Apparently, Leonardo da Vinci used to get up every morning and write a list of all the things he wanted to learn that day. You’ve got to admire his drive, and the fact that he died at the ripe old age of 67 (life expectancy was around 35 back then) seems to suggest that his thirst for knowledge might have played a part in keeping him alive. While I share none of da Vinci’s polymath brilliance, I do share his desire to learn something new every day. Imagine my delight, then, when I had the joy of spending more than 20 hours chatting to a group of brilliant scientists, naturalists, journalists, writers and photographers while judging Close-up Photographer of the Year 5 (2023)!
Thanks to these wonderful individuals I now know that tadpoles can eat birds, ants fire acid like water pistols and bees sometimes hold each other’s legs while they sleep. And then, of course, there is the knowledge gained from looking at the photographs and accompanying captions sent in. More than 11,000 creative and original pictures made by people whose passion and dedication to the craft of photography is abundantly clear. Personally, I think this is our best survey of close-up, macro and micro photography yet, and I’m so grateful to those who have provided the opportunity to see and learn from their work. I hope you feel the same.
This year there were 11 categories: Animals, Insects, Butterflies & Dragonflies, Invertebrate Portrait, Underwater, Plants, Fungi & Slime Moulds, Intimate Landscape, Human Made, Micro and Young CUPOTY. Csaba Daróczi took the overall title with his incredible image of a bird taken from inside a tree stump, while Carlos Pérez Naval was named Young Close-up Photographer of the Year 5 for his unusual picture of a Moorish gecko in a
