home grown soda bottles? well, not quite. laying across the bottom of the photo is the edge of a daisy's stem, and the 'bottle' is a single hair/fuzz (1/60 of an inch in height) protruding from that stem. daisy plants have bristly stems (in between soft and prickly) so the fuzz has a larger diameter making it more stiff, and as we recently discovered... it's also hollow and uniquely shaped. to add a little colour, we placed a small piece of yellow tractor-feed paper as a background, so that the out-of-focus hole created a nice glow on the horizon.

a walk in the woods during early autumn in Indiana

female brown bear taking it easy (Aleutian Islands)

vast amounts of water flowing over Horseshoe Falls (Canadian side of Niagara Falls)

For many years, I lived next to a large duck pond just outside my back door and it was not uncommon to see me set up on a nearby bank. After some time, the local inhabitants seemed to accept my presence and felt safe to get closer for a better look like this curious duck.

an unusual grouping of various flowers

Below ground caverns in Arizona wilderness, carved out by centuries of flash flood waters from rain many miles away.

i'm keeping my distance and using my longest lens as this female hunter is sizing up lunch.