Small world
Self reflection
Photographer
Beau Healy
Category
Small world – Winner 2023
Description
The subject of the photo is known as the curlyhair tarantula (Tliltocatl albopilosus). This specimen is my own and is a juvenile at least two years old. This photo was taken to highlight how beautiful and misunderstood these gentle and amazing creatures are. I thought the dark background and reflective technique was a good artistic decision to show the texture and colour of the tarantula’s hairs. Because the photo was taken so close to the subject I had to get a focus stack [a technique to blend together different images] of 11 images to get the whole subject in focus.
Sun jumping spider
Photographer
Joshua Garbutt
Category
Small world – Runner-up 2023
Description
While I was walking around a meadow I noticed some small spiders on the fence posts so I decided to try photographing them. It proved a challenge due to the harsh light and them not staying still for long. I managed a few hundred images which led to me capturing lots of detail on the spider.
Staring at the sun
Photographer
Jamie Smart
Category
Small world – Commended 2023
Description
This is a small white butterfly caterpillar. This particular caterpillar had obviously decided to spend most of his time munching through the leaves of our cabbage and narrowly missed an encounter with the kitchen sink! As he crawled along the worktop, he climbed onto my dad’s phone screen and I noticed the reflection that was created on the shiny black surface. This inspired me to ask my dad to get a piece of something shiny and black for him to crawl onto, so that I could try to capture this sort of image using a single speed light to get the maximum detail.