Applications call for Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) 2021. Join the gathering of passionate close-up, macro, and micro photographers for the third Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY). This is your chance to put your pictures in front of an elite judging panel and worldwide audience – show them things they’ve never seen before, make them look again at something familiar, or wow them with the beauty and wonder of the world.

Can you make the celebrated shortlist galleries, offering inspiration to fellow photographers and illustrating just what close-up photography can be? The very best images will appear in the CUPOTY Top 100 winner’s gallery, forming a permanent exhibition on the website. Your pictures could be seen by millions as they travel out into the world through newspapers, magazines, online outlets and social media.

The competition has two new categories to enter this year – Underwater and Butterflies & Dragonflies. They are added to Animals, Insects, Plants & Fungi, Intimate Landscape, Manmade, Micro and Young.

Prizes

This year the total prize fund has been boosted to £5,300. The overall winner receives £2,500 and a trophy, while each category winner receives £300. The Young CUPOTY winner is awarded a SIGMA 105mm F2.8 DG DN Macro Art lens and trophy.

Eligibility

• The Close-up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) competition (‘the Competition’) is open to everyone except those working for CUPOTY (‘the Organisers’) and the Judges (including their families and relatives). Employees of sponsors who have not been directly involved in the organization of the Competition may enter.
• By paying to enter the Competition you agree to abide by the following rules (‘Rules’).
• The Competition is open to all professional and amateur photographers of any nationality.
• All entries must be submitted in a digital format. This may be a photograph captured with a digital camera or a high-quality scan from transparency or negative.
• Entrants to the competition must be aged 18 or over on May 23rd 2021. Entrants aged 17 or under on May 23rd 2021 should enter Young CUPOTY.

Image Requirements

Resize a copy of each image so that it is:

• 1920px or less along the longest edge
• at 300dpi
• under 6MB in size
• in the sRGB color space
• without watermarks, borders, or signatures

How to take part?