Categories

There are 10 categories in CUPOTY 5 (2023) and a Young category for under 18 year-olds.

Scroll down or click the category below to find out more.

ANIMALS
INSECTS
INVERTEBRATE PORTRAIT
BUTTERFLIES & DRAGONFLIES
UNDERWATER
PLANTS
FUNGI
INTIMATE LANDSCAPE
HUMAN MADE
MICRO
YOUNG

If you are 18 or over you may enter as many categories as you like. For example, if you purchase entry for 6 pictures, you may enter 2 in Animals, 3 in Plants and 1 in Fungi.

The same image may be entered into multiple categories, but each category is counted as one entry. (See the FAQ for more information.)

Photographers aged 17 or under on July 9th, 2023 should enter the Young category.

If you’re unsure and would like to check which category your image should go in, please email us a low-res file.

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Animals

Photographs of any animal, apart from insects, should be entered into this category. Send us your best close-up images of birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, arachnids, springtails, fish and molluscs that are not entirely submerged underwater.

Wide close-ups of the animal in its habitat, striking details of larger animals, artistic compositions and interesting behaviour are all possibilities here.

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Insects

The category for ants, bees, beetles and bugs; caddisflies, cockroaches and crickets; earwigs, fleas and flies; grasshoppers, lacewings and lice; mantids, mayflies and stick insects; termites, thrips, and wasps, to name the main ones. (Butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damselflies should go into: Butterflies & Dragonflies. Spiders should go in Animals.)

You could photograph insects in extreme close-up or framed by their surroundings; with a creative twist or exhibiting interesting behaviour.

For a full list of insects please refer to the A to Z of Insects on The Amateur Entomologists' Society website.

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Invertebrate Portrait

This category is designed to show the natural beauty of invertebrates and the macro skill of the photographer.

Detailed portraits of invertebrates (insects, arachnids, springtails, molluscs, centipedes, earthworms etc) are welcomed here, as long as they haven’t been photographed underwater.

Pictures should be of a single invertebrate that stretches across at least half of the frame.

The focus should be on the creature itself, rather than behaviour or artistic techniques. Focus stacking is allowed.

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Butterflies & Dragonflies

This category celebrates the beauty of butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damselflies in all their stages of life. Or to put it another way, images of animals from the order of Lepidoptera and Odonata belong here.

Extreme macro images, focus stacked portraits, creatures in-flight or set within the wider landscape are just a few of the almost limitless options for this category.

Underwater

This category explores the aquatic world. We’re looking for photographs of any flora, fauna or object in fresh or sea water. The subject should be fully submerged underwater, unless the image is taken as a split-level shot. Wide angle close-ups and macro are accepted.

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Plants

Plants in all their forms belong here, as does algae and seaweed. Beautiful blooms, plants in their habitat, moss, leaves, tree details and seeds are all possible subjects.

Enter creative abstracts or images of scientific study, pictures made in the studio or captured out in the field. There is no limit to how the subject is photographed, nor the creative processes used.

Fungi & Slime Moulds

A new category for this year, Fungi is the home for mushrooms, toadstools, slime mould and lichen.

They could be photographed in detail or captured up-close within their habitat. Enter creative abstracts or images of scientific study. There is no limit to how the subject is photographed, nor the creative processes used.

Intimate Landscape

Capture the great outdoors in close-up. Photograph small scenes, tight crops, or overlooked details of the natural world.

The main subject of the image should be of rock, sand, stone, mineral, crystal, water (rain, reflections, ice, snow,) fire, smoke, mud, dust, pure light, fossils, and trees. Scale out from a single snowflake to rocks in front of a sea.

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Human Made

The Human Made category is for images of things made by humans or created in the studio.

As well as images of objects or the urban landscape, it’s also the category for pictures of rust and peeling paint, as well as chemical reactions and studio creations that might include liquid drop art, oil and water combinations, paper constructions or bubbles.

Micro

The Micro category celebrates images captured with a light microscope or microscope objective attached to a lens. There is no limit to the subject matter and any technique can be used, such as darkfield, reflected light, fluorescence, confocal, focus stacking or polarisation.

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Young CUPOTY

Young Close-up Photographer of the Year is open to photographers aged 17 or under on the closing date of the competition. There are no restrictions on subject matter for this category, so feel free to send us any close-up, macro, extreme-macro and micro images that might catch the judges eyes.