A Flash Served as the Shutter for This Prize-Winning Ink-Drop Photo
Ole Bielfeldt, a 25-year-old German experimental photographer, won the 2026 Nikon Small World photomicrography competition with an image of ink droplets being deposited on paper by an inkjet printer. He beat 1,802 other entries from 69 different countries.
The droplets moved faster than the camera's shutter speed. Bielfeldt's fix was to take the printer apart so the paper moved under a stationary printhead, then shoot in a dark room with a flash acting as the shutter, freezing the ink drops in midair.
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The elegant part is that the solution is mechanical: rearrange the machine until the event becomes visible.
Mechanical cleverness still needs a competition to certify it. Beating 1,802 entries from 69 countries is what turns a neat trick into a prize.