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2020 winners announced!

In its inaugural year, the Luminar Bug Photography Awards have attracted an astonishing variety and quality of work from around the world. Over 800 photographers made submissions, all competing for the prestige of winning, and a prize fund of over £23,000.

Our wonderful judging panel was set the unenviable task of choosing their shortlists and winners. They were looking for that rare combination of awe-inspiring creativity, faultless technical skill, and successful and often hard-won interactions with the invertebrate world.

It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to our overall winner….

The Luminar Bug Photographer of the Year 2020

Mofeed Abu Shalwa

Mofeed Abu Shalwa

Mofeed, from Saudi Arabia, is the grand prize winner in this inaugural year of the Luminar Bug Photography Awards. He wowed the judging panel with his consistently high level of technical skill and creativity, and an obvious dedication to his craft. He is a professional photographer with a specialism in macro photography, and started shooting insects 10 years ago. This was partly to help him overcome a childhood phobia of insects, and also to show the beauty and tiny details of insects that a camera lens can bring to light.

The Luminar Young Bug Photographer of the Year 2020

Jamie Spensley

Jamie Spensley

with 'Carder Bee'

17 year-old Jamie comes from Solihull in the UK, and is studying Creative Media at college. He has a passion for shooting macro, and won with this stunning shot of a carder bee. As he explains “because it was shot handheld, focus stacking was a nightmare. I couldn’t do it automatically, so had to mask out all of the out-of-focus areas in each of the forty-one images that I used. I was very happy with the result.”

More of Jamie’s images

About the Awards

The Luminar Bug Photography Awards were launched in 2020, with a £23,000 prize fund and a prestigious panel of judges.

The awards showcase the best invertebrates photography from around the world, and raise vital funds for our conservation partner, Buglife.

A hugely successful first year saw over 5,000 images entered, and an extremely high quality across all 11 categories. The awards will run on an annual basis, and are already established as the premier awards for invertebrate photography.

Help save the planet

Buglife membership costs just £3 per month

Entering the Luminar Bug Photography Awards will raise vital funds for Buglife - the only organisation in Europe devoted to the conservation of all invertebrates. Actively working to save Britain’s rarest little animals, everything from bees to beetles, worms to woodlice and jumping spiders to jellyfish.

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