Finalist, Extreme-Macro With Focus-Stacking in High-Magnifications by Adalbert Mojrzisch

"Most of my subjects are found dead on windowsills or in zoological gardens - in that sense you could say they are unremarkable. At first glance the insects appear grey and dirty, but when viewed at high magnifications (usually between 5x and 80x) interesting structures and beautiful colours begin to emerge. Recording such fine detail requires specialist equipment, some of which I have developed and assembled myself. I use a homemade photo-tube, and microscope-lenses corrected to infinity, mounted on a homemade rail. The subject is lit via four flashes triggered by a homemade controller. Each image is a composite of between 200 and 600 individual pictures stacked and stitched together. The calculations are made using Zerene Stacker."