A Newt's Midnight Feast Wins Close-Up Photographer Of The Year Water Challenge

The winners of the 2023 CUPOTY Challenge: Water have been revealed, with this year’s top prize being swooped by Hungarian photographer Tibor Litauszki for a beautifully lit image of a newt enjoying a midnight feast of frogspawn.

“In Germany, where I live, there are many clear and slow-flowing streams that provide excellent habitat for alpine newts. I have been following their lives for years, and last year was no exception. A few days after the frogs lay their eggs, at dusk, the newts appear and feast on the spawn all through the night. I wanted to capture this moment underwater,” Litauszki said in a statement seen by IFLScience.

Along with the usual CUPOTY (Close-up Photographer of the Year) competition that runs each year, the organizers hold an annual challenge focusing on a different theme. “Water” was the chosen motif this year – and the entries did not disappoint the judges.

“We asked photographers to show us work on a Water theme. Our callout was answered with images of seahorses swimming through kelp, flowers bejeweled with rain, and insects drying out their wings before taking flight, among so many other things. As usual, looking at all the entries was both educational and inspiring,” noted Tracy Calder, co-founder of CUPOTY.

A bold and creative shot of flowers in ice.

“Poppies Tiarella in Ice” was awarded 2nd prize.

Image credit: © Ian Gilmour | cupoty.com

Second place was awarded to British photographer Ian Gilmour for a vibrantly colored shot of flowers in ice. Gilmour explained: “I submerged some wild poppies in water with tiarella flowers and froze them overnight. I then placed the frozen block on a lightbox and photographed them using my Venus Laowa super macro lens.”

Sebastien Blomme of France got third place for an image of a damselfly using the water surface tension to catch a quick break. Explaining his process, Blomme said: “One day, I settled in the water at a spot where I had noticed a damselfly regularly returned to rest. I waited patiently for its return. At each appearance I fired my camera in burst mode, hoping to capture the moment when its wings would be spread in all their glory. After a hundred attempts, I finally managed to obtain the image I desired.”