sunset above the clouds near the hawaiian islands

this is a closeup shot of the feathery scales on a Monarch butterfly wing. each scale has a length of around 1/220 of an inch, so the height of this entire shot would be equivalent to the thickness of 3 sheets of paper. this particular butterfly died naturally near our studio, so we took the opportunity to explore what it had to offer.

almost looking like someone dropped a jar of jelly, this is actually a closeup photo of a dark red Asiatic Lily. toward the base of each petal are two tiny rows of fleshy-hairs that when magnified, look like dripping jelly. one of the hair rows is the dark red feature going diagonally across this shot, and a glimpse of the second row in the upper-left corner. the 'hairs' in this shot average 0.0087 inches in height, so 115 of them lined end-to-end would equal an inch.

looks like these two males are chatting about their upcoming fish lunch (Aleutian Islands)

winding access path between fields of rice in Chinese countryside.

dense bamboo forest in southern Maui

I planned my passage through southern Arizona when the giant saguaros would be in bloom. I always enjoy shooting flowers, but these blooms posed a new problem for me - they were all twenty to thirty feet above ground. As I hiked around exposing film on all sorts of life, I not only came across a good steep hill, but it had a large healthy cactus growing right next to it. Thanking mother nature for making this possible, I set up on the side of the hill and maxed out my largest zoom lens to capture these blooms.

In front of the local Post Office someone took the time to prepare a rather large display of summer flowers and foliage. It is well cared for and quite impressive to the many passersby picking up their mail. Although a rather common flower, this gladiolus had exceptional form and I couldn't resist capturing on film. The bright pink row of buds in varying degrees of development against the surrounding dark green plant life created a very nice balance.