Close-Up Photographer Of The Year 2021 Has Been Announced, And Here Are The 30 Best Photos Of The Contest

Decay

Waves Crashing

""At the start of lockdown last year (2020) I embarked on a home-based project to create abstract seascapes using colourful glass bottles, a macro lens and natural daylight. This was all done from my dining room table, with the sunlight enhancing the colours and casting incredible reflections within the bottles. When I looked through the viewfinder I suddenly saw waves crashing on a beach, storm clouds out to sea or dramatic sunsets. No two images will ever be the same, the light changes, the position of the bottle moves, the reflections shift just like a real seascape constantly alters.

 

This image was created from a close-up section of a turquoise blue gin bottle to create the stormy sky and sea. The light reflecting off the bottle appears as waves crashing on a beach and a small foil reflector was used to enhance the yellow sand."

Ants and Hornet

"Liometopum ants live in large colonies on huge trees and feed on many different types of food. In the picture you can see how the group of ants work together in hunting the hornet. I used a single diffused flash to light the scene and slightly cropped the image to take the viewer into the heart of the action. This interesting behavior was discovered during a night walk in the extensive park of Lednice Castle, Czech Republic."

Spiral Beauty

"This green algae Spirogyra has one of the most fascinating chloroplast shapes of all algae – a helical shape, or spiral. Spirogyras thrive in almost any freshwater environment and are a common species that is easy to find in shallow ponds, ditches and lakes.

For this photograph I stained some of the Spirogyra strands with a number of fluorescent dyes to highlight the spirally shaped chloroplasts. They were then mixed with natural strands and placed next to each other on a glass slide and photographed in fluorescent light."

Outer Layer of a Medica Facel Mask

Juncture Y

"This was shot on Lake Baikal in Siberia in February 2019 as part of my most recent collection Beacons. I have had a fascination with ice for many years now and this led me to explore Lake Baikal. I am inspired by form and composition in nature – beautiful lines, textures or shapes that become a work of art when you look closely or compose in a particular way. I love the intersecting lines in this small feathery crack in the ice. I processed this in a way to help the detail of this exquisite crack to stand out from the depths below."

Colours Through Spider’s Eye

"I shot this photo in my home garden during the Covid-19 lockdown that was imposed in Sri Lanka. Since there was nothing much to do or anywhere to go, I started to garden in my backyard and focused on my macro photography.

When I was planting one day, I saw a spider web in a winged bean plant. I ran into my house to grab my camera and tried to capture a photo. But it was not easy since the spider kept moving and it was hard to focus with the extension tube attached.

I like the colour combination of green, yellow and gold in this picture. The golden colour is from the sunlight coming through a tiny hole in the plant leaf. I angled it slightly to bounce the light off the spider’s web."

Dill Seed Heads

"This is a wet cyanotype, which uses the sun to expose chemicals on paper. Dill seed heads grown in my garden were placed on top of the treated paper, followed by bubbles of soap suds, some red wine vinegar and salt. This was then covered with glass and placed outside to expose. Once I was happy with the exposure I washed the paper off and immediately photographed it while the paper was still wet and the colours were strong.

I love the way every single wet cyanotype comes out uniquely as everything reacts differently depending on the weather, the chemicals from the plants, how translucent they are and whatever else is added."

Combs in Colour Silhouette

"I strive to invent new ways to photograph my subjects. For example, an ordinary comb is an object most of us take for granted. I wanted to photograph it in a way that would highlight the great lines of this everyday object.

I placed three combs on a light-pad with the camera in multiple exposure mode and photographed them in silhouette. Next, I moved the camera to another position and photographed the combs with colour gels underneath. I repeated this eight times. Each exposure overlaps in different areas creating unique design patterns within the body of the silhouette. I used an in-camera multiple exposure of 10 frames.

I have been developing new techniques with in-camera multiple exposure for close-up/macro photography for the last two years."

Odd Air Bubbles Formed Between Slide and Cover Slip

"These odd air bubbles were created in a drying and crystallising callus remover that has been smeared on a slide and covered with a cover slip. Callus remover is one of my favourite agents for taking micrographs. It can create unusual crystalline forms. This time I found on the slide these interesting air bubbles before the callus remover started to crystallise. The shapes and arrangement of the bubbles reminded me of underwater forms.

I decided to create a small panorama as one frame wouldn’t do it justice. Three separate frames partially overlapping are stitched together in PhotoShop Elements 10."