Ole Bielfeldt won the 2026 Nikon Small World microscopy competition with a photograph of ink droplets travelling through a rebuilt printer. A stationary print head and a brief flash kept the fast-moving droplets sharp. The awards also recognised images of a pollen-dusted spider, a mouse eye’s blood vessels and a molting tardigrade.
Ole Bielfeldt, a design student in Cologne, won Nikon Small World’s 2026 photomicrography award by showing ink droplets in flight inside a printer. To keep the ink nozzles in focus under a microscope, he rebuilt the mechanism so that the paper moved while the print head stayed still. Science News interviewed the photographers about their entries; the winners were announced on October 21.[1]
Bielfeldt estimated the droplets’ speed at nearly 20 metres per second. He photographed them in darkness, using a single brief flash to freeze their motion. The printer repeatedly spelled “macro,” echoing the name he uses on social media.[1]
The competition recognised 86 images. John-Oliver Dum took second place with a pollen-dusted jumping spider. His preparation included watching spiders on plants and judging seasonal timing. His wife grows plants whose pollen can be used in the pictures.[1]
A three-dimensional mouse-eye vascular image earned Helsinki researchers Sinem Karaman and Satu Paavonsalo nineteenth place. In twelfth place, Gonzalo Quiroga-Artigas showed a tardigrade leaving an egg in its shed cuticle. Eric Epstein combined 240 exposures for his sixth-place picture, bringing a slime mold’s fruiting bodies into sharp focus.[1]
