Winners and finalists of the Close-Up Photographer of the Year 2022 Awards have recently been announced. The committee narrowed down more than nine thousand submissions from 54 nations to the top shots in eleven categories: animals, insects, butterflies, dragonflies, invertebrate portraits, micro, young, fungi, plants, intimate landscapes, underwater, and manmade.
The Close-Up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) award is given annually to a photographer who has demonstrated exceptional skill in the art of close-up, macro, or micro photography. Below, you’ll find some of the world’s best-kept secrets in the natural world. When you’re done, check out the ’20s and ’21s winning photos.
Dan Calder, the co-founder of Close-up Photographer of the Year, said that he and his wife Tracy, both photographers and journalists, started the competition in 2018. We decided to create an annual competition to honor macro, close-up, and micro photography because we believed it was being underappreciated.
Photographer of the Year in Detail has revealed both its winners and finalists. The top prize went to Samantha Stephens, whose photograph of salamanders ensnared in a carnivorous pitcher plant also won first place in the Animals category. The incredible photo was taken by a Canadian using a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and a Laowa 15mm f/4 wide-angle macro lens.
For more information visit their official website cupoty.com
#1 Overall Winner & Animals Category winner – “Nature’s Pitfall” by Samantha Stephens
The top three photographs in the Underwater category were all taken by DPG Photographers of the Week, proving once again that this genre is not to be overlooked. Italian photographer Pietro Cremone came in second place with a stunning image of a blackwater mimic octopus larva. For her stunning photo of a blue spotted klipfish poised between mussel shells, South African photographer Kate Jonker placed second.
Viktor Lyagushkin, a Georgian photographer, won the category for his stunning photographs captured beneath the White Sea’s ice in Russia. His topic is a species of microscopic jellyfish called a stalked jellyfish, which utilizes a “leg” to adhere to seaweed and collect food with its tentacles.
#2 Animals Category 2nd Place – “The Footprint Friend” by Juan J. González Ahumada
#3 Animals Category 3rd Place – “A Tale in the Sand” by Paul Lennart Schmid
#4 Insects Category Winner – “Intruder” by Anirban Dutta
#5 Insects Category 2nd Place – “Violet Ghost” by Bernard van Elegem
#6 Insects Category 3rd Place – “Little Naughty Draw Circle” by Minghui Yuan
#7 Plants Category Winner – “Next To My Tree” by Sébastien Blomme
#8 Plants Category 2nd Place – “Thawing Beauty” by Jay Birmingham
#9 Plants Category 3rd Place – “Sun Worshippers” by Henrik Spranz
#10 Fungi Category Winner – “Ice Encrusted Comatricha” by Barry Webb
#11 Fungi Category 2nd Place – “Scarlet Waxcap in Early Morning Dew” by Jeremy Lintott
#12 Fungi Category 3rd Place – “Slime Mould Didymium Squamulosum on Holly Leaf” by Andy Sands
#13 Underwater Category Winner – “Little Predator” by Viktor Lyagushkin
#14 Underwater Category 2nd Place – “Beauty and the Beast” by Kate Jonker
#15 Underwater Category 3rd Place – “The Martian” by Pietro Cremone
#16 Butterflies & Dragonflies Category Winner – “Atlas Moth” by Veiled
#17 Butterflies & Dragonflies Category 2nd Place – “The Martian” by Uday Hegde
#18 Butterflies & Dragonflies Category 3rd Place – “Common Winter Damselfly” by Kai Rösler
#19 Invertebrate Portrait Category Winner – “Mayan Derriere” by Jamie Hall
#20 Invertebrate Portrait Category 2nd Place – “Gordian Worm Knot” by Ben Revell
#21 Invertebrate Portrait Category 3rd Place – “Shining Snail” by Alex Pansier
#22 Intimate Landscape Category Winner – “Frequency” by Mike Curry
#23 Intimate Landscape Category 2nd Place – “Artwork of Nature II” by Klaus Axelsen
#24 Intimate Landscape Category 3rd Place – “Sea in Fan” by Angelo Richardson
#25 Manmade Category Winner – “Oil & Water 44” by Matt Vacca
#26 Manmade Category 2nd Place – “Fishing Nets” by Nigel Halliwell
#27 Manmade Category 3rd Place – “Colour Study 35” by Paul Gravett
#28 Micro Category Winner – “Batrachospermum Red Algae” by Marek Miś
#29 Micro Category 3rd Place – “Pollen Tubes Growing Through the Pistil of Arabidopsis Thaliana” by Jan Martinek
#30 Micro Category 3rd Place – “Schistidium Capsule” by Harald Cederlund
#31 Young Category Winner – “Hemitrichia Calyculata” by Nathan Benstead
#32 Young Category 2nd Place – “Demoiselle Wing” by Nathan Benstead
#33 Young Category 3rd Place – “Doner Kebab and Pizza” by Anton Trexler
