passing for an assortment of freshly mined diamonds, these rough 'gems' are actually grains of refined sugar. they are spilled upon a deep-blue CD case which gave us a nice colour backdrop and texture. the crystalline grains of sugar average around 1/60 of an inch.

variegated bamboo trees in China

Torch Ginger bloom in southern Maui

a straight-down shot at a wonderful assortment of summer flowers growing together

if you ever wondered what a photography studio does on a slow day... well, we photograph our toothbrush, and here it is. this is a close-up shot of the bristles on a toothbrush (Oral-B if you're curious) and each one has a diameter of 0.0075 inches (thickness of 1½ sheets of paper). we found it interesting that the plastic bristles start out very smooth on the handle end (seen at top) and then have a rougher texture on the brushing end (seen at bottom).

this allium bud is just starting to initiate the blooming process and is looking quite good so far. It's still only about an inch (2-3cm) in diameter and i've got my camera gear just a few inches away to capture the minute details of this beautiful process.

close-up shot of Niagara Falls (Canadian side)

as the snow accumulates in the high mountains, it stacks up and begins to slide down the mountain side as a glacier. as the glacier continues to get pushed from behind (from more incoming snow), it becomes packed into a very dense ice and can travel decades across the country side. sometimes they end by finally giving way to the heat, and turn into a stream of icy cold water. other times they end by crumbling into an ocean like this one.