a super closeup shot of a bee's wing. the longer hairs are on the side of the wing facing the camera, and since the wing is mostly transparent, you can also see the hairs on the opposite side which appear shorter as they fade off into the distance. each of these ultra-tiny hairs have a diameter about 1/8000 of an inch (1/4 the thickness of kitchen plastic wrap).

This is a straight-down shot of a young corn lily plant (Veratrum californicum) common in moist meadows along the west coast. The accordion-shaped leaves look just like my camera bellows, but the plant is quite poisonous. In fact, if animals eat the foliage, their offspring can be born with cyclopia (one large eye in center of head).

I was traveling through a high mountain pass at about 14,000 feet and came across an area that was beginning to melt in preparation of spring. I started sizing up the scene and wandered about for the perfect perspective. The masses of melting snow had a beautiful ripple pattern and a large melted area ahead with mini-glaciers made a great foreground. In my usual excitement in preparing for a shot, I commonly overlook safety, and this was no exception. As I squatted down with my camera and pod ready to capture this lovely winter scene, I kept noticing a continuous sinking feeling which required camera adjustments to re-frame the picture properly. The melting snow was settling from my presence and I began to wonder if that melted area ahead was really part of a frozen lake. I looked around and noticed that I was in the middle of a large flat area surrounded by a distant wall of trees all around - I was standing in the center of a large lake. Just as I was debating on whether I would fall through the melting snow, I figured I was already set up for a good photo, so I might as well shoot some film. Thankfully, I made it back onto solid land without incident.

These guys brought a great smile to my face as soon as I saw them. They looked so funny and entertaining, I nearly titled the shot "Abbott & Costello" after the famous comedian pair. They had a certain life about them, as if they were a part of some mythical legend beings that became frozen into these rock formations. The two formations are actually a fair distance apart, making a combined photo more of a challenge. So I did my usual circle the item of interest until you find the best perspective. I tried hiking a ways away and zooming in from a neighboring hill, then up close, then this side or another, until discovering this perspective that worked perfectly for my taste.

a super closeup of an ant's head showing a portion of it's face along with half of it's lateral eye. visually, the entire head appeared a stealthy black, but the photography lighting caused the eye to glow a dark red which made for some interesting contrast. each of the micro-lenses on the compound eye, measure 0.00074 inches in diameter (1,350 of them would make inch). another interesting effect is how the translucent hairs acted like lenses and focused our lighting into little hotspots on the scaly surface.

very close-up shot of a young tree bud

this is a closeup photo of a computer chip that has been 'un-gracefully' opened so we could see it's innards. the warm and colourful section shows different layers of micro-circuity that have been ripped apart from our opening process (somewhere out there, the folks at Intel are cringing). the lava-like black area is the base silicon that has chipped and shattered (again from our opening process). this photo captures an area approximately 1/8 inch in height.