photo: © FUNGI Finalist Paula de Vreeze - Winter Fairy Tale | CUPOTY 5
Hungarian photographer Csaba Daróczi has won the title of Close-up Photographer of the Year 5 (2023) with his striking photo of a Eurasian nuthatch in flight, taken from a hollowed-out tree stump. But a large number of Dutch photographers also received prizes this year.
The photo above is from Paula de Vreeze, one of the finalists in the category Fungi & Slime Moulds with the photo of a mushroom glistening with frost in warm winter light. The photo Winter Fairy Tale was taken in the Boshoverheide in Weert in December.
Wim Vooijs came third in the category Butterflies & Dragonflies with the photo Sunrise Beauty, of a dragonfly drying its wings in the early morning light on June 30 in Kampina.
Wim: "It was a beautiful morning for me in a new area photographing the Kampina nature reserve in the Netherlands. A lot of dragonflies hung in the tall grass to dry their dew-covered wings in the early sunlight. I like to be surprised by the interaction between nature, light and equipment, so I selected my 200-600mm telephoto zoom to capture this beauty as the sun rose. By using manual focus, I was able to find exactly the image that suited my taste."
Vooijs also became a finalist with the photo Vintage Beauty in the category Butterflies & Dragonflies of a male banded damselfly drying its dew-covered wings on the leading edge of a spider web, taken June 28 in Renkum, Netherlands.
Moreover, Vooijs came 2nd in the category Plants with the photo Tears in my Eyes: a carnivorous sundew plant becomes a pair of tempting lashes when
photographed with a vintage lens (June 30, Kampina).
Category winner Plants is Ria Bloemendaal with Reflection, a photo of a magnolia tree reflected in the water of Trompenburg Botanical Garden on April 5 in Rotterdam.
Paula Vreeze also became a finalist in this category Plants with her photo Beauties Under the Trees: wood anemones, photographed on April 4 in Grasbroek, Sittard-Geleen.
René Krekels came first in the category Insects with the photo Wood Ants Firing Acid Secretion, of wood ants that defend their community by spraying acid.
Jeanette Knijff became a finalist in the category Intimate Landscape of Bokeh flower of a spider web covered with dew, taken on July 12 in the Abtwoudsebos, in Delft. Also her photo Lily Pads was awarded as a finalist in this category.
CUPOTY 5 attracted almost twelve thousand entries from 67 countries. A jury of 23 brilliant photographers, scientists, naturalists, journalists and photo editors collectively spent more than twenty hours on Zoom calls to find the winners and Top 100 photos.
There were eleven categories: Animals, Insects, Butterflies & Dragonflies, Invertebrate Portrait, Underwater, Plants, Fungi & Slime Molds, Intimate Landscape, Human Made, Micro (under microscope) and Young Close-up Photographer of the Year (for participants aged 17 or younger).
The top 100 photos also included prizes for the Dutch photographers Rob Blanken and Jitte Groothuis.
By presenting close-up, macro and micro photography, CUPOTY aims to show the details that most people overlook.
Wim Vooijs - Tears in my Eyes: "I discovered a field covered in sundew, a small carnivorous plant. There were many silver-flecked blue butterflies flying around and every now and then one would get entangled in the sundew. Rather than photographing one of those poor victims, I took a different approach. I wanted to capture the innocent and seductive beauty of the plant, as a butterfly might see it in its final moments. To do this, I used a vintage Pentacon lens to capture the sundew as a pair of eyelashes on seductive eyes – the beauty of a last sight.”
The winning photos can be viewed in the winners gallery cupoty.com.
