Macro

Beautifully composed and pin-sharp, this study of Papilio machaon butterflies (male and female) was apparently taken on a windy morning, but you’d never know it. The symmetry is fantastic, and the angle of the flower they’re resting on ensures that one insect is higher than the other, which stops things from looking too static. The colour of the background, and level of blur, contrasts wonderfully with the colour of the wings and the fine detail they contain.

The expanse of green in this picture is delightful – it gives a good indication of how small the green lacewing is, and a clear sense of the environment it lives in. With so much space in the direction the insect is looking it's easy to imagine it flying away to the left.

Whether you’re a fan of arachnids or not, this image cannot fail to elicit a shiver. You can see every hair on the body of this jumping spider, and the incredible reflections in its eyes make it look as though it’s eyeing you up for the second course. The colours in the background and foreground complement the spider perfectly.

There’s a beautiful fairy-tale quality to this picture, and it’s a great example of what can be achieved if you stay in one place and put the effort into managing the background creatively. Using an aperture of f/4.5 has ensured the harebell becomes a wash of colour– if too much detail had been revealed it would have been distracting.

Adopting a worm’s-eye view has worked well here, and gives the viewer the sense that they are down on the forest floor breathing in the heady scent of autumn. The burst of light filtering through the trees (top right) is perfect too. But the image is a little too dark, and lacks punch. A splash of light on the main subject, maybe created by a handheld LED light, would have helped.