Science Image Entries 2020/21

Winning images from the 2020/21 Science Image Award

First prize: Pansy by Duxford Community C of E Primary School

The judge said, “In macrophotography it is easy to capture detail and hard to make a good composition. This photo is unusual in being superb in both respects.”

Second prize: Flower Buds by Duxford Community C of E Primary School

The judge said, “The choice of focal level and the overall composition of this elegant image are perfect. Choosing an area where the longitudinal axes of all the buds are parallel makes the graceful shape and symmetry of the buds plain.”

Third prize: Beetle by Winhills Primary Academy

The judge said, “This is brilliantly lit to show the shining tubercles on the cuticle of this beetle. A professional photographer would take a series of images at different levels of a subject like this, and put them together in projection software to produce a result in which every detail of all the beetle's legs and body is sharply focussed. This lovely photo shows how the limited depth of field of the microscope in a single photo can be exploited to concentrate on the detailed knee joints and blur out the textured background, without any need for digital processing.”