Slime moulds are not just found in the woods they can also be spotted on decomposing vegetation or wood.Don’t let cold weather put you off, it often produces unique images.The final image is the result of 55 focus-bracketed images combined in Zerene Stacker. The tallest one was only 3mm high, including the ice. I was attracted to the way the ice had encased the slime mould, creating strange, windswept, leaf-like shapes. In January last year, following two days of freezing fog and sub-zero temperatures, I found some mature Comatricha growing on an old fence post lying on a pile of discarded, rotting timber. Minor stacking artefacts were tidied up in Photoshop. Post processing: Lightroom, Zerene Stacker and Topaz Denoise AI. Accessories: Tripod, cable release, three extension tubes. ![]() Taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro, 1/15sec at f/4, ISO 200. ‘Fungi’ Category Winner CUPOTY 04 Ice Encrusted Comatricha by Barry Webb Nationality: British Occupation: Gardener/photographer The more you practise your technique, the better prepared you’ll be to capture an image in the field. Macro photography can be tricky, and photogenic moments are often fleeting.Try photographing your subject from every angle.Be creative with the tools you have – this image was lit with headlamps!.The next day, both salamanders had sunk to the bottom of the pitcher. When I saw a pitcher that had two salamanders, both at the same stage of decay floating at the surface of the pitcher’s fluid, I knew it was a special and fleeting moment. Pitchers typically contain just one salamander prey at a time, although occasionally they catch multiple salamanders simultaneously. On the day I made this image, I was following researchers on their daily surveys of the plants. For a plant that’s used to capturing tiny invertebrates, a juvenile spotted salamander is a hefty feast! This population of northern pitcher plants in Algonquin Provincial Park is the first to be found regularly consuming a vertebrate prey. Typically, these plants feast on invertebrates – such as moths and flies – but recently, researchers at the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station discovered a surprising new item on the plant’s menu: juvenile spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum). Instead of drawing nutrients up through their roots, this plant relies on trapping prey in its specialised bell-shaped leaves, called pitchers. Here there is no rich soil, but rather a floating mat of sphagnum moss. Northern pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) are carnivorous, allowing them to survive in nutrient-poor bog environments. Post processing: Basic adjustments in Lightroom. Taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Laowa 15mm f/4 macro lens,1/100sec, ISO 1250. ![]() Photo credit: Samantha Stephenson/CUPOTY. Overall and ‘Animals’ Category Winner CUPOTY 04 Nature’s Pitfall by Samantha Stephens Nationality: Canadian Occupation: Photographer ![]() To see the winners and Top 100 pictures from CUPOTY 04, visit the website at To stay up to date with all things CUPOTY (and receive fresh creative content) sign up to my fortnightly newsletter via the CUPOTY website.Ĭlose-up Photographer of the Year 04 winners share the stories and techniques behind their pictures with co-founder Tracy Calder. Samantha Stephens took the overall title with her incredible picture of northern pitcher plants digesting juvenile spotted salamanders, while Nathan Benstead was named Young Close-up Photographer of the Year 04 for his magical picture of slime mould fruiting bodies. This year there were 11 categories: Animals, Insects, Butterflies & Dragonflies, Invertebrate Portrait, Underwater, Plants, Fungi, Intimate Landscape, Manmade and Micro, as well as Young CUPOTY. It’s a fabulous gift, and one that I’m so grateful to benefit from. Many of these moments would have gone unnoticed if they had not been witnessed by people who have a natural sense of curiosity about the world. Often I have sat there in astonishment, marvelling at the magic of it all. I’ve been awestruck by a jellyfish that walks on its hands, a marble that resembles a cosmic wormhole and an egg that seems to contain the crucible of life within its watery walls. Among the 9,000 entries submitted to this year’s CUPOTY 04, I’ve seen salamanders being eaten by plants, slime moulds celebrated as works of art and spiders mimicking bird poo.
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