Habshi photographed the weevil by using a reflected light technique and stacking together 128 micrographs. “The main challenge was to show the black body against the black background without overexposing the skin and scales,” he said of the winning image Second place went to Rogelio Moreno of Panama for an image of a fern sorus—a clustered structure that contains and produces spores. To capture the fern sorus Moreno used a technique called autofluorescence which involves shining ultraviolet light on the subject, the vibrant colors of Moreno’s final image indicate the varied maturity stages of the sporangium within the fern sorus. Saulius Gugis of Naperville, Illinois took third place with this image of a spittlebug nymph which was created using focus stacking. The nymph is in the midst of making its bubble house, which keeps it safe from predators and temperature fluctuations that may cause them to dry out. Check out the other top images in the gallery below.
