Would you dare to guess creature shown in this photo?

This ominous, ill-defined image may make you wonder a variety of things, such as: Is that a picture of a monster or a ghost? the Loch Ness monster, perhaps? Some people could even question whether this image is actual and wasn't altered.

However, before all your queries about this picture are addressed, you should know that this eerie picture is among the praise-worthy pictures of this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

According to the BBC, the photograph that looks to show a huge, ominous face suddenly emerging from the water is actually a stargazer fish that has buried itself in the Mediterranean's sandy bottom.

The image was captured by Italian underwater photographer Pietro Formis, who said that he does not typically enter photos in contests but did so because he "liked it a lot" and did not anticipate receiving any praise.

"I'm super happy and I'm counting the days for the ceremony. I think that I will see most of my, I will say colleagues, but they are my heroes and the top of photography so I can't describe how happy I am," Formis said.

On October 10, there will be an event where the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition's overall winners will be announced.

The annual Natural History Museum exhibition, which will feature 100 images chosen from among the thousands that submitted entries, will debut the following Friday, October 13. Thereafter, it will, as is customary, go on tour across the globe.

The photo, which will be presented in the 59th year of the contest, features an Atlantic Stargazer fish, whose Latin name is Uranoscopus scaber, who are so called because their eyes stick upwards.

They are also predators, and in order to catch their prey they hide under sand with only their eyes and mouth visible, as seen in Formis' photo.

"To me, it looks like a voodoo mask or a human face and those are species that I like most, the species that have a human-like face, with big eyes and big mouth. It's a beautiful animal," Formis said.

Formis claimed that he was able to get the stargazer almost completely lighted in the crystal-clear water by concentrating light from a flash, using a slow shutter speed, and moving deliberately.

Since his father, who is also a photographer, introduced him to diving and transformed his life, Formis has virtually developed an "obsession" with underwater photography.

"For me, it's like a waterfall and then from behind you see this scary face. I took a few different images, but this one I prefer," he said.

Since his father, who is also a photographer, introduced him to diving and transformed his life, Formis has virtually developed an "obsession" with underwater photography.

"Going in the water and taking pictures of all the beauty, it's something that I feel privileged to do," he said.