14 very very small Close Up Photographer of the Year winners that deserve a huge applause

Includes teeny ants firing a lot of acid, a jumping stick, and an eel heart.

Wood ants defend their community by spraying acid. Photo by René Krekels/CUPOTY

James Cutmore

Published: January 10, 2024 at 4:07 pm

The winners of the latest Close Up Photographer of the Year competition have been announced. This year's winner was an amazingly-timed image of a Eurasian nuthatch flying overhead through a forest – an image taken by Hungarian photographer Csaba Daróczi while hidden inside a hollowed-out tree stump.

"The photographer clearly had an image in his mind's eye and went that extra mile to make sure anyone looking at the picture would share the wonder he felt when he encountered the scene" Tracy Calder, co-founder of of the competition, told BBC Science Focus. "Placing the camera inside the tree trunk really makes us feel as though we are immersed in nature".

This is the fifth year of the competition, and it attracted 12,000 entries from all around the world. Categories include Fungi & Slime Moulds, Micro (for images created using a microscope) and Young Close-up Photographer of the Year (for entrants aged 17 or under).

Here are all of the winners and some of our other favourites from this year's competition.

Winner – Underwater category – Dreamtime

White shrimp swimming over colourful seastar — A commensal shrimp (Periclimenes) floats above a Mosaic seastar in this colourful portrait taken at Bass Point Reserve, Shellharbour, Australia. Photo by Simon Theuma/CUPOTY

Winner – Fungi category – The ice crown

Tall slime mould with transparent jelly on top — A tiny slime mould (Didymium squamulosum), that sits at only 1mm in height, proudly wears a crown of ice in this delicate image taken on a cold winter's day in Hodgemoor Wood, Buckinghamshire, UK. Photo by Barry Webb/CUPOTY

Winner – Butterfly category – The wedding guest

Red butterfly with dancers holding hands in background — An oak peacock moth (Antheraea yamamai) attracted by the light, rests on a window as a wedding party takes place inside. Photographed at Uzsa, Hungary. Photo by Csaba Daroczi/CUPOTY

Micro category finalist – Butterfly Eggs

Green butterfly eggs shimmer — A pair of blue admiral (Kaniska canace) butterfly eggs photographed at Jiangyin, China. Photo by Ye Fei Zhang/CUPOTY

Winner – Young photographer category – Small Wanders

A tail section of lizard just visible on a wall with tree shapes — A moorish gecko (Tarentola mauritanica) climbs on a wall covered with mineral deposits that look like trees. Photographed at Calamocha, Teruel, Spain. Photo by Carlos Perez Naval/CUPOTY

Animals category finalist – Kiss of death

Hero rests its beak on top of small fish — A heron stalking a fish in shallow waters. Photo by Arne Bivrin/CUPOTY

Winner – Intimate landscape category – Undertow

Green fir leaves in rippling water — Water violet (Hottonia palustris) submerged beneath moving water in Izsák, Hungary. Photo by Csaba Daróczi/CUPOTY

Winner – Insects category – Wood Ants Firing Acid Secretion

Ants on wood spray substance into the air — Wood ants defend their community by spraying acid into the air. Photographed in the Netherlands. Photo by René Krekels/CUPOTY

Winner – Human-made category – Asymmetrical Threads

threads of blue and yellow weave together to make a tunnel — In-camera multiple exposure of coloured threads, photographed in a home studio, Wisconsin, USA. Photo by Elizabeth Kazda/CUPOTY

Winner – Invertebrate portrait category – Jumping Stick

Stick insect head close-up on black background — Part grasshopper, part stick insect, this jumping stick (Stiphra) looks quite comical in this detailed portrait. Photographed at Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. Photo by Tibor Molnar/CUPOTY

Winner – Plants category – Reflexion

misty image of pink flowers in water — A magnolia tree reflected in the water of Trompenburg Botanical Garden, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Photo by Ria Bloemendaal/CUPOTY

Winner – Micro category – Beach Grass

spikey orange and green cells close together — A cross-section microscope image of beach grass (Ammophila arenaria). Photo by Gerhard Vlcek/CUPOTY

Underwater category runner-up – Heart of the Sea

An eel underwater curves into shape of a heart — A juvenile Moray eel (Muraenidae) curls its body into a heart shape in the waters of Romblon, Philippines. Unlike the adults that live in reef crevices, juvenile moray eels drift in the open ocean. Their transparent bodies provide camouflage against predators in the vast blue. Photo by Liang Fu/CUPOTY

Overall Winner – The bird of the forest

Bird flying overhead surrounded by trees and branches — A Eurasian nuthatch (Sitta europaea) flies among the trees in Kiskőrös, Hungary. Photo by Csaba Daroczi/CUPOTY

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Picture Editor, BBC Science Focus

James Cutmore is the picture editor of BBC Science Focus Magazine. He has worked on the magazine and website for over a decade, telling compelling science stories through the use of striking imagery. He holds a degree in Fine Art, and has been nominated for the British Society of Magazine Editors Talent Awards, being highly commended in 2020. His main areas of interest include photography that highlights positive technology and the natural world. For many years he was a judge for the Wellcome Trust's image competition, as well as judging for the Royal Photographic Society.