LIGHT BOX

Our favourite Nikon images from Close-up Photographer of the Year

Wake Up

BY EDWIN GIESBERS

It’s best to look for orange-tip butterflies before sunrise and photograph them as soon as it starts getting light outside. If it gets hot quickly, then you’ll have to work faster, because the butterflies will disappear sooner than usual.

Camera: Nikon D750

Lens: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro

Exposure: 1/1000 sec, f/3.5, ISO500

Lesser Pond Sedge Dispersing Pollen

BY ADRIAN DAVIES

This was shot in controlled conditions in a studio. The specimen needed to be selected on the right day, when it was ‘ripe’ enough to emit the pollen. Two small flashguns were used to backlight the pollen, and another to provide some detail in the front.

Camera: Nikon D800E

Lens: Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Micro + 1.4x teleconverter

Exposure: 1/160 sec, f/8, ISO200

Spider’s Web Galaxy

BY CAROLYNE BARBER

Carolyne is a hospice nurse who loves photography and capturing the natural world in her spare time. She uses photography to bring some joy to the patients who cannot go outside. This spider’s web, found on a fence in the hospice garden, looked dazzling with the backlight from the rising sun. Carolyne likened it to a black hole in outer space.

Camera: Nikon D7000

Lens: Myer-Optik Trioplan 50mm f/2.9