Your Best Shot June 2026 - Big and Small - The winners!
Your Best Shot is a photo competition open to Australian residents. There's a different theme every couple of months, and a selection of the winning shots will be published in AP mag and online.
Each issue, AP's Editor Mike O'Connor will choose six images to be published both in print and online, with both a winner and a runner-up selected. Our winner will also receive an amazing prize thanks to Think Tank.
You can find out all the details for entry and the themes for 2026/7 here.
Winner
Editor’s comment: We’ve been following the work of John Peters since he won the Wildlife and Animal category in Photographer of the Year, and it was hard to go past this striking take on big and small in Your Best Shot either.
Here, a tiny male peacock spider (Maratus scutulatus) finds itself in a tense moment alongside Australia’s largest jumping spider, a male Mopsus mormon.
“Though the Mopsus mormon continued to munch away on its meal, I still managed to get a 37x image focus stack at around 1.5x magnification, with the series of shots having minimal movement, allowing a clean stacked result,” he says.
There’s something magical about the tiny worlds that macro photography opens up, and this is one of the best examples of why. A technically perfect shot with lots of amazing details to explore.
Technical details
Sony A6400, Viltrox 25mm f/1.7 lens. 1/250s @ f1.7, ISO 2000.
Highly commended
Editor’s comment: We really enjoyed the hypnotising creativity on display in Debbie Hartley’s Nautilus Pencils — an image that looks deceptively simple, but is the result of careful balance and precision.
Photographed using natural light on a white background, the pencils are arranged to form the shape of a nautilus shell, echoing nature’s sense of perfect symmetry in a very bright way – well done.
Technical details
Canon R5, Sigma 50mm art lens. 1/60s @ F5.6, ISO 1250.
How I did it: On a photo tour to Iceland, we visited a cliffs area near the Reykjanes Lighthouse. One of the photographers volunteered to climb and stand on the opposite cliff to where we were set up, just to add scale. In January, the sun doesn't rise high over the horizon and sets early in the afternoon. The suns decreasing glow is on the right of the image.
Technical details
Nikon D850, Sigma 70-200mm F/2.8 lens @ 98mm. 1/50s @ f10, ISO 500.
How I did it: As striking as this larger than life street mural in Melbourne is, I waited for a real life figure to walk past and stop momentarily, to underline its scale.
Technical details
Sony A7 III, Sony GM 24-70 lens @ 47mm. 1/80s @ f8, ISO 640.
How I did it: This little boy was fascinated by the statue of Pope John Paul II outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. I took a series of shots but this one ended up being my favourite. I couldn’t help but be charmed by his innocence and curiosity.
Technical details
Nikon Z7 II, Nikon AF-S 50 mm f/1.4 G lens. 1/400s @ f9, ISO 400.
How I did it: This shot was captured on Sydney Harbour. We were entering the Harbour on board a cruise ship and I captured this small boat heading out of the harbour at dawn as we were arriving to dock and disembark our cruise. The small boat stood out as the sole boat with the large city scape for its backdrop.
Technical details