not a bad place to stop for a rest...

despite it's appearance, this is not a coral reef growth, nor anything under the ocean. it is actually a closeup shot within the center of a daisy. we were surprised to discover that the flower's fuzzy brown cone was made up of these finger-like structures that looked so much like something under the sea. the photo captures 0.036 x 0.054 inches (about the thickness of a DVD) of the flower's center cone.

glass tulips illuminated with various neon lights would certainly make a wonderful piece of contemporary art, but this is actually a closeup photo of a Grecian Windflower. in between the bumpy center cone and the outer petals, is a ring of many stamen with short filaments. zooming in extra tight on the area where the anthers (top part resembling mini-tulips) connect with the filaments (supporting stems), and adding in a micro-spotlight to make everything sparkle, you then get a shot like this. each filament (stems seen at the bottom) measures around 0.0062 inches in diameter which is a tad thinner than a bristle on a toothbrush.

almost looking like the famous british breakfast omelet, this is actually an extreme closeup shot of a flower petal. more specifically, an area of 0.06 x 0.04 inches (about the thickness of a DVD) of a gladiolus bloom. i focused on the area of the petal where it transitioned from an overall pale-yellow down to it's dark-red throat. here, i discovered a layer of egg-yolk-like cells separated by clear gel-like cells which allowed me to see down to a lower layer of pale-yellow flesh riddled with tiny purple spots (averaging 1/1500 of an inch each). all-in-all, a most interesting find for the day that makes a beautiful piece of abstract art.

some picture-perfect stalks of Imperial Fritillaria (lutea maxima) just waiting for someone like me to come by and capture them on film.

appearing to be a nice artsy mosaic of tiles, this is actually a closeup shot of a Rose of Sharon flower. this particular shrub had white blooms with dark-pink patterns down in the throat. when you zoom in (way in) to where the pink and white meet, you can see cell patterns like this. (photo captures 0.05 x 0.03 inches of the flower petal so the height of this photo is the thickness of a credit card)