Greg Evans
May 01, 2023
Kenichi Ohno/AJAPS
In the current digital age, you rarely see things that stop you in your tracks and stun you with just how incredible they are.
After all with Photoshop and now AI it's hard to tell just how much a photograph or a video has been manipulated but a recent picture from a photographer in Japan has restored our faith in the beauty and the miracles of the world.
Kenichi Ohno from the Saitama Prefecture in the Kantō region of Honshu, which is part of the greater-Tokyo area, snapped a photo of an egret bird wading in the shallow waters of a river bank and entered it into the 39th Japanese Nature Photo contest hosted by the All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies.
While it sounds fairly ordinary it was actually the composition of the image which truly wowed people. At first glance, the bird appears to have been imposed on two different backgrounds: a blue and an orange one with a very defined line down the middle. Appropriately the photo is named 'Gap.'
Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
However, there has been no tampering or editing of this photo as it is merely a trick of natural lighting and a conveniently placed wall that is causing the confusion. To explain, the reflection of the light on the wall is causing the orange glow on the reflection of the water but the reflection is only on that side of the water, causing the juxtaposition with the blue of the water.
Does that make sense? Regardless it hasn't stopped the incredible image from going viral on social media with people stunned at how Ohno managed to achieve such beauty.
\u201cWhile it may look at first glance like a composite image, this mind-bending picture by Kenichi Ohno and titled "Gap", is a real single-exposure photo and not the result of Photoshop manipulation\n\n[read more: https://t.co/9iARJEsDYh]\u201d— Massimo (@Massimo) 1681842871
\u201cFoto real, n\u00e3o \u00e9 manipulada digitalmente. Depois que voc\u00ea percebe o que t\u00e1 acontecendo fica simples. Fotografia \u201cGap\u201d de Kenichi Ohno.\u201d— silveira(); (@silveira();) 1681833857
The jury at the AJAPS singled it out as one of the best of the 5,600 images entered into the contest, complimenting it as "a strange photo with a strong impact."
They added: "It is interesting that we cannot immediately understand how it was taken. It is one that was taken because of the windless conditions. It shows us that the slightest difference can make a big difference in a photograph. It is difficult to photograph nature when man-made objects enter the picture, but in this case, they play a good supporting role and enhance the picture."
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)