The winning pictures from the Close-up Photographer of the Year 2023 competition include captivating pictures of ants spewing acid, a shrimp floating above a mosaic sea star with colors ranging from rainbow to purple, and a butterfly peeking in during a wedding celebration.
In its fifth year, the competition honors macro and micro photography with the goal of revealing the hidden treasures of the natural world, ranging from magnificent creatures to minute fungi. Macro refers to taking close-up pictures of larger topics, whereas micro is used to take pictures of microscopic subjects that need to be magnified.
The competition’s co-founder and jury member, Tracy Calder, told CNN that the images show odd relationships between plants and animals, illustrating how everything in the natural world is interdependent and interrelated. It honors creatures and their ways.
