almost looking like someone dropped a jar of jelly, this is actually a closeup photo of a dark red Asiatic Lily. toward the base of each petal are two tiny rows of fleshy-hairs that when magnified, look like dripping jelly. one of the hair rows is the dark red feature going diagonally across this shot, and a glimpse of the second row in the upper-left corner. the 'hairs' in this shot average 0.0087 inches in height, so 115 of them lined end-to-end would equal an inch.

following a simple trail through an Oregon woods, i enjoyed the surrounding environment of wildflowers, boulder outcrops, and thick forest. About a half-an-hour in, i came across Proxy Falls in early afternoon light peeking through the trees and in a few minutes found a good location to begin the camera setup process. While immersed in the constantly changing light readings, i heard another hiker nearby, but was only moments away from capturing this shot so i didn't break my concentration. After i captured the event, i was greatly surprised to notice a small crowd of 8 other hikers with cameras and tripods all encircled behind me shooting over my shoulders. I learned they were on a guided photo tour group and this was a good stop.

Along the desert surface, a lengthy crack can be seen. More exploring reveals an entire other world of underground beauty. I have the camera pointed up at about 45° toward these whirls of sandstone carved out by centuries of flash flood waters from rain many miles away.

Foxglove stalk full of bell-shaped blooms

like most things we get our hands on,.. we photograph it. this is a closeup shot of a synthetic-foam brush and after we zoomed in, it became quite clear on how it holds paint so well. the foam strands (connected together like a web) average around 0.0027 inches in diameter (size of a human hair).

Typically when I shoot autumn images, I am biased toward early autumn so that there is more green with only some yellows and orange. I so much appreciate the lush greens that nature produces and it looks so full of life. Although fall colours are quite beautiful, I still prefer to maintain a fair amount of green in the photo as this makes the other autumn colours more pronounced and appreciable.

huge canopy over Japanese garden creating a perfect balance of shade and sun for comfort.