amongst the ruins in MachuPicchu

large hawk-like bird in the Philippines

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).

a straight-down shot at a wonderful assortment of summer flowers growing together

overlapping leaves on a young Sycamore Tree

i've been scouting around for a perfect rose shot - which for anyone whom has tried this, understands the challenge - there's almost always some imperfection or imbalance that keeps one searching for something better. i happen to find these three pink roses in a row and focused on the perfect pattern of soft pink petals on the center bloom.

Alder Lake in Washington state

this is a piece of abstract art that was created on another planet - yes, really! on the occasion that a planet blows up (usually from a massive collision), the various substrates fly off into space and sometimes find their way to earth as a meteorite. typically these are either rocky (from the planet's mantle and crust) or iron-nickel (from the core), but on very rare occasions, earth receives a piece from the in-between boundary layer where crystals have formed. this is a closeup photo of a pallasite meteorite, looking deep into the olivine crystals formed on another world. we zoomed in to view about 1/20 of an inch (about the thickness of a DVD), and used very bright and finely focused lights that illuminated every bubble and imperfection to refract an assortment of extra colours... after all, this is from another planet, so we have to make it look as other-worldly as possible.