Results of the IGPOTY Macro Art 17 revealed

International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) is now in its 17th competition year and continues to be one of the world’s most respected photography competitions and touring exhibition; especially in the garden and plant photography genres. 

The ‘Macro Art’ results were announced this August and The English Garden are delighted to publish the winners and finalists photographs.

The ubiquitous dandelion seed is nature’s gift to macro photographers; the addition of water droplets enables image refraction and provides endless possibilities. This image was taken under controlled conditions in the studio using focus stacking to achieve the desired depth of field. The refracted subject is a pink Osteospermum flower.

In a small garden on Hong Kong Island, these two individual ants seemed happy meeting up, despite the rainy environment.

I captured this abundant scene of numerous Polyommatus icarus (common blue) butterflies, in my local park. I had never seen so many of them there before. A combination of hot weather, a great amount of Lotus corniculatus (caterpillar’s foodplant) plus lots of other nectar sources, had made a real difference this year (2022). To create more interest in the background – I included hints of wild scabious with the dried, golden grasses.

I photographed this Colias croceus (clouded yellow) butterfly at dawn, which provided an opportunity for excellent background bokeh to be captured using my macro lens.

Last year, one of my goals was to photograph an Anthocharis cardamines (orange-tip) butterfly – in front of the rising sun. In German this butterfly is called Aurora – alike the goddess of dawn, and on this day the conditions were perfect. I found an orange-tip before sunrise, it was windy but