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Introducing the Winners of the 2022 Challenge: Minimal by the Close-Up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY). Renowned judges Sue Bishop, David Maitland, Ross Hoddinott, and Nigel Atherton, editor of Amateur Photographer, have come together to select the finest photographs that embody the minimalist style.

The CUPOTY Challenge takes place in November, separate from the annual Close-up Photographer of the Year competition, and introduces a unique theme each year. According to Tracy Calder, co-founder of CUPOTY, “We called upon photographers to exhibit work that embraces the concept of ‘Minimal.’ Essentially, we sought clean, uncluttered images with minimal elements. However, what we received exceeded our expectations. The entries ranged from stink bugs to springtails and plant seeds, each picture serving as a stunning testament to how simplifying a scene can profoundly enhance its message.”

Out of a staggering total of 988 captivating pictures submitted for the 2022 CUPOTY Challenge: Minimal, one image stood out and claimed the coveted 1st place. Hungarian photographer Ferenc Ferenc Kocsis captured the hearts of the judges with his stunning photograph titled “In Her Wedding Dress.” For his remarkable achievement, Ferenc received a prize of £300 and the honor of showcasing his work in the winner’s gallery, which will be viewed by a global audience. Joining his exceptional piece are nine other extraordinary photographs, each deserving of admiration and appreciation.

Continue scrolling to discover the mesmerizing winning images!

You can find more info about CUPOTY:

#1 1st Place: “In Her Wedding Dress” By Ferenc Kocsis

© Ferenc Kocsis | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“This female Danube mayfly, swollen with egg clusters, flies over the Danube River in Hungary and lays its eggs close to where it was born. The larvae that live in the riverbed hatch in April, and in the last stage of their development, in August, they fly for the last dance of their one-year life.”

#2 2nd Place: “Colour Study 39” By Paul Gravett

© Paul Gravett | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“Despite their painterly appearances, each Colour Study starts with a camera and a series of photographs of papers and colour acetates, layered three to five deep on a stack of glass shelves. The images are layered and blended in the computer to create abstractions that reference contemporary art, including pointillism, colour fields, transparencies, collage and painterly techniques. The hallmark of this experimental process is unpredictability and discovery, leading to startling and unexpected images that blur the boundary of photography and contemporary art, tricking the eye and testing our assumptions about photography.”

#3 3rd Place: “Goose Bumps” By Stefan Gerrits

© Stefan Gerrits | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“In Varanger, Norway, a mountain hare (Lepus timidus) sits quietly in a snowstorm very close to midnight. It was a rough winter evening in the very far north of Norway, I was sitting down, and my goodness I was cold, chilled to the bone, waiting for signs of life. Thankfully, I got lucky. This hare seemed to have some form of piloerection (the equivalent of human goosebumps), which made its hair stand on end. I underexposed by 4EV and used a slow shutter speed (1/13sec) to transform the snow into flashes of light.”

#4 Finalist: “Details Of A Rough Stink Bug” By Benjamin Salb

© Benjamin Salb | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I love finding hidden details within ordinary macro subjects and this rough stink bug was no exception. I encountered it while on a 4am macro hunt last autumn. It was a chilly morning and the few subjects I did find didn’t move that much, if at all. As a result, I was able to position the stick the stink bug was sitting on in the air to isolate it from the background and show off its complex details. The image was captured as a handheld focus bracket of 17 frames (combined in Helicon Focus).”

#5 Finalist: “Shell” By Kristina Zvinakeviciute

© Kristina Zvinakeviciute | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“Shells are like little secrets of the sea. I always collect them on the seashore and this one was found on Formby Beach in the UK. I had an idea to develop the photograph of this small shell in a different way, by using the mirror effect in Photoshop (I cropped, rotated and adjusted the shot in Photoshop before using the mirror effect. A texture was then added to the background.) The result pleasantly surprised me, as it looked like wings or a heart.”

#6 Finalist: “Murky Waters” By Lovre Culina

© Lovre Culina | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“This bird’s-eye view of an American crocodile was made over the Tarcoles River of Costa Rica, from a bridge. A picture like this had been in my mind’s eye for a while and, as I knew the area well, I had hoped to find a crocodile positioned perfectly in the water just under the bridge. Unfortunately, the dream composition wasn’t to be, and I had to stretch my arms out, get a shot and crop and rotate it later to get the picture I wanted. Crocodiles are ambush predators and spend most of their time being still and waiting. My aim was to depict this incredible marvel of nature in its element, while leaving the viewer slightly unsure about what is being shown.”

#7 Finalist: “Spider” By Gabi Swart

© Gabi Swart | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“A spider had spun its web right in front of our attic window, allowing me to photograph it against the sky. Due to overexposing by one f-stop, it appeared almost plastic and transparent. The open aperture and the overexposure made the spider’s web disappear.”

#8 Finalist: “Stand By” By Krisztina Mácsai

© Krisztina Mácsai | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I was walking with co-students of my photography class in the forests of Normafa, Budapest, looking for interesting macro subjects. It was autumn and the forest was full of Cyclosa spiders. I searched to find one of these orb-weavers that would allow me to photograph it at this unusual angle. I had to be very careful not to harm its web. At the time the picture was taken, I was between macro lenses, so I had to return to my tried and tested combination: the “nifty-50” with extension tubes. Once again, this set up did not disappoint me.”

#9 Finalist: “Outer Space” By Alex Pansier

© Alex Pansier | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“This is not Earth from outer space, but the swirling body of an elephant seal. A few years ago, I went on a photo tour to Antarctica with a stopover in South Georgia. The beaches were teeming with fur seals and elephant seals. This particular one was so relaxed I managed to photograph it quietly with some nice backlight in low key – my favourite style.”

#10 Finalist: “Lily Tip” By Jane Van Bostelen

© Jane van Bostelen | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I love the beautiful trumpet-shape of the Calla Lily and wanted to create a minimal, uncluttered image with simple lines. After shooting from different angles, I found the strongest composition to be one where the tip of the petal was in focus and the rest was thrown out of focus using a shallow depth of field. I used a studio lightbox with LED lighting and a green background so that the shapes looked strong, and the colours complemented each other.”

#11 Shortlisted: “Behind Blue Eyes” By Clement Boyer

© Clement Boyer | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“This Damselfly was photographed in the wild at Saint Peyronis, south-west France just after 7 am in late July.”

#12 Shortlisted: “Marpissa Radiata” By Adrian Truchta

© Adrian Truchta | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“This jumping spider was living in a rolled leaf near a pond. Like every jumping spider this one has huge eyes, but in this case they were an unusual blue colour.”

#13 Shortlisted: “Ice Droplet” By Morey Gers

© Morey Gers | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“This image was made on a freezing winter day in St. Louis, MO, USA, while looking for interesting ice drops on a magnolia tree in my back yard. This ice drop, showing the internal crystal formations, is only around a ¼ inch long.”

#14 Shortlisted: “Four Comatrichia Nigra” By Andy Sands

© Andy Sands | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I found this line of four Comatrichia nigra slime moulds among several other groups on the underside of a fallen Beech branch in local woodland. It was late November and had been fairly wet so most of the underside had been covered in a white mould that I felt added to the minimal effect and colour palette. I photographed them with my Olympus OM1 camera and 60mm Macro lens plus 2 extension tubes, focus stacked from 56 images. Lighting was natural and with a clear blue sky and no leaves the reflections were very attractive. The background is just the carpet of fallen Beech leaves beyond. They were quite small, the largest around 2mm tall.”

#15 Shortlisted: “A Ray Of Light” By Jose Luis Gigirey

© Jose Luis Gigirey | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I found this small pair of Mycena sp. in a forest near my home in Covas, Ames, Spain. To isolate them from the forest environment, I shaded them with some diffusers and used a small piece of black cardboard to reflect the sunlight in order to capture that ray of sun.”

#16 Shortlisted: “Inconspicuous” By Roman Willi

© Roman Willi | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I found this caterpillar on a nightwalk in the jungle of the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica and was drawn to the way it had eaten parts of the leaf.”

#17 Shortlisted: “Mosaic Tile” By Viola Ricci

© Viola Ricci | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“This image of a damselfly’s wings was captured in my garden in the Po Valley, Italy, in late summer. I had noticed something unusual going on among the oak trees that day: an elegant, shimmering flutter of wings through the air caught my eye and invited me to look up close. What I did not expect to find was a group of willow emerald damselflies effortlessly catching mosquitoes while flying around and then, once landed on the lower twigs, slowly consuming their “snacks”. Observing them during their rest, I was immediately struck by the radiant orange pterostigma standing out on the transparent wings.”

#18 Shortlisted: “21 Grams” By Chris Manfield

© Chris Manfield | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“Since its invention, photography has been used alongside scientific protocols as a tool to document and quantify truth. This photograph was taken in a biological laboratory where dead animals are preserved and studied. When we look at the photograph, we are looking at a process. We think of how the pictured subject ended up in front of the camera, why, and for what purpose? The subject has been sourced ethically, and each specimen is noted whether to have died of natural causes, purchased (dead) from a shelter, farm, or a licensed taxidermist. Still… it raises the question of ethics – whether truth is validated through documentations, real-life consensus, or perhaps something else entirely.”

#19 Shortlisted: “Gills” By Jeannet Van Der Knijff

© Jeannet van der Knijff | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“Last October I found this parasol mushroom during a walk in the ‘Staelduinse bos’ in ‘s Gravenzande, Netherlands. The fungus was broken, so the gills on the underside of the fungus were clearly visible. The wavy interplay of lines of the gills produced a very beautiful pattern. On one of the gills I noticed a small black dot moving. When I got home, I saw on my screen that the black dot had legs: it was a mite. With a size of less than 0.1 to 1.0 mm, these small arthropods are barely visible to the naked eye. Because of the presence of the mite on the gills, the image reminds me more of a huge maze than of the underside of a mushroom.”

#20 Shortlisted: “Blending In” By Stefan Gerrits

© Stefan Gerrits | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“It was a cloudy day and I was walking next to an almost deserted skiing track in the North of Finland hoping to see Willow Grouse, or Rock Ptarmigans. It’s certainly not easy to spot these beautiful birds when they are in their wintery white outfits, blending perfectly into a snowy environment. This Willow Grouse (Lagopus lagopus) however, got caught and whilst I slowly crawled forward through a thick layer of snow, I took this image and it is exactly what I had in mind.”

#21 Shortlisted: “Sawfly Larva” By Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas

© Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I came across this small sawfly larva on a blade of grass in a meadow area last summer. I decided to leave a black background to contrast the bright green of the larvae, and went for a slightly wider shot to leave some negative space to one side.”

#22 Shortlisted: “Lunaria Annua” By Ecaterina Leonte

© Ecaterina Leonte | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I watched this plant grow and bloom in a friend’s garden, transitioning from full purple blooms to one flower at the top, surrounded by translucent seed pods. I wondered if I could highlight those pods in my “studio” using a flashlight. It took several tries of backlighting those pods without showing my hands in the picture.”

#23 Shortlisted: “Oil On Water 8” By Martin Parratt

© Martin Parratt | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“This image is an example from my ongoing photographic exploration of the refractive effects of oil floating on water. The project is inexpensive and eco-friendly, requiring no travel and using tiny amounts of simple materials, in keeping with the minimalist ethos. Controlling the oil can be frustrating but fun – it takes some skill and patience. The shapes and arrangement were physically real and are not digitally created. Removal of blemishes in post-processing gave the refined aesthetic.”

#24 Shortlisted: “Point, Line And Plane” By Yicai Chang

© Yicai Chang | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I spent several weekends observing the behaviour of a colony of carpenter ants in the Black Mountain Nature Reserve in Canberra. During a return visit, I was aware that they kept shuttling among the leaves of a grass tree as if they were looking for a new food source. When a carpenter ant climbed onto one of the leaves, a simple but miraculous scene came into view.”

#25 Shortlisted: “Contrarian” By Ann Newman

© Ann Newman | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“While looking for yellow in aspen fall foliage in the Sierra Mountains of California, I was instead brought to a stop (not literally) by a guardrail along the road. Looking more closely, the yellow hexagons and their beehive-like compositions caught my interest, especially as each cell had a unique pattern. I’m certain the few drivers that drove past thought I was unhinged.”

#26 Shortlisted: “Minimal Drop” By Cesare Barillà

© Cesare Barillà | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, not being able to leave the house to take pictures, I created a small photographic set at home for macro photography. This shot is nothing but the enlargement of oil drops in coloured water.”

#27Shortlisted: “Air Plant Spiral #1” By Donald Bolak

© Donald Bolak | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“Photographing spiral forms in botanical subjects is an on-going project for me. This ‘giant’ air plant is a departure from the typical small plants most see. It is about 12″ tall with a mass of curled leaves going every which way (think a botanical Medusa).”

#28 Shortlisted: “Air Tunes” By Angelo Richardson

© Angelo Richardson | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“In May, while walking our dog just before sunset in The Netherlands, I spotted this cockchafer beetle perched on a water reed, with its antenna nicely unfolded. The antennas are used to find food or a mate – males have seven blades on each antenna and females six.”

#29 Shortlisted: “A Springtail On A Golden Lake” By Nicolas Dupieux

© Nicolas Dupieux | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I photographed this tiny springtail in a tiny pond in my garden. In autumn, it fills up with rainwater and leaves. This wet and fresh habitat with organic matter attracts these little springtails. On sunny mornings the sun makes the wall of my home shine, reflecting in the water creating a beautiful golden colour. It’s there that I photographed this springtail, flowing softly, quietly on its small island, in the middle of a lake bathed in sunlight…”

#30 Shortlisted: “Raph L’ascalaphe” By Rene Rouyer

© Rene Rouyer | cupoty.com. All copyright remains with the photographers

“I was born in Lorraine, France and I’m very attached to this region, which is full of varied natural environments such as rivers, meadows, limestone lawns, forests and peat bogs and in which you can find small treasures such as wild orchids, a wide variety of insects but also amphibians and mammals. This dragonfly, Orthetrum abistilum, I found waiting for a bit of heat before taking flight.”

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Flowers are the year-round subject that keep giving, but how can you make your photos stand out from the crowd?

Whatever camera or lens that you own – even your smartphone – you’ll find some handy tips and creative techniques in this article to help your flower photography blossom.

Try a multiple exposure

Writing a scientific essay is an important skill. It allows you to communicate science to a wider audience. Whether it be descriptive or exploratory, your essay should have a clear structure and outline.

Use a formal tone and avoid slang or discipline-specific nomenclature/terms (e.g., exercise nicknames). Use diagrams where appropriate and correctly reference them.

Introduction

When free writing essays for a science course, your professors will most likely require you to produce a paper that showcases your analytical skills and scientific knowledge. In some cases, your instructor may provide you with a specific topic to write about, while in other situations, they will allow you to choose the subject on which you want to base your essay. Regardless of the topic, knowing how to write a scientific essay correctly is vital to getting a good grade.

To start with, make sure you understand the instructions your professors have given you. This includes their preferred citation style, the size of font and margins they wish you to use, and any other details that need to be followed. This will ensure that your essay is presented in the correct way and will meet all of their expectations.

The next step is to research your topic extensively. This will include obtaining a broad overview of existing academic work and debates about your subject, as well as reading through any relevant articles or books on the subject. It is essential that you do extensive research so that your essay is full of accurate and valid information.

After researching your topic, you need to develop a clear outline. This will help you stay on track while writing your essay and also make it easier for your readers to follow. Creating an outline will also help you to find any gaps in your knowledge that need to be filled in with further research.

Once you have an outline, it is time to start writing your essay. Start by writing your introduction, which should contain all the relevant background information on your subject. You should also introduce the problem that you will be discussing and suggest a possible solution. Be sure to avoid introducing any personal opinions in your introduction, as these will be used in the body of your essay.

Your next paragraph should be devoted to developing your argument and providing supporting evidence. Your goal is to create a comprehensive and persuasive argument that will convince your reader of the validity of your claims. This can be done by making use of quotes from authoritative sources and demonstrating the value of these sources.

Body

In scientific writing, it is essential to be clear and concise. This helps to prevent confusion for the reader, and it also allows for easy follow-up research and discussion of the topic at hand.

Whether you are presenting your own data or using the work of other scientists, all relevant information must be properly cited. This includes any photographs, graphs, diagrams, and videos that are used in the essay. Once you have the hang of citing correctly, it will become second nature and will allow you to write an essay that is both informative and well-structured.

In the body of your essay, you will prove your thesis statement by discussing and analyzing your evidence. This evidence may be presented in a variety of ways, including through your own experiments and observations, but it should all support the main ideas that you are trying to prove. Each paragraph should have a clear, focused topic sentence that states what the paragraph is trying to prove. These are similar to the topic sentences in an introduction, and they should all link back to the overall thesis statement at the beginning of the essay.

It is also important that each paragraph addresses the question “why” – i.e., why is this evidence important? This question can be answered at the end of an essay, but it is a good idea, to begin with it. It will give your readers a sense of purpose and help them connect your interpretations to their own understandings of the world around them.

Each paragraph should also include one or two quotes or other supporting evidence from sources. These quotes should be cited in the correct format for your style (MLA, APA) and should appear on the Works Cited or Bibliography page at the end of the essay.

Finally, each paragraph should tie back to the overall thesis statement of your paper by rephrasing the main idea. This is an important step in the essay-writing process, as it shows that you have really thought through your argument and are trying to prove a point.

Conclusion

At the conclusion of a scientific essay, the writer should review and summarize all of the paper’s main points. This can include discussing the practical potential of the research findings as well as providing a brief overview of the research methodology used in obtaining these results.
Finally, the essay should also highlight any significant findings or conclusions that can be drawn from the research. Finally, it is always a good idea to restate the thesis statement in the paper’s concluding paragraph.

One of the most important aspects of writing a scientific essay is to ensure that all sources are properly cited. This will demonstrate that you are aware of the work of others and have included this information in your own writing. Additionally, it will help prevent plagiarism, a major problem in scientific writing.

Lastly, it is essential to write clearly and concisely. Using clear language will make it easier for readers to understand your essay. Avoid jargon or idioms, and be sure to explain any terms that are unfamiliar to your audience. It is also a good idea to have someone else read your essay before submitting it to ensure no mistakes or ambiguities.

The first step in writing a science essay is to choose an interesting topic. You can then begin to conduct research on the subject to learn more about it. This research should include both primary and secondary sources. Depending on the topic, you may also want to consider comparing the findings of different studies. In this way, you can provide a more comprehensive and accurate subject analysis.

Once you have completed your research, it is time to start writing your essay. Make sure to use the three golden rules of scientific writing:

A science essay is a paper in which students analyze a topic and try to discover a solution based on factual data. It is a paper that tests the writer’s analysis and judgment skills. Unlike other types of essays, this type of paper demands a certain level of objectivity and pragmatism. It also gives the writer little to no room for self-expression.

References

A good scientific essay requires a lot of research and reading. This is why you should always have a list of references when writing. This can help you avoid plagiarism, which is a serious academic offense. It can also save you time by allowing you to find the relevant information when you need it easily. This will help you get the best grades possible for your essays and papers.

As a general rule, scientific essays require the writer to present evidence logically and convincingly. This can be done by using a variety of sources, including textbooks, laboratory reports, and scientific journals, among other useful resources. However, choosing credible and updated ones is essential to provide the most accurate and current information. You should also remember to cite all your sources properly.

When writing a scientific essay, it is important to keep in mind that the paper should be mainly analytical and critical rather than descriptive. This means that the essay’s main purpose is to show how your ideas can solve a problem. The writer should therefore avoid making statements that can be proven false or based on subjective opinions. Instead, they should focus on providing evidence from a reliable source and make logical conclusions.

Another thing to remember is that a science essay should not be too long. A typical essay of this type should not exceed five paragraphs. This will ensure that the paper is easy to read and well-structured. Also, it will allow the reader to follow the argument easily and understand the author’s point of view.

The conclusion of a science essay should review and summarize the main points of the entire argument. It should also include the potential practical applications of your findings. This will help to make your essay more interesting and engaging for the reader. In addition, it is a good idea to restate the thesis in the conclusion as a subtle reminder of your essay.

Lastly, checking your work for spelling and grammar mistakes is a good idea. These are easy to spot and can easily detract from the overall quality of your essay.

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