Underwater Photograph of Coral Wins Close-Up Photographer of the Year
An astonishing underwater photograph, titled Fractal Forest, has been awarded the grand prize at the Close-up Photographer of the Year 7 competition, announced today, February 5, 2026. Australian photographer Ross Gudgeon captured the winning image inside a cauliflower soft coral in the Lembeh Strait, Indonesia.
Gudgeon’s photograph earned him the competition’s top award and a prize of £2,500 (approximately $3,400). The image reveals intricate textures and shapes within the coral, offering a perspective rarely seen.
According to CUPOTY co-founder Tracy Calder, “This was the toughest competition yet. The winning image embodies everything close-up photography can achieve – it shows us a perspective we’ve never seen before and reveals hidden beauty in a familiar subject. The judges were captivated.”
Fractal Forest was also globally recognized last September as the overall winner at the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year awards.
The winning photograph was taken using a Sony A7R IV camera with a FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens. Gudgeon also utilized a Nauticam EMWL with a 160º objective lens and two Retra Pro flashes. Post-processing was completed using DXO Pure Raw, Adobe Lightroom, Topaz Photo AI, and Adobe Photoshop.
Gudgeon explained that the soft coral is composed of countless small, rounded polyps, giving it a puffy texture. He used an underwater probe lens to explore a perspective not possible with conventional lenses, carefully threading the lens through the coral’s branches without disturbing them to photograph from the inside looking out.
The Close-up Photographer of the Year 7 competition attracted over 12,000 entries from 63 countries. A jury of 22 expert photographers, naturalists, and editors spent more than 20 hours reviewing submissions to select the winners.
Other winning images included a photograph of Danube mayflies swarming in Szentendre, Hungary, taken by Imre Potyo, which won first place in the Insects category. Laurent Hesemans’ portrait of a moth in Costa Rica took first place in the Invertebrate Portrait category, while Sho Hoshino’s image of a tree covered in rime ice in Japan won the Intimate Landscapes category. Minghui Yuan’s photograph of decaying lotus leaves and floating fern in China was awarded first place in the Plants category.
Daniel Sly’s photograph, Ethereal Frogfish, placed second in the Underwater category, depicting an orange painted frogfish in Lembeh Strait, Indonesia. Luis Arpa’s image, Featherhome, featuring a crinoid shrimp clinging to a feather star in Tulamben, Bali, took third place in the Underwater category.
More information about the competition and a complete list of winners can be found at www.cupoty.com/winners-7.
