geyser at Yellowstone

Southern Arizona wilderness

I'm climbing down inside a volcano crater and am amazed with the variety of rock/soil colours that are so neatly piled about.

certainly appearing to be a pile of gemstones, this is actually a extreme closeup shot of a flower anther. within the middle of a gladiolus flower, you'll find four long and narrow stems protruding from the center of each bloom. three of these have a tiny banana-shaped pod (anther) on the end, and the remaining one (stigma) has three tiny fingers on the end. if you zoom into the anther, it appears something like a long canoe-like boat heaping full of cargo. zooming in more (and from the side), you can get a clear view of the 'cargo' of cells stacked up in the anther/boat. this photo is a tiny portion of that cargo and each 'gem' is about half the area of a human hair. (check out our "Sea Monster" shot to see the neighboring stigma up close.)

a Cinnamon Fern in bloom

another spectacular view of Waimea canyon. The lush vegetation and diverse soil colours make for some very nice canyon photos.

a grouping of vibrant hot-pink oriental day-lilies

curious young brown bear in late spring (Aleutian Islands)