fresh young bamboo stalks growing in eastern Chinese forest

this is a closeup photo of a computer chip that has been 'un-gracefully' opened so we could see it's innards. the warm and colourful section shows different layers of micro-circuity that have been ripped apart from our opening process (somewhere out there, the folks at Intel are cringing). the lava-like black area is the base silicon that has chipped and shattered (again from our opening process). this photo captures an area approximately 1/8 inch in height.

ruffle and stripe details on a giant Bearded Iris

an up-shot of the large clusters of dates on this Phoenix dactylifera in Kauai

JiuZhaiGou Valley

distant wall of sandstone in warm evening light (Utah wilderness)

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.