APOY 2016 Round 5: Little Wonder – Macro

It’s one of our strongest rounds so far in APOY 2016. Here we have the top 30 macro images for round 5

While it may look simple enough, macro is actually one of those genres that can be a little tricky to get a handle on. With everything so reduced, the photographer has to reconfigure the most basic rules of light and composition. This is particularly true when dealing with subjects such as insects,which don’t take well to stage direction, and flowers that move in even the slightest breeze.

In this round we asked you to send us your best shots of flowers, plants, insects and arachnids, and it’s pleasing to see the overwhelming quality of the images that we were sent. The winner of round 5 (macro) is Yehya Belhadad from Algeria.

Yehya takes home a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro lens and Sigma EM-140 DG Macro flash.

The 105mm f/2.8 is a large-aperture medium telephoto macro lens that incorporates the latest optical design technology and offers advanced performance for close-up photography. A Special Low Dispersion (SLD) lens and one high refractive index SLD lens provide excellent correction for all types of aberration and distortion. A floating focusing system moves two different lens groups in the optical path to different positions. This system compensates for astigmatic aberration and spherical aberration, and provides high optical performance from infinity to 1:1 Macro.

Yehya also takes home a Sigma EM-140 DG Electronic Macro Ring Flash, which can be used on the lens or off-camera. It is ideal for photographing subjects in fine detail, and is extremely effective for close-up subjects such as insects and flowers. Handily, the dual flash tubes can fire simultaneously or separately. Using only one flashtube creates shadow in your image, which is especially good at giving your subject real depth and your photograph an attractive three-dimensional feel.

All in all, Yehya takes home a prize value worth a total of £1,029.98.

1st Yehya Belhadad, Algeria 50pts

Sony Alpha 33, 18-55mm, 1/80sec at f/5, ISO 400.

The winner of round 5 is Yehya Belhadad’s macro image of a jumping spider wandering around the leaf of a plant. This really is an engaging image, not least because of the striking colours that provide a generous amount of environmental context to the arachnid subject. The shallow depth of field does so much to render the background as a beautiful palette, and it’s this element that helps to draw our attention to the pin-sharp subject. In this shot, you can see why spiders make such brilliant subjects for macro photography. It’s a gorgeous photograph and a well-deserving first place in this round.

2nd Keith Trueman, Devon 49pts

Canon EOS 7D, 65mm, 0.5sec at f/5.6, ISO 100.

This image taken by Keith Trueman stood out immediately in the judging process. What we see here is a picture of a solitary bee, which is actually a stack of images taken at dawn using a mixture of natural and artificial diffused light. It took 20 images for Keith to achieve this final photograph and it was well worth the effort. This is essentially a portrait, and the kind of photograph you could gaze at for ages.

3rd Penny Halsall, Oxon 48pts

Sony Alpha 7, 28-70mm, 5secs at f/22, ISO 100.

To round off the top three we have this image from Penny Halsall. Penny has called her shot ‘Seven Year Itch’, a reference to her subject – a seven-year-old wedding bouquet, complete with dried roses. Penny shot her subject with diffused natural light against a black background. There’s something classic about the arrangement of the subject and the light. It evokes Renaissance painting techniques and that’s a great compliment.

Here are the top 50 entries for this APOY 2016 Round 5: Little Wonder – Macro

1. Yehya Belhadad 50pts
2. Keith Trueman 49pts
3. Penny Halsall 48pts
4. Swaroop Singha Roy 47pts
5. Rob Deyes 46pts
6. Dylan Nardini 45pts
7. Sigita Playdon 44pts
8. Matthew Holland 43pts
9. Robbie Ross 42pts
10. Simon Anderson 41pts
11. Steve Palmer 40pts
12. Amanda White 39pts
13. Bruce Jones 38pts
14. Elizabeth Nunn 37pts
15. Raquel Maia Arvelos 36pts
16. John Bauch 35pts
17. Rory McDonald 34pts
18. Miguel Martins 33pts
19. Mark Shayler 32pts
20. Adrian Mills 31pts
21. César Torres 30pts
22. David Kitson 29pts
23. Kadek Wigunantara 28pts
24. Richard Eyers 27pts
25. John Cogan 26pts
26. Andrew Small 25pts
27. Elena Kurlaviciute 24pts
28. Marcello Horta 23pts
29. Mostafa Ghroz 22pts
30. Russ Barnes 21pts
31. Jevgenijs Scolokovs 20pts
32. Julia Francisquini 19pts
33. Neil Burnell 18pts
34. David Travis 17pts
35. Gabriele Kissel 16pts
36. Paul Foster 15pts
37. Rick Nairn 14pts
38. Gavin Duncan 13pts
39. Gary Marshall 12pts
40. David Astley 11pts
41. Michael Marsh 10pts
42. Anthony Hammond 9pts
43. Cynthia Saharrea 8pts
44. Peter Clark 7pts
45. John Crooks 6pts
46. Morris Conlan 5pts
47. Wayne Symons 4pts
48. Babak Dadvand 3pts
49. Cristian Agostini 2pts
50. Peter Murrell 1pt

The 2016 Leaderboard

Penny Halsall has held on to first place with 154 points. Behind her, in second place, is Sigita Playdon with 119 points and in third place we find Adrian Mills with 117 points. Russ Barnes has taken fourth place with 116 points and in fifth is George Digalakis with 100 points.

Position	Name	Points
1	Penny Halsall	154pts
2	Sigita Playdon	119pts
3	Adrian Mills	117pts
4	Russ Barnes	116pts
5	George Diagalakis	100pts
6	Bertrand Chombart	94pts
6	David Fletcher	94pts
8	Adam Zoltan Nagy	90pts
9	Richard Eyers	89pts
10	Dominic Beaven	87pts

Enter APOY 2016 and win prizes from Sigma