Close Up Winners

Winner

Drosophila melanogaster embryo at stage 17 of embryonic development

Photographer: Samantha Warrington

"My image captured the Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) embryo - which is the size of the eye of a needle - when it was approximately 20 hours old and shows the anterior (head end) to the left and three cell membrane proteins which are fluorescently labelled in blue, green and red.

Preparation and fixing of the sample took two days before being carefully orientated and mounted on a glass slide and then imaged.

As the image is a cross-section through the embryo the outer layer (the epidermis) can be seen in green. At the rear end of the embryo are two large round holes (the spiracles), which are required for breathing. The blue branched structure running along the top edge of the embryo is part of the tracheal system, a network of tubes that carry air from the spiracles to internal tissues. Other structures visible inside the embryo are parts of the gut and nervous system, including the hindgut, which is the distinctive shepherd’s crook shape in green.

I chose this image to submit because it shows the outer surface of the fly while still giving the impression of looking deeper within the embryo at the fly’s internal structures, which made it look more interesting."

Location: University of Sheffield's light microscope facility

Camera details: Zeiss LSM 510 confocal microscope, with a 40x objective, pinhole at 1 Airy unit, with 488cm, 561nm and 633nm lasers. The different colours were taken simultaneously.

Runner-up

Male warty chameleon’s eye (Furcifer verrucosus)

Photographer: Louise Jasper

"My fiancé and I had taken a short break for the New Year in Anakao, in southwest Madagascar, just a few hours south from where we live in Toliara. I was just returning to our cabin after an early morning ramble amongst the dune vegetation, when I noticed a flash of colour in some thorny shrubs. The flash turned out to be a male warty chameleon (Furcifer verrucosus), who was showing off his breeding-season colours to a nearby female. Normally a rather drab mixture of grey, white and green, this male was certainly something special. Although the pair did not seem seriously bothered by my presence while I photographed them, the male kept one bejewelled eye on me as he climbed further along his branch.

It was a fairly challenging shot, due to the low light levels and the fact that the chameleon was moving about constantly in a twiggy shrub, but he looked back at me at just the right moment. I thought this shot was worthy of entry because of the unusual angle, the narrow depth of field and the fantastic colours of the eye scales contrasting with the greys of the background and the chameleon itself."

Location: near the village of Anakao, south of Toliara, Madagascar

Camera details: Nikon D5000 camera and a 70-300mm Tamron lens, aperture f/5.6, shutter speed 1/640 sec, ISO 800, no flash 

Highly Commended

Sucker on foreleg of male Dytiscus marginalis beetle

Photographer: Steve Lowry

"I have been interested for some time in the skill of the Victorian microscopists and in their choice of subjects for preparing microscope slides and have produced an exhibition of photographs taken from vintage slides.  Among the favourite specimens of the Victorians were the elaborate suckers on the forelegs of male Great Diving Beetles (Dytiscus marginalis), used to attach the males to the females during mating.  Like the Victorians, I have been fascinated by these structures and have about half a dozen different preparations in my collection.  Considering the number of slides of these legs still in existence the Victorian era was not a good time to be a Great Diving Beetle!

This is image was produced from the best example of an entire leg in my collection and is a homage to the skill of the Victorian microscopists.  The photo was taken using a Nikon D200 camera attached to an Olympus microscope using a low power objective."

Location: Portstewart, Co. Londonberry

Camera details: Nikon D200 attached to an Olympus BX45 microscope