photo: © Svetlana Ivanenkoi - Clash of the Titans | cupoty.com
Russian photographer Svetlana Ivanenko won Close-up Photographer of the Year 2024 with her dramatic photograph of two male stag beetles fighting in an oak forest.
Svetlana said of her award-winning photograph:
“In summer, stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) fight fiercely for a short period for the right to mate. These elusive creatures live in oak forests, making them difficult to find. I traveled seven hundred kilometers to witness this wonderful event, and I want to share it with everyone.”
Svetlana received a cash prize of £2,500 (approximately US$3,000), a universal license for Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher, plus the Close-up Photographer of the Year trophy. Her work was also presented to a worldwide audience in the Top 100 online gallery on CUPOTY’s website and in that year’s competition eBook.
The 14-year-old Spanish photographer Andrés Luis Dominguez Blanco was the Young Winner in the competition’s 6th year with his vivid photograph of a bee-eater in full flight with an insect in its beak.
“I took this photograph in late spring in southern Spain. I had previously observed bee-eaters with binoculars, so I knew exactly where they would fly after hunting insects. This allowed me to position a hide strategically and shoot from a low angle, blurring the flowers in the foreground and background. I spent many weekend mornings in this hide and watched each bird catch 15–20 insects per hour, giving me ample opportunity to create attractive photographs. A fast shutter speed let me freeze the bird in flight, clearly showing the insect in its beak.”
Andrés won a Sigma 105mm F2.8 DG DN Macro | Art lens worth £700, a universal license for all three Affinity apps (Photo, Designer + Publisher), and the Young CUPOTY trophy.
The ten category winners will receive £250 cash and a universal license for all three Affinity apps (Photo, Designer + Publisher) for macOS, Windows and iPadOS. The winner of Intimate Landscape will also receive a subscription to the photography magazine and community Frames, while the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in Studio Art will receive the Retouch4me Dust, Color Match and Portrait Volumes plugins.
The Dutch photographer Rob Blanken took first place in the Studio Art category with a photo of a crystallized mixture of amino acids resembling an impressive, imaginative landscape, for which he used a microscope.
Piet Haaksma also Piet Haaksma took first place in the Plants category. After a misty night in his Dutch garden, he photographed dew-covered mosses.
The first CUPOTY category winner from China is Yong Miao, with a beautiful photo of a damselfly in front of a waterfall in the Tianmushan Nature Reserve.
The seventh Close-up Photographer of the Year competition opened in May 2025.
More images can be seen in the winners’ gallery at www.cupoty.com.
View here: CUPOTY 2025 Winners.
