Shortlisted images from the 2025 Close-Up Photographer of the Year, celebrating “close-up, macro, and micro photography”

A flying fox, photographed face-on, wings out, flying through a splash of water

© Douglas Gimesy / cupoty.comSplash. Shortlisted in the Animals category. A grey-headed flying fox makes a high-speed belly-dip in a pool of water.

A green-shaded bee clings to a leaf.

© Clay Bolt / cupoty.comOrchid Bee Colombia. Insects*.*

A beetle opens its wings while clinging to stalks of wheat in a field.

© Marek Pál / cupoty.comSharp Bend. Insects.

A frog, its front half poking through a small hole in a wall

© Roman Willi / cupoty.comFrog in the wall. Animals.

A very close view of a single rose thorn

© Donald Bolak / cupoty.comRose Thorns. Plants. A macro shot of a single rose thorn.

A spider hangs beneath a spiderweb with many of its strands weighed down by dewdrops.

© Nataliia Shinkevich / cupoty.comSunrise. Arachnids.

A close view of a hare, wet from rain, its ears down

© Jacqueline Kirk / cupoty.comIsland Hare. Animals. A hare, seen on a wet day at Havergate Island Nature Reserve in Suffolk, England.

A cloud of mayflies swarm around a streetlight at night.

© Imre Potyo / cupoty.comLight Trap. Insects.

A close view of the head of a praying mantis

© Jason McCombe / cupoty.comLichen Mantis. Invertebrate Portrait.

Clusters of ice cling to the tips of small tree branches that dip into flowing water.

© Hitomi Seki / cupoty.comCrystalline Purity. Intimate Landscape.

A spider-like mite clings to an appendage of a slime mold.

© Barry Webb / cupoty.comMite Feeding on Slime Mold. Arachnids.

A chrysalis held in a basket-like weave of sticks on a leaf.

© Minghui Yuan / cupoty.comHome on the Leaves. Butterflies & Dragonflies.

A cormorant tosses a spiky fish into the air to swallow it more easily.

© Turgay Uzer / cupoty.comThe Decisive Moment. Animals. This cormorant tossed this fish in the air for over an hour to get it set in the right orientation to swallow.

A close view of a bee's head, its entire body coated in water droplets.

© Andrei Chetronie / cupoty.comLeafcutter Bee. Invertebrate Portrait.

A spider holds a web in its legs, preparing to use it as a net to catch prey.

© Darcy Santos / cupoty.comNocturnal Huntress. Arachnids.

Two small insects feed on a shiny bit of slime mold.

© Pavel Krásenský / cupoty.comHungry Springtails. Insects.

A tree's reflection, seen in a small puddle on exposed striped rock

© Csaba Daroczi / cupoty.comAfter the Rain. Intimate Landscape.

A small fly, stuck on one of two carnivorous plants with sticky blobs on tiny stalks

© Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas / cupoty.comIt’s a Trap! Plants.

A yellow-and-purple flower-imitating spider, seen close-up

© Laurent Hesemans / cupoty.comIn Bloom. Arachnids.

To see the entire collection of this year’s shortlisted images, be sure to visit the Close-Up Photographer of the Year website.

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