From nose-picking birds, to spawning salmon - these are the Close Up Photographer of the Year finalists

Published: 17:01 EST, 10 November 2026 | Updated: 17:03 EST, 10 November 2026 From nose-picking birds to spawning salmon and acrobatic chameleons, a record 15,388 images were submitted to this year's Close-Up Photographer of the Year. The Close-Up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) has published its shortlist for this year, with 59 pictures in the running across all 11 categories.The 11 categories include animals, arachnids, intimate landscape, studio art, and underwater and showcase the best of close-up, macro, and micro photography.Winners of each category will be selected and announced in January 2027.'Close-up photography has a wonderful way of revealing details and perspectives that often go unnoticed,' said competition co-founder Tracy Calder. 'This year's shortlist is a fabulous showcase of imagination, technical expertise and natural curiosity.' CUPOTY was founded in 2018 by Tracy and her husband Daniel Calder, who are based in Winchester, UK. Since launching, the competition has received more than 60,000 entries from photographers all around the world.Photographers can start entering images for next year's competition in May, 2027.Here's a selection of the photographs that made it onto this year's shortlist. Every year, towards the end of summer, the Algarve fills with juvenile chameleons. Naturally discreet, they become more active as the sun climbs higher in the sky, setting off to explore the world around them. Here, at the edge of the ocean, they inhabit the coastal dunes. At their scale, the slender stems of sea pinks become towering lianas, suspended pathways through this sandy jungle A blackish cinclodes or tussock-bird (Cinclodes antarcticus) picks at the nose of a resting southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) on Sea Lion Island, in the Falkland Islands A Green Bee-eater holds a freshly captured dragonfly moments before repositioning and swallowing its prey. Dragonflies are often manipulated head-first before being eaten, reducing the risk of injury from their wings and spiny legs A high level of magnification for a macro shot of a single rose thorn A sunbird taking off from the coniferous branches of a huge tree, where it was enjoying sipping tiny drops of sap A bat at at Shompole Conservancy in Kenya dipping themselves in cool water to help regulate their body temperature during the summer heat This moth is in an evolutionary arms race against bats – sonar versus expert stealth. Bats are fierce nigh-time aerial predators with impressive sonar for targeting flying moths. This moth, (Eucyclodes fascinans) has evolved advanced stealth to try and evade detection A Cassida murraea (Fleabane Tortoise Beetle) larva at a local nature reserve. They make this structure from old moults and excrement and it's normally folded over the top of them like a canopy From the Insects category, this image is tilted: ‘Ants Eating Racer’ A dragonfly clamped with a blue background card for a natural ‘sky’ look which was captured at Ham Common SSSI in Poole From the Fungi category, this image is tilted: ‘Dewy Physarum Album’ A Woodlouse resting underneath a piece of bark in a local woodland in Surrey, England Lamproderma scintillans with their ice hats on. When there are sub zero temperatures overnight amazing things can happen to tiny slime moulds A female Beewolf wasp (Philanthus triangulum) returning to her nest with a honey bee at Thursley Common, Surrey, England. The nest entrance lies directly beneath the wasp as she prepares to provision her underground brood chamber The pictures of the water frogs were taken by Stefan Huwier at a pond near his house in Aargau, Switzerland. The 57-year-old photographer said that he was able to lure the frogs onto a stone that he had placed in the water, using some amphibian food