It looked like this giant balanced rock was a hand pointing straight up into the sky. I could have wrote something real philosophical, especially since this was located in the "Garden of the Gods" but as I was standing near its base, I just hoped it wasn't time for this magnificent piece to settle.

clearly appearing like something out of a Hollywood special-effects laboratory, this unreal-looking skin is actually quite common and is perhaps devouring something right outside your back door... it is a super-closeup of a June Bug's thorax (shoulder blade equivalent). the June Bugs in our area are an uninteresting plain brown, but as we explored it's outer surface, we noticed a very small metallic-looking shiny spot. far too small to see with the naked eye, we zoomed in on this spot and discovered it to be made up of many 'skin' cells of reds, oranges, and yellows each measuring around 1/3000 of an inch across. the green jellybean-like objects are actually pits in the bug's shell and have a hair growing out of each one (similar to a human pore). these deep bowel-shaped pits (about 1/400 of an inch long) were lined with more metallic-type cells that reflected our lighting back in various greens.

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

Meet "Crusty" the sand crab on the coral-sand beaches of Guam. He was kind enough to not move while I setup my gear in very close proximity and capture this macro shot.

I was camping out on one of the lower peaks (about 8500 feet) in the Andes Mountains. It was a wet and somewhat tropical area and had a light rain most of the night. As daylight started making itself known, the remaining rain clouds started dissipating and swirling about the neighboring peaks. Once again, I grabbed my camera gear and prepared for a moody shot. The sunlight was peaking out here and there, clouds blowing by and changing each second, I just had to wait for everything to come into balance and squeeze the shutter's release cable. The dark neighboring mountain peak intertwined with scattering clouds created a mysterious and suspenseful image, expressing the drama in the air this morning.

Arizona wilderness

late spring in the Aleutian Islands

With camera gear strapped to my back, I was wandering about the countryside on my trusty bike when I came across a rather nice woods. This area was new to me and the moment was begging me to explore. It was a perfect section of woods, with a variety of trees and plant life. Just hilly enough for interest and just sunny enough to get good colour saturation on film. I discovered this one tree; a tree of all trees. Its upper branches were the size of most other mature trees. Truly enormous. The times this tree must have experienced and weathered through were unimaginable. I paced around it many times as I stared up into its array of beauty; searching for just the right point of view to preserve this tree for even greater period of time.