Sunrise on the high plateau of Colorado.

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.

Banyan tree silhouettes and reflections in Horseshoe Lake (southern Illinois) during sunset

This is a straight-down shot of a young corn lily plant (Veratrum californicum) common in moist meadows along the west coast. The accordion-shaped leaves look just like my camera bellows, but the plant is quite poisonous. In fact, if animals eat the foliage, their offspring can be born with cyclopia (one large eye in center of head).

This is a collection of some of the water drops flowing into the Yosemite Valley. It is difficult to take a bad photograph in this area, as the main valley area is surrounded with lush pines and giant cliff walls in all directions. The falls were abnormally robust this summer due to a previous heavy winter and wet spring.

a moment during a fireworks display that reminded me of palm trees.

Sierra Nevada Mountains in late spring as the snow begins to melt at this elevation

this would be the coolest set of marbles around, if only they were really marbles. this is actually an extreme closeup photo of a compound eye on the Green-blue Long-legged fly (Condylostylus). these flies are much smaller than the common/plump housefly, and they serve good purpose around your garden's plants. this one had red eyes that originally appeared like rows of warm-red jelly beans with an overall dull luster. but once we pinpointed the studio's lighting into the eye's lenses, it rapidly increased the aging/deterioration process and the inner-eye elements started displaying this beautiful crackled pattern. each of these lenses measure 0.0008 inches in diameter (about the thickness of kitchen plastic wrap), and a closer look will show that some have a tiny three-hair 'grappling-hook' coming out between them.