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2009 Winners
Category 2: Science Close-up |
| Winner and overall winner of the competition |
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Photographer: Ms Camilla Floros
Title: Coral polyp mouth
Description: This is a macro shot showing the mouth of a coral polyp surrounded by tentacles. Corals are actually animals and not plants as many people think. They have tiny algae cells that live in their tissue. These algae cells are called zooxanthellae and provide the corals with nutrients. Corals also feed via their tentacles, which have stinging cells that are lethal to tiny prey. Despite the tiny size of individual corals, they are the building blocks of coral reefs and are responsible for building the largest living structure on earth, the Great Barrier Reef. Corals are under threat due to global climate change. This coral is one of many that are being grown in a research aquarium. The aim is to cultivate corals in aquaria to reduce the pressure of collecting colonies from the wild and disturbing the coral reefs. |
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| Runner Up |
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Photographer: Mr John Hobson
Title: Huntsman
Description: This image was taken as part of B-Tech in photography in which I was exploring means of creating aesthetic image using either scientific subject matter and/or scientific techniques. In this case I used photomicrography to photograph the forelegs of the African Huntsman Spider. The subject is the discarded husk of the spider not living specimen. The color in the image is due to using stressed plastic as a slide, instead of glass, and polarizing the light in the microscope. |
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| Runner Up
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Photographer: Mr Nicolas Santrucek
Title: Hydrophytic leaf
Description: The image shows a close-up shot of a hydrophytic leaf. It was taken through a microscope at 200x magnification. A hydrophytic plant is a plant which grows partly or wholly in water. This is about 2mm in length. |
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