very close-up shot of a young tree bud

the surf is definitely 'up' today

some picture-perfect stalks of Imperial Fritillaria (lutea maxima) just waiting for someone like me to come by and capture them on film.

It was late spring in the Utah desert and I got caught in a light rain shower. It was hot, so the rain felt nice, but I still didn't want to get soaked and be encumbered with wet clothes. I stooped under a tree about the height of a house (tall for the region) and let it shelter me from most of the rain. In about 30 minutes, it turned to a fine mist and I continued up the mountain. Soon the sun started to peek out and turned my surroundings to a steamy sauna. Whenever the sun comes out after a rain, I immediately look for the possibility of a rainbow. Rainbows are so beautiful and last only a moment, that I do everything possible to capture one onto film. Sure enough, one started to emerge right in front of me, but was mostly obscured by the ground, so I started to run up the hill for a better view. The mountainside was steep and seemed to never end. Each time I thought I could see it leveling off, by the time I got there, it continued upward. I was exhausted and time was quickly counting down. I managed to make my way to a partial overlook and captured ¾ of the arch of colour before it faded away.

this is one of the final water drops from the 'wettest place on Earth'. The inner parts of this canyon receives over 240-inches of rainfall each year which flows through a large number of tall waterfalls throughout the canyon.

Although this can commonly grow into a tree it is officially classified as a shrub (cotinus coggygria) from Eurasia, and a really cool shrub at that. This was my first encounter with one of these and I was delightfully amazed with its colours. The leaves were a grape-purple on the top side with a more common greenish underside. When the sunlight shown through the leaves, they lit up a brilliant red, adding another odd colour to this unparalleled plant. I made sure to capture this wonder of colour on a bright sunny day with an equal amount of leaves showing their upper and lower hues.

northern Arizona (Utah border)

Meet "Crusty" the sand crab on the coral-sand beaches of Guam. He was kind enough to not move while I setup my gear in very close proximity and capture this macro shot.