a pleasant combination of rocky cliffs and thick forest in southern Illinois. i was lucky to find a very large fallen boulder to climb up on to get above the brush and capture this view.

some picture-perfect stalks of Imperial Fritillaria (lutea maxima) just waiting for someone like me to come by and capture them on film.

a cluster of purple vanda orchids in Brazil

the amazing colours and complex patterns hosted by a lovely peacock

a Cinnamon Fern in bloom

close-up shot of Niagara Falls (American side)

since we did not get the chance to place one of our camera's onto NASA's deep space probe, we went with the next best thing... we photographed a piece of tile from Home Depot. yes, this is looking at only 0.4% of a 3/4-inch piece of glass tile that to the naked eye, looks clear dark brown (like coca-cola) with gold glitter streaking through. zooming in, revealed the gold specs to be sharply formed pyramids that reflected light very well. as the glitter streaked through the depths of the tile, it resembled an asteroid field with more colour and beauty than if we went with the NASA probe (mission accomplished).

Whenever I'm in the mood to photograph butterflies, I try to seek out large clusters of small deep-throated flowers. They seem designed just for the mouths of butterflies and during the right season, it can make for some great photos. Typically, I setup near these flowers with all my readings made in advance and hope for something like this beautiful Clipper butterfly of the Philippines to land in front of me.