the lovely Andrea West orchid (Hawaii rainforest)

a lovely and unique treasure discovered while roaming the hawaiian rainforest

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.

foliage on the tropical island of HaiNan

Ka'anapali Beach is famous for it's gentle shallow waters and beautiful ocean sunsets like this one.

a pleasant combination of rocky cliffs and thick forest in southern Illinois. i was lucky to find a very large fallen boulder to climb up on to get above the brush and capture this view.

resident of Indiana wetlands

you probably noticed there is something rather funny about these strawberries, and that is that they are really a small part of a lantana bloom. lantanas are a cluster of tiny flowers that make up a larger bloom measuring about an inch across. this shot captures part of three of these tiny flowers that have not yet opened. their petals are folded in an uncommon way somewhat resembling an envelope. the clear balls appearing as dew, are actually oil from the flower's scent glands. the width of this photo captures 0.0642 inches which is the thickness of 2 credit cards.