(Really) Stunning Pictures and Photos

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Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing, he’s most probably running front-end & UX … More about Vitaly ↬

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Photography is a very powerful medium and a very difficult craft. Excellent photos don’t only display some facts — they tell stories, awake feelings and manage to share with the audience the emotions a photographer experienced when clicking the shot button. Taking excellent pictures is damn hard as you need to find a perfect perspective and consider the perfect timing. To achieve brilliant photography you need practice and patience. However, it is worth it: the results can be truly stunning.

Photography is a very powerful medium and a very difficult craft. Excellent photos don’t only display some facts — they tell stories, awake feelings and manage to share with the audience the emotions a photographer experienced when clicking the shot button. Taking great pictures is damn hard as you need to find a perfect perspective and consider the perfect timing. To achieve brilliant photography you need practice and patience. However, it is worth it: the results can be truly stunning.

Below you’ll find 50 brilliant photos and great pictures — some pictures tell stories, some are incredibly beautiful, some are funny and some are very sad.

All pictures are copyright of their respective owners. Please explore the further work of the photographers by browsing through their work. We’ve tried to cover different themes so that everybody will find something interesting and spectacular for himself / herself. All screenshots are linked und lead to the pages from which they’ve been taken.

Further Reading on SmashingMag:

Great Pictures and Photos

Water and a Girl Beautiful composition, excellent scenery, amazing play of colors.

Great Pictures

The Ball is Coming! Analogue shot with Seagull 6x6 (Chinese clone of Rolleiflex), made in 1983. “The gulfball is suspended on a fishing line in front of the camera. It was a stormy day. So I had to shoot 5 or 6 films for getting one image with the ball in the center position AND a light reflection on the golf club.”

Mind-Blowing Photos - Hey Tina! When you see this: Call me! I'm not angry with you any longer ....

Sky The sky is reflected in a drop of water. Beautiful scenery.

Great Pictures

Returning to the same ocean Beautiful sand textures, beautiful composition and somehow a very sad story hidden behind the image.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Returning to the same ocean.

Tree A colorful tree from a different perspective.

Mind-Blowing Photos - FFFFOUND!

Gizmo How adorable is that?

Mind-Blowing Photos - Gizmo

Glittery Ball “The reflection in this water droplet, it looks like the glitter is stuck to the water, but NO, it is reflections from the glitter on the feather.”

Mind-Blowing Photos - Glittery Ball

Leap of Faith What does being one step away from falling into the abyss feel like? The photo is taken by Paul Perton.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Leap of Faith

Astronaut Self-shot Over Earth Could this be the best self-shot ever? It’s truly out of this world.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Astronaut Self-shot Over Earth

Autumn in red Pure beauty. No words are necessary.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Autumn in red

FlickrMeeting - Genova - G3 Blue baloon, a small detail, gives the picture an incredible power.

Mind-Blowing Photos - FlickrMeeting - Genova - G3 - [Ghe semmu + DieciCento + Milanoue!!W ]

Sea in the sea Incredible scenery. Apparently, the shot was made on the boat in the middle of the sea.

Mind-Blowing Photos - FFFFOUND!

If I was an old building… “If I was an old building I would want to be by the ocean. Till’ the end of times”. Photographed at the old fishing piers of the Texas Bolivar Peninsula.

Mind-Blowing Photos - If I was an old building..... by `foureyes on deviantART

Bee the Cat “It’s hard to get the right exposure, with them being white, and with the fact they don’t stay still unless they’re sleeping.”

Mind-Blowing Photos - bee

Glow Smoke from a leaf pile.

Mind-Blowing Photos - g l o w by Haneck - DPChallenge

Swimming pool Taking a look at the swimming pool. From a quite different perspective.

Mind-Blowing Photos - FFFFOUND!

Reflect A reflection from the louvre’s pyramid.

Mind-Blowing Photos - reflect

Seagull on a sign This seagull seems to have its own personal understanding of human’s rules.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Seagull on a sign

Marshmellow girl A beautiful composition.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Refashioned Dahlia Photo taken at Duncan Garden in Spokane, WA.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Refashioned Dahlia

Bird and Meat

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Water drop A photo taken at the exact right time. Available as a desktop wallpaper in various resolutions.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Another 17 Fantastic Free Wallpaper Images | Crestock.com Blog

Mt. Fuji

Mind-Blowing Photos - Mt. Fuji

Two ways at looking at a fish

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Blessed fog A shot of Grande Madre di Dio in Torino, Italy.

Mind-Blowing Photos - blessed fog

Family of bugs

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Pigeon Point Lighthouse “Once per year at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse they shut down the weak insipid modern (presumably electric) light and switch over the the 5 kerosene lamps and fresnel lens of the original, as it was 135 years ago.”

Mind-Blowing Photos - Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Fire Shot Location: Changa Beach, Coquimbo.

Mind-Blowing Photos - FIRE SHOT

A conversation Fox, bird and snow. This picture is titled “Good afternoon, my name is chikiricuatro”.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Shanghai - Acrobatic Picture taken during an acrobatic show in a Shanghainese theatre.

Mind-Blowing Photos - CHINA - Shanghai - Acrobatic

Northern lights as seen from space

Mind-Blowing Photos - Digg - Northern lights as seen from space (Pic)

Crystal clarity

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Skier’s Paradise “Climbing partner at 17,000’ on Denali carrying his skis down to around 16,200’ where he will be able to ski down the rest of the way to base camp at 7200’.”

Mind-Blowing Photos - Skier's Paradise

Bird and Water

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Photograph Taken at the Exact Right Time

Mind-Blowing Photos - Sawse - Stir it Up! » Blog Archive » 25 Photographs Taken at the Exact Right Time

All alone. This shot is taken on a Norway’s cliff Prekestolen (also known as Preacher’s Pulpit).

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Looking out of the window

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Above the clouds The shot taken during the flight from Vienna to Frankfurt, approaching Frankfurt.

Mind-Blowing Photos - above the clouds

The Waves

Mind-Blowing Photos - teahupoo_1.jpg (JPEG-Grafik, 1280x821 Pixel)

The Waves. One more time.

Mind-Blowing Photos - FFFFOUND!

Cockfight Taken by Jan Sochor.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Cockfight – Photo Essay – Jan Sochor

Polar lights Öxarárfoss in Iceland - Aurora Borealis taken by Arnar Valdimarsson.

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Concentration

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Cat and deer

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo

Here floats a bubble in the air…

Mind-Blowing Photos - he floats a bubble in the air...

A girl portrait

Mind-Blowing Photos - Photo