abstract shot of dichrolam film in bright sunlight

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.

sunny day following a heavy snow in northern Indiana

unique outcropping of weathered sandstone in Colorado

when a large mass of lava cools very slowly, it can create column-like fissures during it's cooling. then, over the years, water and ice push the columns apart and the outer pillars topple giving you a scene like this one. there's only a handful of places on earth where conditions were just right for these strange rock formations to form.

this is a super closeup photo of a fallen lily petal. to the naked eye, the petal appears a pale plum colour, but when zoomed in with a bunch of light, we discovered that this flower was mostly white and only had colour running through these vein-like areas. the once juicy cells are drying out which is causing the puckers & wrinkles in the clear/white areas. the coloured 'veins' measure about 0.00042 inches in diameter (a tad thinner than kitchen plastic wrap).

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

like most things we get our hands on,.. we photograph it. this is a closeup shot of a synthetic-foam brush and after we zoomed in, it became quite clear on how it holds paint so well. the foam strands (connected together like a web) average around 0.0027 inches in diameter (size of a human hair).