from time to time, i see a shot that just shouts "tropical" and i capture the moment just for that reason.

i'm no giraffe expert, but i think the left one wants a kiss.

it is rare that i photograph man-made things when i'm traveling around looking for beautiful things in nature, but artistic construction like this will make it into the photo collection.

Many northern states like Montana have an abundance of colourful stones delivered by glaciers long ago. These happen to be at the edge of a lake under a few inches of water. The entire beach area and bottom of the lake (as far as I could see) was covered in this manner and the stones just under the water provided great rich colour with minimal wave distortion. To be able to shoot straight down and not have any perspective in the stone pattern, I stood in the water and waited for the ripples to disappear before capturing this neat texture image.

southwestern Utah

no photographers were harmed in the capturing of this photo (although we are in need of a new photo-assistant ;-)

This scene has summer fun and relaxation written all over it. It was late June and a perfect day for the season. Climbing down the steep embankment, I was actually standing in several inches of water to get a good view of the mountain peak framed nicely between the nearby trees. I waited for the ripples I created to disappear, and adjusted the tripod rather low to capture the stones just below the water's surface. The way the water refracted from being able to see the bottom of the lake, which slowly faded into the reflections from the far shore, was a nice bonus.