Check out some of the past year's best close-up photography
By: Andrew Paul (Popular Science)
Just some photos. That's all.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
There's always a reason to stop and appreciate the smaller stuff in life. Since 2018, Tracy and Dan Calder have drawn attention to documenting daily minutiae with the Close-up Photographer of the Year competition, highlighting the past 12 months' best images capturing nature, animal, underwater, and human subjects.
The 5th annual edition is no exception, with amazing glimpses of everything from slumbering frogs, to magnetic waves, to microscopic life, to rarely seen deep sea creatures. Across a wide range of categories, photographers around the world managed to snap some extremely striking images, making even some of the creepiest of crawlies look pretty cute for a change. Check out a few of our favorite finalists and winners of 2023 below, and remember to keep an eye out for the little things this year. They're always there and worth seeing, even if you don't have a camera in hand.
Invertebrate Portrait Finalist: “Look Into My Eyes,” portrait of a damselfly covered in dew taken in May in Shropshire, UK © Pete Burford | cupoty.com
Human Made Finalist: “Magnetic Waves,” Light through the glass of a front door creates an ‘electric’ effect taken on
June 23rd in Stourbridge, UK. © Chris Mills | cupoty.com
Fungi 1st Place Winner: “The Ice Crown,” ‘This 1mm tall slime mould (Didymium squamulosum) was found in leaf litter on a Buckinghamshire woodland floor in January. Attracted by the way the frost had formed a crown shape on top of the fruiting body, I had to be very careful not to breathe on it. During a previous attempt with another slime mould, my breath had melted the ice when I inadvertently got too close.’ © Barry Webb | cupoty.com
Animals Finalist: “Picking Flowers,” ‘An Elephant enjoys a nutritional meal of water lily flowers as it makes its way across the Chobe River, Botswana. As flood water reaches the Chobe river (all the way from its starting point in Angola) the waterways are transformed with a wave of flowers.’ © William Steel | cupoty.com
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The photos in the linked article are better quality. Popular Science won't bite.
What beautiful shots, I love to take pictures in nature - but my shots are more memories than master pieces such as these.
Thanks for sharing them - we are up to our knees (and more) in snow today and these pictures made me smile.