Maui rain-forest

I came across this friendly creature high in the Andes Mountains. As I began a quick set up for a photo, she came closer and more curious and I couldn't help but notice a seemingly happy expression.

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.

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.

as the snow accumulates in the high mountains, it stacks up and begins to slide down the mountain side as a glacier. as the glacier continues to get pushed from behind (from more incoming snow), it becomes packed into a very dense ice and can travel decades across the country side. sometimes they end by finally giving way to the heat, and turn into a stream of icy cold water. other times they end by crumbling into an ocean like this one.

This beautiful sunset brought a wonderful end to a long day. I was returning from a day long shoot at a local club. Everything that could have gone wrong that day, did, and then some. It was blistering hot and I was well sun burnt. That evening, on the way back to the Studio, I decided to stop by the beach to relieve the day's tension. I often take my camera out for a walk and this was as good time as any. Barefoot in the sand, I stroll up the shore trying to forget my day. I came across a rather nice sand castle that some kids built. Stooping down trying to see what kind of silhouette shot I could get with the sun setting behind it, I squeezed off a few shots for fun. I had noticed that at certain angles, the water reflected the blues and purples in the sky and the sand castle suddenly became much less interesting. The colours were so rich I immediately took some light readings and captured the waves while the colour was at its prime.

graduated sunset colours behind a silhouette of winter trees