Can you guess what you’re seeing in this award-winning extreme close-up?

The winners of the 51st annual Nikon Small World photo contest offer a glimpse at some of the tiniest—and most beautiful—parts of the natural world.

A droplet of water, inside of which tiny spheres of algae glow like jellyfish
Spheres of Volvox algae colonies contained within a droplet of water. Also known as globe algae, a colony is typically mere millimeters in diameter yet can be made up of tens of thousands of individual cells. First discovered by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1700, Volvox are widespread throughout fresh water.
Jan Rosenboom, Nikon Small World
ByClaire Cameron
October 15, 2025

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there is so much the eye cannot see. At the smallest scales, our world takes on an almost alien quality. Microphotography can bring these hidden marvels of the natural world to light, illuminating even the most minute of details.

For more than 50 years, the Nikon Small World competition has celebrated the art of microphotography. Among this year’s honorees are images that defy the imagination.

Take the arresting image at the top of this page. Is it a clutch of translucent frog spawn, or perhaps green pearls of slime? In fact it is a close-up of microscopic algae spheres that appear trapped within a droplet of water. Incredibly, each green sphere is itself a colony made up of as many as 50,000 cells. The image—which was taken by chemical engineer Jan Rosenboom—won second place in the competition. And it is easy to see why.

Other images border on the surreal. One photograph shows what looks recognizably like the pincer of a crustacean covered in a thick carpet of bright, orange hairs—yet it is a close-up of a beetle.

a rice weevil, seen at a highly magnified view, revealing fine details, such us the dozens of lenses making up its eyes, and the fur-like hairs dotting its appendages.
Zhang You’s winning image of a rice weevil in flight against a grain of rice. The weevil’s mouth lies at the end of its long snout, which it uses to pierce and bore into grains—either for food or to lay its eggs.
Zhang You, Nikon Small World

Revealing hidden complexity in nature is perhaps the finest art in microphotography. This year’s winning photograph—a rice weevil appearing as if in flight, fleeing a grain of rice—is a prime example. Rice weevils are tiny agricultural villains, known for attacking crop seeds like rice and laying their eggs inside the grains. In this shot taken by China-based photographer Zhang You, the weevil is shown at scale, emphasizing its small stature while also transforming it into the scourge it is—a winged agent of destruction. 

The image, which took two weeks of work to create, brings into focus “the magnificence and fragility of insects,” You says, adding that he hopes his images will “contribute to the protection, utilization of insects, and the preservation of Earth's ecology.”

Of this year’s 1,925 entries, Nikon recognized 71 for their originality, informational content, technical prowess, and visual beauty. They include the vasculature of an embryonic mouse, and spiny balls of mallow pollen germinating at the same moment as being parasitized by a fungus.

Take a look at some of the standout images from this year’s competition.

Blood vessels forming an intricate mesh network in the shape of a mouse paw
The blood vessels in the limb of an embryonic mouse. Mice may be smaller than humans, but their vasculature remains infinitely complex. Scientists can use fluorescent dye to reveal the pathways of the blood vessels.
Michael Weber, Nikon Small World
Spiky grains of pollen covered in blue rods of fungus
Mallow pollen is illuminated in the moment of germination on the sticky end of a flower’s female sex organs, even as a parasitic fungus attacks. The spiked yellow balls of pollen are ensnared by the blue filaments of the fungus.
Igor Siwanowicz, Nikon Small World
A microscopic view of hairlike growths from sunflowers, which resemble the jointed legs of crabs
Sunflower trichomes are hair-like growths that cover the surface of the plant. Some of these hairs act as a chemical defense mechanism, producing compounds that repel passing predators.
Marek Miś, Nikon Small World
Bright orange and yellow hairs growing from the smooth horn of a beetle
This stacked image shows the thoracic and cephalic horn of a male Golofa porteri, a member of the rhinoceros beetle genus. The luscious crop of golden hairs on this beetle’s horn belie the fact that the beetles often use these outgrowths as weapons in the fight for females.
Michael Parra Puentes, Nikon Small World
A quartz crystal, inside which a yellow matrix of filaments is trapped
A crystal of quartz with filaments of the mineral goethite. The yellow goethite appears like a spider’s web inside this gem. Due to its honeyed color, it is sometimes used as the base for the pigment yellow ochre.
Manfred Heising, Nikon Small World
Blue and pink blood vessels within a zebrafish
This image reveals the blood vessels in the brain of a zebrafish. These are among the most common animal models in science, meaning much of what we know about other animals’ biology—including our own—comes in part from studying these tiny, transparent fish.
Hannah Somers, Nikon Small World
A magnified view of a tardigrade, its inside revealed with fluorescent dye
A tardigrade, stained with a fluorescent dye in order to reveal its innards. At the top right, the tardigrade’s mouth structure leads down to the pharynx, which appears as a bright red bead. Finally, the bright, cloud-like structure inside the tardigrade is, in fact, its stomach.
Gonzalo Quiroga Artigas, Nikon Small World
A magnified view of the claw-like antennae of a copepod
This fluoresced image shows the spiny tendrils of a marine copepod, a microscopic crustacean that is found pretty much anywhere there is water on Earth. There are some 13,000 known species of copepod, but they are so small, ubiquitous, and varied, that that is almost certainly a gross underestimation of their true diversity.
Zachary Sanchez, Nikon Small World