appearing as a beautiful iridescent wing from a magical creature, this is actually a small portion of a single grain of black sand. we were exploring a small clump of sand for a good shot, and noticed a tiny colourful spot sparkling out from one of the grains of lava rock. zooming in much more, we discovered this 'wing' shape measuring 0.0058 inches long (equivalent to the thickness of a sheet of paper). the entire grain of sand at this level of magnification, would fill 20 of these photos.

appearing as an aerial shot over an industrial area, this is actually an extreme closeup photo of a computer chip. more specifically a 64-bit Pentium dual core processor, containing 167-million transistors. the various colours come from the studio lights reflecting off the ultra-fine details in the semiconductor material causing a diffraction-grating type effect. this entire shot captures an area of 0.0000205 square inches (tad larger than the diameter of a human hair). to capture the whole CPU at this magnification, would take nearly 8,400 photos.

Delicate Arch, one of the most photographed natural arches in the country, and is even the state icon appearing on nearly everything throughout Utah. It is quite massive and resides on the edge of a steep canyon wall that quickly slopes more and more, making the hiker uncertain just how far beyond this landmark they can travel before footing will give way.

hot mineral springs in Wyoming

early morning on Kauai

overlapping leaves on a young Sycamore Tree

small forest on the side of a volcano in Maui

side area of MachuPicchu