Just a little closer..! Incredible images showing butterflies, spiders and insects as you have never seen them before feature in the Close-Up Photography Awards
- More than 6,500 photographers from 52 countries entered this competition of macro photography
- The award for Close-up Photographer of the Year went to Galice Hoarau for his shot of a miniscule eel larvae
- Other stunning images included closeups of butterflies, tulips, lava, spiders and even soap bubbles
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The stunning images will allow you to have a closer look at insects, butterflies, spiders and even soap bubbles.
They all made the top 100 images of the Close Up Photography Awards, where photographers from 52 different countries took part.
The award for Close-up Photographer of the Year went to French photographer Galice Hoarau for his stunning shot of a miniscule eel larvae.
The winner who was also awarded the £2,500 prize, is a professor in marine molecular ecology, and spotted the eel off the island of Lembeh, in Indonesia, during a blackwater dive.
He said: ‘Peering through the darkness with your torch can be stressful the first time you do it, but it gets fascinating quickly.
‘Divers are surrounded by darkness, with only a lit downline as a visual reference.
‘What makes blackwater diving so magical is the abundance of rarely seen planktonic creatures you spot as they take part in one of the largest daily migrations of any animal on Earth.
Mike Curry was the winner in the insects category, with his shot of a butterfly surrounded by peeling paint while snapper Elizabeth Kazda won the plants and fungi category creating a beautiful image with tulips from her garden.
The top photo in the intimate landscape category was taken by Mark James Ford and showed flowing lava from a baking lava field in Hawaii, USA.
Finally Kym Cox was the winner for a second time in the manmade world category, with her study of the life cycle of a soap bubble.
The award for Close-up Photographer of the Year went to Galice Hoarau for his shot of a miniscule eel larvae
Mike Curry’s shot of a butterfly won the first place in the insects category and a tulip mandala by Elizabeth Kazda won the first place in the plants and fungi category
The winner of the intimate landscape category was taken by Mark James Ford in the Kalapana lava field in Hawaii while the winner Galice Hoarau had another entry with an image of a Diamond squid he photographed in Siladen, Indonesia
Kym Cox won the ‘Manmade world’ category for the second time with the ‘Life Cycle of Soap Bubble Iridescence’
The closeup shot of two water scorpions by Juan Jesús González Ahumada got the second place in the insects category
Photographer Andrei Savitsky won the Micro category with an image of a glass worm
‘ Butterflies in the Light’ by Emelin Dupieux won the third place in the ‘Young Close-up Photographer of the Year’ category
A closeup of a frozen air bubble inside an icicle by Anna Ulmestrand got the second place in the Intimate Landscape category
Csaba Daroczi won the second place in the animals category with his image of a spider in the swamp
Tamás Koncz won the Young Close-up Photographer of the Year with an image of globular springtails
Heather Angel got the third place in the Micro category with an image of green hydras
Mathieu Foulquié won the third place in the animals category with a closeup of a common toad (Bufo bufo)
The closeup of a gecko by Juan Jesús González Ahumada was a finalist in the animals category
Photographer Edwin Giesbers got the third place in the intimate landscape category with an image of beautiful ice crystals
Giacomo Redaelli won the second place in Young Close Up Photographer of the Year with his image of a great crested tit
Barry Webb got second place in the plants and fungi category with an image showing a line of 2.5mm high, fruiting bodies of slime mould growing on a decaying beech trunk
Melanie Collie got the second place in the manmade world category with a landscape made by a piece of metal
Photographer Chien Lee won the third place in the Insects category with a closeup of a Lamprigera beetle
Marek Miś won the second place in the Micro category with an image of crystals from a callus remover