Macro Photo Competition 2016 No 6 : Results

  • Competition Winner : First Prize
  • $634.40
  • Judges Comment
  • First of all congratulations for this first place! Still a picture full of poetry and softness, the composition is just perfect, the depth of field was ideally chosen in order to bring out this magnificent caterpillar. The background is sublime, the colors are soft and pleasant. A picture of beauty!
  • Photographers Comment
  • Thanks a lot for selecting this Picture as first prize and thank you for your nice words about it. The words meant a lot to me because they describe what I want to achieve very well. My name is Henrik Spranz and I've shot this photo not far away from Vienna where I am living. I've used a Canon 5d Mk iii with a Canon 180/3.5 L for it. The bokeh was not made with Photoshop and all in all there is no much post processing in it (besides tonal correction, white balancing, sharpening, denoising, saturation and contrast). The swallowtail caterpillar was photographed with open aperture on one of its favorite food plants in a colorful meadow when the fly was having a visit :).
  • facebook.com/fotomat
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • Wonderful portrait of this wolf spider, the dark side of this picture pleases me enormously, the focus is perfect, the light is very very well managed. The colors of this spider bring a lot of strength to this picture. A beautiful picture !!!!
  • Photographers Comment
  • Thank you very much! The spider is a Piloctenus cf. haematostoma, family Ctenidae. The pic is a stack of 10 hand held images, taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 MK II, M.Zuiko 60 2.8 macro lens, flash and a custom diffuser. Greetings from germany!
  • facebook.com/arachnidamoments
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • A picture full of poetry, the composition is excellent with this sunset. The background is just beautiful !!!! A superb picture.
  • Photographers Comment
  • Thanks for this mark of excellence and thank you for your kind words! Photographer: Henrik Spranz/German living in Austria Equipment: Canon EOS 5D Mark III + Canon 135/2 L + extension tube. Post processing: not much besides the usual post processing like raw developing, tonal correction, white balancing, sharpening, denoising, saturation and contrast but also retouching of tiny little part of the plant in the bokeh.
  • facebook.com/fotomat
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • Magnificent image of these aphids, the composition is really good, the dew brings strength to this image. The light is just a little strong but it is a superb picture!
  • Photographers Comment
  • Thank you for the Mark of excellence. Frantisek Dulik; Slovakia; C70D+MP-E+MT24flash. Final image stacked from 6 exposures.
  • https://500px.com/frantiekdulk
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • A very nice picture of this jumping spider, the focus is very good and where it should! The depth of field is well managed. Good work.
  • Photographers Comment
  • Thank you very much! This pic of a juvenile female Phidippus regius was taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 MK II, M.Zuiko 60 2.8 macro, Meike MK-320 flash and a custom diffuser. It's a hand held single shot, taken @60mm, f/9, 1/60, ISO 100. Greetings from germany!
  • www.facebook.com/arachnidamoments
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • Superb portrait, the precision of the focus is incredible, the colors are beautiful, the sharpness is impressive !!!! Superb work.
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • Very nice composition on this picture, the colors are superb, the focus is very good, the background is uniform and very nice. A superb picture!
  • Photographers Comment
  • First of all many thanks to the jury for this mark. My name is Volker Nagel. End of september I was looking for mantis religiosa in a biotope in the Palatinate Forest but it already seemed to be too cold. To my great joy I saw some butterflies of the Lycaenidae family in a very warm sunset. I could make a few photos with my 5D Mark 3 and a 100 mm macro at 2,8 aperture and 1/250 sec. It is slightly croped. Apart from that I only made the usual modifications in Lightroom.
  • www.captalux.de
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • Another beautiful photo of dragonfly, the ladybug brings strength to the composition. I would just close a little more the diaphragm to bring depth of field to the dragonfly. Very good work.
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • Very beautiful portrait of this dragonfly, the colors are really natural, the focus is where it takes. The sharpness is very good and the background is homogeneous. Good work.
  • Photographers Comment
  • Thank you very much to the judge for this mark of excellence! I love the personality you see in dragonfly faces, and I thought this was a good composition of one peering through some ferns. My name is Tom Semple and I'm an enthusiast macro photographer and entomologist from Queensland, Australia. This photo was taken in Girraween National Park, Qld, with my old Sony NEX-6, an even older Konica 135mm lens, and a Raynox macro adapter - my budget macro rig!
  • Mark Of Excellence
  • Judges Comment
  • Very nice picture of this flake, the precision of the focus is perfect, the management of light is very good, a very beautiful picture!
  • Photographers Comment
  • Thank you David for the Mark of excellence. Frantisek Dulik; Slovakia; C70D+MP-E 65/2,8+MT-24flash.
  • 500px.com/frantiekdulk