After the boiling hot mineral water oozes up from the earth, it eventually starts to cool and the mineral elements fall out of suspension. Since the edges are cooler than the middle, the sediment builds up a little perimeter wall one grain at a time. Over time, large cascading pools are created as they overflow and puddle to create more.

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).

early morning on Kauai

an up-shot of the large clusters of dates on this Phoenix dactylifera in Kauai

a fun place to roam around with a camera within a remote corner of the Utah wilderness

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.

closely resembling a (well used) golf ball, this is actually a super closeup shot of a Zinnia's flower petal. the petals have a cool pattern of dimples each measuring about 1/1000th of an inch across. we then focused a ultra-tiny spotlight so that the shaft of light was the size of a human hair (smaller than a laser beam). as the highly focused light bled out through the relatively flat petal (see inset), it created the shading effect of a round ball.

a grouping of vibrant hot-pink oriental day-lilies