feel the desperation and angst of the fly in the situation it is finding itself in. The overall tones of the image enhances the sense of gloom and imminent death of the subject, while we're all looking straight into its eyes. The main reason for selecting this image as the winner of THIS theme is how the subject-matter strongly reminds of a quote: "Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider, is chaos for the fly" - Morticia Addams. This clever reference (perhaps unintentional?) makes this image a worthy winner of this completion. " - Michiel De Lange

Congratulations Runner Up "Alice caught her rabbit" by aprilmilani

"Beautifully executed on ALL levels! While "Rabbit tale" (amateur winner) relies on the viewer to make up their own story by giving recognizable hints, "Alice caught her rabbit" makes a more direct reference to a fairy tale that (probably) everybody can relate too. The reserved, muted tones and blurred "Alice" in the background adds just enough to the image as a whole without distracting from the rabbit in the bottle. Wishing there could be two winners!" - Michiel De Lange

Congratulations Amateur Winner "Rabbit tale" by eperjes

"This atmospheric image possesses all the right qualities to evoke stories in the mind of each viewer, perhaps taking us back by leaning on other fairy tales from our youth to make up our own stories about the mystery couple in the picture.The processing is spot-on with the dramatic textures of the overhanging branches and fog, while the lighter tones of only the faces of both subjects immediately draw the main focus of the image towards the right place. From a composition standpoint, I would've expected that the main subjects should rather be placed off-center, but I'd be wrong in this instance. It just works best exactly where it was placed byeperjes." - Michiel De Lange

Congratulations People's Choice "Surreal" by Dan2452

"This is a very clever image and technically skillfully executed. The subtle blue tones and beautiful streaked lighting strongly resembles an underwater scene while the serene, balanced nature of the image evokes a strong sense of "reality" in the viewer. This makes for an image that is highly "believable" in how it blurs the line between reality and fantasy. A fantastic representation of this competition's theme." - Michiel De Lange

"fantasy Castle" by peterupmanis