Every year the photography competition “Close-up Photographer of the Year” celebrates close-up, macro and microphotography, rewarding the best nature images in the world, divided into 11 categories.
The competition, which this year revolves around the theme “Something Beautiful“, received 11,681 shots from over 60 countries and the jury revealed, just in recent days, there shortlist from which the winners will be drawn in January 2025.
It goes without saying that the selected photos are each more spectacular than the other, starting from “Can I help you?” by Jamie Smart, in the “Young” category: the protagonist is a cute little mouse that emerges from the ears of corn.
“Baby Manatee” by Remuna Beca is one of the shots selected in the “Underwater” category: it portrays a baby manatee in the freshwater springs of central Florida, where these animals usually take refuge during the winter to escape the colder waters.
In the “Animals” category we find “A Male Satin Bowerbird with a Cricket” by Keith Horton, which portrays a bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchidae). It is a large passerine famous for its peculiar artistic talent: to attract females it decorates its nest with mainly blue and sometimes yellow objects.
In the “Animals” category we also find “Emerlad Gem” by Louis Guillot, a wonderful portrait of an emerald boa in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest.
Pedro Jarque offers us the portrait of a baby wallaby, who tries to find a comfortable position in his mother’s pouch. Not a simple undertaking at all for him who is already a grown-up!
Moving on to “Insects”, the wonderful photograph by Benjamin Salb “Damselfly Blue on Blue”, which portrays a blue damsel on a background of the same shade, certainly does not go unnoticed.
What can we say about the mysterious universe of mushrooms? There are several photographs in the competition that portray them, among these “Mycene Safran” by Thomas Vanderheyden stands out in the “Mushroom & Slime Molds” category. A dreamlike portrait in the middle of the French forests.
“Clash of the Titans,” in the “Insects” category, portrays the battle between two male beetles over a female. They were photographed by Svetlana Ivanenko in the oak forests of the Voronezh region, Russia.
While “Demoiselles at Dawn” by Jay Birmingham, in the “Butterflies & Dragonflies” category, portrays two dragonflies lying on a blade of grass at the dawn of a new day.
Finally this incredible landscape photograph by Andrew Mielzynski was taken in Toronto, Canada during a ferocious winter storm in the midst of the pandemic. The photographer said he was surprised by the view, even shocked, because it looked like something out of a movie.
If you want to see all the photographs in the shortlist and vote for your favourite, we suggest you take a look at the official competition website.
SOURCE: Close-up Photographer of the Year
