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2016 Nikon Macro Photo Contest Winners Show The World Like You’ve Never Seen Before
Nikon has just announced the winners of its annual Small World Photomicrography competition, and as you can see from these stunning photographs, bigger isn't always better.
The competition is in its 42nd year and this year over 2000 people from 70 countries entered. For those that don't know, photomicrography is the practise of taking a photograph through a microscope or similar magnifying device in order to capture the intricate details of things invisible to the human eye. From the proboscis of a butterfly and the foot of a beetle to espresso coffee crystals, the pictures below give us a whole new way of looking at world. The categories are divided into winners, honorable mentions, and images of distinction, and you can find the full list on the Nikon Small World website.
More info: Nikon Small World (h/t: demilked)
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Fourth Place. Butterfly Proboscis
Lynn Daley 9 years ago
Stunning! One of the best macro shots I've ever seen. Congradulations on derserving win!
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
Reminds me of those mustache competition photos . . . except this one is for butterflies
Offerscontest 8 years ago
Amazing contest and congratulations to winners. http://www.offerscontest.com/
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#2
Fifth Place. Front Foot (Tarsus) Of A Male Diving Beetle
Flora Polvado 9 years ago
Arty, while I'm willing to bow to superior knowledge, I so hope you're wrong!
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#3
Eyes Of A Jumping Spider
Martha Donaldson 9 years ago
OK, great picture but I'll be having nightmares, I'm sure - Scary visage.
#4
Nineteenth Place. Human Neural Rosette Primordial Brain Cells
Charlotte Fairchild 9 years ago
Looks like the Chihuly neon lights at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Quite electrical.
#5
Eleventh Place. Scales Of A Butterfly Wing Underside
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
All butterfly wings look like they're made of a million little feathers.
Allison Houston 9 years ago
To me they look like thousands of little bow tie noodles
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Julia Overton-Healy 9 years ago
how anyone can claim there is no greater presence in science isn't looking at these photos.
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
It is called microscopic photography. Depending on the subject and the equipment it can be done in a variety of ways.
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#6
Thirteenth Place. Poison Fangs Of A Centipede
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
At first glance I thought it was an animals teeth. Either way, I would not want to be bit by them!
Joe Stiles 9 years ago
Centipedes are animals. Fangs are teeth. So your first glance was correct! ;)
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Aunt Messy 8 years ago
Venomous. If you bite something and it makes you sick, it's poisonous. If it bites you and you get sick, it's venomous.
#7
Sixth Place. Air Bubbles Formed From Melted Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) Crystals
#8
Eighth Place. Wildflower Stamens
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
This is what the bees and butterflies see as they approach. How enticing.
Medhansh Vashisht 9 years ago
Now that's deep thinking, thanks for sharing the perception :)
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#9
Retinal Ganglion Cells In The Whole-Mounted Mouse Retina
Aleks Vujovic 9 years ago
This is a mouse's eye cut up flat? The beaty of it doesn't surpass how f'd up this is. Ew.
Cathy Boyd 8 years ago
"Retinal Ganglion Cells In The Whole-Mounted Mouse Retina" Say that 5 times fast. Okay, once... say it fast once.
Emil Kliver 9 years ago
Kinda reminds me of the Echo flowers from Undertale :O Echo-Flowe...88-png.jpg 
#10
Ninth Place. Espresso Coffee Crystals
Nicole Boivin-Chiasson 9 years ago
That one to the left looks like a snakes head, and you can even see a slithering tongue sticking out!!
#11
First Place. Four-Day-Old Zebrafish Embryo
Raymond McLaughlin 9 years ago
It is only in first place because it has a face. Humans are so predictable.
Catrine Walter 9 years ago
Is it just me that gets the illusion that its moving towards me? Im really tired but its got to be something with its colours to right?
Melanie Sanders 9 years ago
Yes colour optical illusion. Opposing colours where one recedes and one jumps forward making a 3D or pulsating effect.
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#12
Caudal Gill Of A Dragonfly Larva
Carole Pallier Cazzazsnapz 9 years ago
wow!!! wow!!! wow!!!! you would swear it was a painting of trees!
#13
Goatsbeard Flower
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
Aren't these the same flowers we pick as kids, then make a wish and blow on them?
Moria Peters 9 years ago
Goats beard is another name for salsify, Tragopogon porrifoliusis. This is the seedhead, after the flower has passed. It is similar in form to a dandelion seedhead, but much larger.
Alyssa Matthews-Schmidt 9 years ago
This would look gorgeous blown up and printed on canvas as wall art.
#14
Second Place. Polished Slab Of Teepee Canyon Agate
#15
Seventh Place. Leaves Of Selaginella
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
Interesting. Because of the beautiful lighting, I would never have guessed this to be a fern.
Zulfi Robbani 9 years ago
Selaginella was actually green. I don't know how it could be like that
Then Hidayat 9 years ago
dear admin, please put the title of each photo at the bottom, so we can having fun guesting thes picture
#16
Scales Of A Butterfly Wing
Jonathan Parkin 9 years ago
Too many people did butterfly wing scales. They probably lost critical points for originality.
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Hippocampal Neurons
Amanda Wilkinson 9 years ago
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this slide was stained with colors to make the different axons more visible. Neurons aren't naturally colored like this
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#18
Copper Crystals
#19
Scales Of A Butterfly Wing
Cecilia Reyes 9 years ago
Nature is always spectacular, humans just tend to take for granted.
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#20
Jellyfish
#21
Egg Of A Gulf Fritillary Butterfly
Mel Sewell 9 years ago
I can hear a Starwars refrain play in my head when I look at this picture. Those 6 notes(think it's Starwars anyway, could be a different science fiction refrain!)!
#22
Prolegs Of A Hairy Caterpillar Gripping A Small Branch
James Dorey 9 years ago
I'm glad you think so, Cecilia :) that's what I thought as well!
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#23
Interference Patterns On A Glycerin Based Soapy Solution
Veronica Hufana 9 years ago
This looks like an album cover. Hard-pressed to find a worthy bad though.
#24
Robber Fly
Jane Barnes 9 years ago
Looks like something Terry Gilliam would come up with. "And now for something completely different..."
#25
Beta-Alanine And Taurine Crystals
#26
Gears Coupling Hind Legs Of A Planthopper Nymph
#27
Twentieth Place. Cow Dung
Shane Allon 9 years ago
Quick Fact. Those liquid filled spores you see there are the fastest objects known to man(on earth). they accellerate faster than any bullet. This is so that the bacteria can land on a fresh piece of grass, far far away from the poo so that the cow can eat it again. Clever little spore right?
Vezzie Art Nouveau 9 years ago
Actually, the cnidocytes, or stinging organelles, of Phylum Cnidaria are the fastest biological process known to man. They are what stings you when you get hit by a jellyfish. The cnidocyte can go from completely intact to completely discharged in 700 nanoseconds.
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Chris Measor 9 years ago
When you think about, manure ain't that bad. Its "newer" with a 'ma' in frot of it. When you think of all the other choices its really quite refreshing.
Alan Kwong 9 years ago
And what inspired the chap to take his camera to a pile of cow s**t in the first place?
#28
Water Mite
#29
Leg Of A Water Boatman
#30
Black Elder Tree Flower Stamen
Beth Taccia 9 years ago
Ironically these ARE the sex organs of this tree...
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Aleksandra Kozłowska 9 years ago
Did you thought about the shape on the picture or similar to 'Semen' word Flora?
#31
Ant Leg
#32
Wildflower Stamens
#33
Twelfth Place. Human Hela Cell Undergoing Cell Division
#34
Sixteenth Place. 65 Fossil Radiolarians (Zooplankton) Carefully Arranged By Hand In Victorian Style
#35
Licmophora Flabellata Diatoms
#36
Third Place. Brain Cells From Skin Cells
Tihomir Jovanovic 9 years ago
https://gladstone.org/about-us/news/scientists-turn-skin-cells-heart-cells-and-brain-cells-using-drugs The brain cells and the skin cells evolve from the same type of proto-tissue, Ectoderm. They can thus be chemically made to transform with a bit of clever manipulation... See also: http://study.com/academy/lesson/gastrulation-and-the-3-germ-layers-ectoderm-endoderm-mesoderm.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ectoderm
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Spore Capsule Of A Moss
#38
Green Bottle Fly
#39
Curvepod Fumewort (Corydalis Curvisiliqua) Seed
#40
Seeds Of An Indian Paintbrush Wildflower
#41
Slime Mold
#42
Fifteenth Place. Head Section Of An Orange Ladybird
Raymond McLaughlin 9 years ago
For all of you future designers, great ideas for spaceship design.
#43
Dentate Gyrus Of A Optically-Cleared Transgenic Mouse Brain
#44
Testis Of A Fruit Fly
over opinionated 9 years ago
Hi honey see anything interesting on bored panda today? Why yes I got to see fruit fly balls.
#45
Algae
#46
Microcrystal Test For Oxycodone Using Platinic Bromide Solution
#48
Section Of A Red Speckled Jewel Beetle
#49
Tenth Place. Frontonia (Showing Ingested Food, Cilia, Mouth And Trichocysts)
Justyna 9 years ago
look what i found! you can definitely see a mouth there - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWrwWzM3l4c - still, i'm not sure which spot is the mouth in the picture.
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#50
Section Of A Begonia Flower
#51
Tail Of A A Small Shrimp
#52
Deep Sea Crustacea
#53
Mouse Hand, Showing Veins
over opinionated 9 years ago
How many pictures of mouse parts not attached have I seen eyes brains hands... sure multi coloured things are pretty but you didn't need to mutilate the poor creature
Katharine MacLean 8 years ago
Agreed, 100%, why would this even be considered? Cruelty is never beautiful. That poor wee soul.
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#54
Young Flower Buds Of Arabidopsis
#55
Diclofenac Crystals
over opinionated 9 years ago
Don't know what they are but I wish they were bigger it would make a good jewelry jewel
Oliver Bennett 9 years ago
Diclofenac is a nsaid - similar to ibuprofen, but stronger :)
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#57
Cerebellum Brain Section Of A Rat
over opinionated 9 years ago
Ok thanks you upgraded to mutilating rats. That's much better... *sigh...
#59
Viperfish
#63
Galls Of A Mite
#64
Surface Of Embryonic Mouse Kidney
#65
Tintinnid Ciliate Of The Marine Plankton
#66
Hippocampal Slice Culture Stained For Neurons
#67
Forewing (Elytron) Of A Tiger Beetle
Rudolf Büchi 9 years ago
The forewing of the tiger beetle and the scale oft he forester moth are seen by the unaided human eye as a deep green. This picture with a magnification of 500x reveals that it is an additive color mixing of many color points originating from a combination of multilayer interference and dense arranged dimples in the insect cuticle.
#74
Moving Vesicles
#77
Cross-Section Through A Multi-Layered Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Composite Structure For Defect Analysis
#78
A Daisy’s Central Disc Pattern Of Tiny Unopened Flowers
#80
Dasineura Affinis
#83
Fossil Diatom From Oamaru
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What do you think ?
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
A few hundred years ago, biologists had to actually draw what they saw beyond the naked eye. Whether its 10X or 300X, the view under microscopes is mesmerizing.
Alannes Moura 8 years ago
These are mostly microscopic photography, what Nikon refers to in another contest as Photomicrography. Great images but most of them are not what you really call macrophotography. Not fair to those who really used a camera, some lens extension, a macro lens, a ring flash and so on. If you are using an electronic microscope to get your images you in are in another category.
Rodolfo Artiga Gochez 8 years ago
Impressive .... However this contest should be call microscopic photography instead of macro photography.
Moria Peters 9 years ago
Tragopogon porrifolius, commonly known as salsify, seedhead, not flower.
Kathryn Anderson 9 years ago
loving the macro world! who needs aliens when you can focus in on the bug world? bizarre are the creatures we share this planet with :)
Yvonne Bernal 9 years ago
A few hundred years ago, biologists had to actually draw what they saw beyond the naked eye. Whether its 10X or 300X, the view under microscopes is mesmerizing.
Alannes Moura 8 years ago
These are mostly microscopic photography, what Nikon refers to in another contest as Photomicrography. Great images but most of them are not what you really call macrophotography. Not fair to those who really used a camera, some lens extension, a macro lens, a ring flash and so on. If you are using an electronic microscope to get your images you in are in another category.
Rodolfo Artiga Gochez 8 years ago
Impressive .... However this contest should be call microscopic photography instead of macro photography.
Moria Peters 9 years ago
Tragopogon porrifolius, commonly known as salsify, seedhead, not flower.
Kathryn Anderson 9 years ago
loving the macro world! who needs aliens when you can focus in on the bug world? bizarre are the creatures we share this planet with :)
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