Submit your best close-up photo to win a top cash prize of £2,500 ($3,450)

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Close-Up Photographer of the Year is open now for close-up, macro or micro photography entries across 8 categories

CUPOTY 03 launch listing image
‘Glassworm’ by Andrei Savitsky, winner of CUPOTY 02’s Micro category (Image credit: © Andrei-Savitsky/CUPOTY)

Are any of your close-up, macro or micro photography shots worthy of international recognition? Then the Close-up Photographer of the Year judges would like to see them. 

Submit one of your best shots – whether captured on a camera, phone or light microscope – before 23 May to be in with a chance of winning a £2,500 (US$3,450) cash prize. 

An annual competition showcasing the best close-up, macro and micro photography from around the world, Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY), in association with Affinity Photo, is now in its third year and is open to everyone. 

‘Life Cycle of Soap Bubble Iridescence’ by Kym Cox, winner of Manmade World in CUPOTY 02   (Image credit: © Kym Cox/CUPOTY)

Close-up Photographer of the Year 03 categories

Two categories are new this year – Butterflies & Dragonflies and Underwater – and the total prize fund has been boosted to £5,300 ($7,330). 

Here’s the full list of the CUPOTY 03 categories: 

  • Animals (supported by Affinity Photo) 
  • Insects (supported by Zerene Stacker)
  • Butterflies & Dragonflies NEW (supported by Olympus) 
  • Underwater NEW (supported by Seacam)
  • Plants & Fungi (supported by Novoflex and Speed Graphic)
  • Intimate Landscape 
  • Manmade 
  • Micro (supported by Motic Europe) 
  • Young CUPOTY (supported by Sigma)

The overall winner will receive £2,500 ($3,450) in cash, plus a trophy, and each category winner will take home £300 ($410) in cash. 

Young Close-up Photographer of the Year 03 is open to entrants aged 17 or under. The winner will receive a Sigma 105mm f2.8 DG DN Macro Art lens (worth £700/$799) with a USB Dock – and a trophy. 

Mike Curry won the Insects category in CUPOTY 02, for ‘Fragile’ (Image credit: © Mike Curry/CUPOTY)

CUPOTY is open until 23 May  – enter today!  

Close-up Photographer of the Year 03 entry fees start from £10/$14 (one picture in one category), up to £40/$55 (30 pictures in eight categories). It costs £5/$7 to enter 15 pictures for Young CUPOTY. 

Judging for CUPOTY 03 will take place in July, with the results announced in September. 

Click here to enter CUPOTY 03. 

The judging panel includes award-winning photographers, magazine journalists, conservationists and authors, including Sue Bishop, Ross Hoddinott, Kathy Moran, Robert Thompson and Tracy Calder.  

Last year the competition attracted more than 6,500 entries, from 52 countries. 

To see all of the winning and shortlisted entries for CUPOTY 02, click here.

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Niall Hampton
Niall Hampton
Editor

Niall is the editor of Digital Camera Magazine, and has been shooting on interchangeable lens cameras for over 20 years, and on various point-and-shoot models for years before that. 

Working alongside professional photographers for many years as a jobbing journalist gave Niall the curiosity to also start working on the other side of the lens. These days his favored shooting subjects include wildlife, travel and street photography, and he also enjoys dabbling with studio still life. 

On the site you will see him writing photographer profiles, asking questions for Q&As and interviews, reporting on the latest and most noteworthy photography competitions, and sharing his knowledge on website building.