so, I've had the same problem back home and I thought the PC was slow, and that why the pics cannot load. XD
But now I've come home with my dual core mega monster that I had in my apartment, and the "monster" couldn't open pictures in Opera as well. XD
So I was pissed, and I couldn't find a solution online. (What the...). When I was snooping around I've accidental solved the problem. XD. (I made my IE default browser, so I wanted to change it back to Opera, so I've try to find a solution 4 that. and then it happend. lol.)
So how to make your Opera browser display Google pics.?1. Go to Settings-> Preferences-> Programs
2. there you'll see a check box saying " Check if Opera is a default browser on startup." Right of that U have a button
"Details..."
3. Click on that button. =)
4. You'll see a File types handled by Opera, and protocols handld by Opera.
5. I've just clicked " Select all". (don't forget to save it. ;P)
And there U go. Google whatever U want, the pictures will show up magically.
I hope someone will find this useful.