This dusty miller plant would look right at home as an underwater sea plant on a coral reef, but is actually a nice terrain-based plant with velvety-soft leaves.

unique purple lily blooms in southern China

For several kilometers in the GuiLin area, there exist many of these uniquely shaped mountains. They are a pleasure to travel through and are ever-changing as the sun passes over. The locals have a saying concerning their beautiful surroundings; "I'd rather be a GuiLin man [person] than a supernatural being".

a picture-perfect passage between cliffs in southern Illinois

Indiana wetlands

giant variegated Agave plant in Arizona desert

Once again, I was on my way back to my hotel after a beautiful day of shooting natures fine work. In my rearview mirror, I saw some very dramatic clouds and light working their way into a masterpiece. I pulled over, grabbed some gear and hiked off the roadside a bit to find a clearing other than the highway. It was a woodsy area and to my luck, I quickly come across a large pond. Not only did it offer me a great view of the sky, but it supplemented it with some lovely reflections. I waited for the sun to just barely hide behind the next set of passing clouds and then I got to work. A few streams of light burst out only to add to this gorgeous moment in time. Much like when we were kids and laid back to see things in the clouds, these two predominant clouds remind me of moose antlers. Virtually no one else saw my unique point of view, so I refrained from publicly titling this scene "Moose Ears".

certainly appearing to be a pile of gemstones, this is actually a extreme closeup shot of a flower anther. within the middle of a gladiolus flower, you'll find four long and narrow stems protruding from the center of each bloom. three of these have a tiny banana-shaped pod (anther) on the end, and the remaining one (stigma) has three tiny fingers on the end. if you zoom into the anther, it appears something like a long canoe-like boat heaping full of cargo. zooming in more (and from the side), you can get a clear view of the 'cargo' of cells stacked up in the anther/boat. this photo is a tiny portion of that cargo and each 'gem' is about half the area of a human hair. (check out our "Sea Monster" shot to see the neighboring stigma up close.)