I'm certainly not a marine biologist, but am informed that this is a 'Dactylometra Quinquecirrha' type jellyfish, so I'll take their word for it. Their tentacles are covered with stinging cells that attach themselves to anything that touches them and injects a venom into it's prey. Fortunately I didn't get the opportunity to experience this in action even though I'm told it's not fatal. My biggest problem capturing this image is that there is absolutely nothing stable to attach a camera to underwater. Tripods are useless, I'm moving, the camera is moving, the sea creatures are moving, all at different rhythms (guess I didn't need to bring the cable release). All in all, this was probably the most serene and beautiful creature I've ever witnessed; it's pulsating motions and delicate nature were extremely enjoyable.

despite it's appearance, this is not a coral reef growth, nor anything under the ocean. it is actually a closeup shot within the center of a daisy. we were surprised to discover that the flower's fuzzy brown cone was made up of these finger-like structures that looked so much like something under the sea. the photo captures 0.036 x 0.054 inches (about the thickness of a DVD) of the flower's center cone.

I found this young Great Horned Owl in early spring while it was still cool on most days. She took to me well and never seemed to mind my presence when I came by her section of woods. In this shot she's about six weeks old and loosing most of her puffy baby feathers. This is certainly my favorite of all animals and it was a pleasure coming across one in the wild.

This large Bird-of-Paradise bloom gave me quite a challenge. I was hiking in a tropical rain-forest when i saw glimpses of this beautiful bloom. The only trouble was the best side to photograph was rather hidden by thick foliage with no practical way to get closer. I found a peek-hole through the network of leaves, but it was very high, so i stretched the tripod to it's full height and then more so by greatly decreasing it's base to obtain just enough height to peek through this hole in the foliage. Then added a very large zoom lens on top of this very unstable camera setup. After waiting some time for everything to settle down from micro-movements (including not breathing on or near the camera), i was able to capture this exotic shot.

female brown bear taking it easy (Aleutian Islands)

one of the dozens of tiny islands in the Hawaiian Islands

east end of Glacier National Park