When Palestinian Abdl Al Rahman Al Hammad (@hammad_macro) found a bug hiding in his clothing, rather than reach for a shoe to squish the creature, he went for his camera. The resulting photo of a fearsome and beautiful copper eyed beetle was one of five winners of July's Hamdan bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award (@HIPAae). Al Hammad met his beetle at his home in the Gaza Strip.
Other winners from Indonesia, Iraq, Oman and the UAE were chosen for the July edition of the Instagram photo contest. Its theme was macro photography.
The most popular submissions showed the exquisite beauty of insects from everyday life that are invisible to the naked eye, like the winning photograph of an emerald cuckoo wasp with luminescent colouring photographed by Emirati Yousef Al Habshi (link: @yousef_al_habshi).
Another winner, electrical engineer Rashid Almasoudi (@rashod_macro) made his prize winning photo of a beetle’s head while walking to the mosque last Ramadan.
One exception was an image by Indonesian Wahyu Budiyanto who won with photograph of a water droplet reflection of a man on a bicycle.
The photos can be seen on HIPA's official Instagram account.
Submissions are now open for the seventh season of the HIPA competition. This year’s main theme is “The Moment” with USD$120,000 in prize money for the winner.
For more information, visit www.hipa.ae
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