A 25-year-old built a microscope rig from a tube and some wood — and won Nikon Small World
Ink droplets in motion snag top prize in Nikon Small World contest
Ole Bielfeldt, a 25-year-old experimental photographer from Germany, took the 2026 Nikon Small World prize with a microscopic view of an inkjet printer laying ink onto paper. He beat 1,802 entries from 69 countries. Getting the shot meant tearing the printer apart so paper moved under a stationary printhead, then firing a flash in a dark room to freeze droplets faster than his shutter. No AI, no pricey gear.
By using a microscope objective in a different way, he transformed a familiar object into something altogether new and previously unseen.
- yhjc2692
"Neurons in an expanded mouse brain" (3rd place) is also stunning:
https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2026-photomicrogra...
I didn't know brains actually look like this inside. Our world truly is beautiful, across all scales!
- landonxjames
There is an interesting video of his rig for this shot in this article: https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/masters-of-microscopy/ole-bi...
- doctorzook
It’s a great photo, but the second-place jumping spider is my favorite: it is just so adorable.
https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2026-photomicrogra...
- King-Aaron
When I first saw this photo I refused to believe it was real. This is just so otherworldly, it's fantastic.
- hn-aarvin
The same photographer has two other photographs[^1] which previously were ranked highly in the contest. All seem to focus on chemical reactions and are stunning.
Interestingly, the previous two—of a candle and match—used 2.5x magnification, where as this one required 20x magnification, which just goes to show as to how tiny the printer mechanics really are.