35 Cool Macro Photography Shots That Feel Like Another Universe

We live in a big world, but when you slow down and look at the small stuff, it somehow feels even bigger. Macro photography turns tiny moments into epic landscapes. Water droplets become planets, bugs look like armored tanks, and flower petals transform into abstract art.

These cool close-ups prove there is a whole other universe hiding in plain sight. All you have to do is zoom in.

1.

2. Dandelion and Pink Spider’, 1st Place, Macro Art, Competition 17

3.

4. “Meeting Up”

“In a small garden on Hong Kong Island, these two individual ants seemed happy meeting up, despite the rainy environment. The species in the image belongs to the genus Oecophylla, common names include weaver ant or green ant.”

5.

6. “Blue Bonanza”

“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.”

7.

8. “Clouded Yellow”

“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.”

9.

10. “Droplets on Slime Mould”

“This image was created in my garden – an old rotting fence post was adorned with Comatricha slime mould fruiting bodies.

I used an ultra-fine mist spray to add the droplets, to give the image a further dimension, and the surface water in the foreground also gave pleasing reflections.

The background was created using a colourful strawberry leaf, and I then focus stacked 56 images together in post-processing.”

11.

12. “The Next Generation”

“I went into my garage and I noticed that I had plenty of female cellar spiders (Pholcus phalangioides) carrying their egg sacks. It was extremely difficult to get a photo of them as they spend most of their lives upside down on the ceiling. After many days of trying, I managed to get this focus stack. After looking at the back of my camera, I noticed that I could see the spiderlings inside the eggs.”

13.

Kyle | Summer Flowers Nature Macro & Insect Expert Photographer

14. “A Jewel in the Grass”

“Rosemary beetles (Chrysolina americana) have become widespread in British gardens since the mid-1990s. They blend in reasonably well with the rosemary and lavender but get up close with a macro lens and a flash and they look pretty funky, to say the least. I hope these little beetles stick around my garden for a while! Single handheld shot. 1/200th of a second at f/18 with a flash diffuser.”

15.

16. “Brown Argus, roosting at sunrise”

“I have a fascination with roosting butterflies, so during the summer months when conditions are right, I will get up at unearthly times to get in place for sunrise. The trick is to find willing volunteers, which have positioned themselves to take advantage of the warming, rising sun. This Brown Argus was just perfect – it had climbed high enough that I could get it silhouetted against the sun. Lens aperture was wide open to make the sun as huge as possible, and the butterfly pin-sharp.”

17.

18. “Honey bees”

DUring the covid lockdown i spent a significant amount of time in the garden growing various flowering plants and getting to the know the varied flora and fauna in my garden and capturing them with my camera which helped to destress the most. I made the garden bee friendly as much as possible with the help of Internet forums and was rewarded with a variety of bees and would pend hours capturing them feeding.

19.

20. “Milking Bonnets”

“I visited Marbury Park looking for fungi and found these Milking Bonnets growing on a log. I used my LED panel to backlight them and used my water spray to create the ‘rain’ effect. f/6.3, 1/400s.”