A record 15,388 images were submitted to this year's Close-up Photographer of the Year, with the newly revealed shortlist showcasing 18 entries across 11 categories, including Animals, Arachnids, Intimate Landscape, Studio Art, and Underwater. The shortlist serves as a showcase of close-up, macro, and micro photography, with winners to be announced in January 2027.
Shortlist highlights
Among the shortlisted entries is a male leafcutter bee photographed clinging to a sweet pea flower after rain in a Shropshire garden. Another image captures a green bee-eater holding a freshly captured dragonfly moments before repositioning and swallowing its prey, photographed in natural light in Maharashtra, India, using a Canon EOS R5 with a telephoto lens.
The shortlist also includes a photograph of bats dipping themselves in cool water at a waterhole at Shompole Conservancy in Kenya, taken after the photographer spent seven nights photographing animals visiting the site. Another entry shows two blue kingfishers defending their fishing territory in Nymphenburger Schlosspark Munich, facing each other directly and attempting to push one another under the water.
More notable entries
A paper nautilus is pictured using jellyfish, leaves, sticks, and trash as transport, while a blackish cinclodes, or tussock-bird, is shown picking at the nose of a resting southern elephant seal on Sea Lion Island in the Falkland Islands. The birds are sensitive to ground predation by introduced cats and rats, so they generally only occur on islands where these predators have been eliminated.
Other shortlisted images include juvenile chameleons in the coastal dunes of the Algarve, where they inhabit the slender stems of sea pinks, and spawning salmon. The full gallery of 18 images highlights the range of micro-wonders placed before the judging panel.
Competition details
From this collection, the winners and category winners will be selected and announced in January 2027. Competition co-founder Tracy Calder said: "Close-up photography has a wonderful way of revealing details and perspectives that often go unnoticed. This year's shortlist is a fabulous showcase of imagination, technical expertise, and natural curiosity."
