The sloping sides of Bryce Canyon have a very unique variegated effect as the many layers of coloured sandstone errode away. I couldn't pass up such an opportunity to capture a good texture shot and grabbed a 600mm lens to grab the distant details.

almost passing for an aerial photo over some trees, ocean, and a smoldering volcano, this world was actually discovered on the belly of a small fly - more specifically a tiny Blue-green Long-legged fly (Condylostylus). the micro-hairs along the contours of it's abdomen now look like a forest of trees covering the hills of a tropical island. the way the light reflects of the fly's metallic-like surface, gave us the ocean and rainforest colour palette. and the volcano is actually a hair pore with the hair shaft going out of focus toward the camera, giving the appearance of rising column of smoke. the width of this shot covers 0.0126 inches which is the thickness of a playing card.

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.)

cluster of apple blossoms during mid-spring

It is slow and tiresome hiking through miles of these steep rows of sandstone walls. it's a very beautiful location, speckled with small trees and interesting formations, but relentless with it's heat and giant maze-like features. most of my time is used climbing up & down (and winding to & fro) than actual forward progress (if forward is even a possible direction).

foliage on the tropical island of HaiNan

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

this is a closeup shot of an Asiatic Lily. toward the base of each petal, are two short rows of fleshy-hairs running down the center (easily gone unnoticed). as the dark red petal nears the main flower stem, it makes a quick transition to white and then green. this shot captures the tiny fuzz (gummi worms in foreground) near the base of the petal (green brick-like cells in background) during that multi-colour transition. each 'worm' measures 0.0021 inches in diameter (a row of 475 would make an inch).