Welcome to The Top 100 winners gallery of Close-up Photographer of the Year 6 (2024), in association with Affinity Photo. These pictures were selected by our jury of 25 experts from over 11,000 pictures sent in from 61 countries. All the pictures here have had their Raw or original files checked.

For a closer look at The Top 100 pictures, download the CUPOTY 6 eBook. You’ll get all of the images in high resolution with full captions, shooting settings and photographer tips, as well as all of the shortlisted pictures and CUPOTY CHALLENGE: Water winners. All entrants will receive a free copy.

Insects

 
 

Close-up Photographer of the Year 6
Overall winner & Insects winner

 
 

Svetlana Ivanenko | Clash of the Titans

 
 
 

2nd place | Insects

Imre Potyó | Mayfly Arena

3rd place | Insects

Avilash Ghosh | My Own Galaxy

 
 
 

Finalists | Insects

 

Animals

 
 

Winner

 
 

Santiago J. Monroy García | God in the Shadows

 
 
 

2nd place

Imre Potyó | Moonlight

3rd place

Csaba Daróczi | Pine Marten Portrait

 
 

Finalists | Animals

 
 

Butterflies & Dragonflies

 
 

Winner

Yong Miao | Damselfly by the Waterfall

 
 

2nd Place

Ferenc Kocsis | Sphere

3rd Place

Imre Potyó | December Moth

 
 

Finalists | Butterflies & Dragonflies

 
 

Arachnids

 
 

Winner

Pierluigi Rizzo | Queen of Hearts

 
 
 
 

2nd place

Avilash Ghosh | Fire Stream Scorpio

3rd place

Artur Tomaszek | Crazy in Love

 
 

Finalists | Arachnids

 
 
 
 

Invertebrate Portrait

 
 

Winner

A Caerostris spider rests on a stick in the Malaysian jungle

Aran Gibbs | Bark is Worse than its Bite

 
 
 
 

2nd place

José Manuel Lois Rial | Stauropus Fagi

3rd place

Manfred Auer | Lynx Spider

 
 
 

Finalists | Invertebrate Portrait

 

Underwater

 
 
 

Winner

A doctorfish struggles in the jaws of a lizardfish in Kona, Hawaii

Gabriel Jensen | Everything's A-OK

 
 

2nd place

A leafy seadragon (Phycodurus eques) swims with a school of rough bullseye fish (Pempheris klunzingeri) in Rapid Bay, South Australia

Jenny Stock | Search for the Dragon

3rd place

A reef goby guards its eggs on a blue tunicate in the Lembeh Strait, Indonesia

Saeed Rashid | A Caring Mother

 
 
 

Finalists | Underwater

 

Intimate Landscape

 
 

Winner

The etched tunnels of bark beetle larvae (Ips typographus) beneath the bark of a spruce tree in the French Alps

Jean-Philippe Delobelle | A Network of Life and Death

 
 

2nd Place

ead Jack Pine branches cross-cross vibrant huckleberry plants in Nova Scotia, Canada

Andrew Mielzynski | Fall Matrix

3rd Place

A white fir tree surrounded by three giant sequoias in Sequoia National Park, California, USA

Sigfrido Zimmermann | Among Giants

 
 

Finalists | Intimate Landscape

 
 

Fungi & Slime Moulds

 
 

Winner

 
 
 

Barry Webb | Ear-Pick Fungus

 
 
 

2nd place

Puffball mushrooms release spores in a chestnut forest in Covas, Spain

José Luis Gigirey González | Autumn Storm of Spores

3rd place

A mushroom covered in sand on Holywell Bay Beach, Cornwall, UK

Jamie Spensley | Sandy Mushroom

 
 
 

Finalists | Fungi & Slime Moulds

 
 
 

Plants

 
 

Winner

Garden moss covered in dew drops in Sneek, Netherlands

Piet Haaksma | Mosses

 
 
 
 

2nd place

Autumn lady’s-tresses (Spiranthes spiralis) in the early October sun of Toulouse, France

Sébastien Blomme | Tournicoti

3rd place

A giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) frond in the water of Channel Islands National Park, California

Sigfrido Zimmermann | Flowing Kelp

 
 
 

Finalists | Plants

 
 
 

Studio Art

 
 

Winner

Rob Blanken | Artificial Landscape

 
 
 
 

2nd place

Oil drops on water

Matt Vacca | Drift 5

3rd place

Paul Kenny | Copper Works No. 13 – 2024

 
 
 

Finalists | Studio Art

 
 
 

Young
(Under 18s)

 
 

Young Close-up Photographer of the Year 6

A European Bee-eater in mid-flight with an insect in its beak

Andrés Luis Dominguez Blanco | Spring
(14 years old)

 
 
 
 

2nd place

A robber fly (Asilidae sp.) feeds on a flesh fly (Sarcophagidae sp.) in Brandenburg, Germany

Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas | Afternoon Snack
(17 years old)

3rd place

A Globular springtail (Dicyrtomina ornata) infected by the entomopathogenic fungus Pandora batallata in Berlin, Germany

Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas | Pandora
(17 years old)

 
 
 

Finalists | Young