large hawk-like bird in the Philippines

sunset above the clouds near hawaiian islands

just as you are wondering how we captured such a fantastic shot of a distant mountain at the same time as a network of caverns below it, the truth behind this photo is even more fantastic. this is really a closeup shot of a rose thorn broken off it's stem. the lower 2/3 of the photo is the inside part of the thorn where it used to be attached. the 'landscape' at top is the outer surface of the thorn that happened to have a bump shaped like a mountain (measuring 0.014 inches wide which is about the thickness of a playing card). to hold it steady during photography, we have the sharp point stuck into a piece of blue plastic which created our sky and blue reflections on the distant 'mountains'. the underground 'diamonds' are white crystal-looking cells that reflected our lighting like little mirrors.

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.

a super closeup photograph of a swimsuit (Ocean Pacific, if you're curious). all the nylon/spandex fibers are white and only the portions toward the outer surface are dyed with a pattern of colours. the spaghetti-like strands seen here, are the ultra-tiny fibers that make up a single thread. these 'micro-threads' measure only 0.0004 inches in diameter (thinner than kitchen plastic wrap), and quite a few are bundled together to create an actual thread used to knit the fabric.

This dusty miller plant would look right at home as an underwater sea plant on a coral reef, but is actually a nice terrain-based plant with velvety-soft leaves.

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