Although appearing to be an autumn scene, this was actually captured mid-spring. At the edge of a woods quite near the studio, was a young red maple and hovering over it like a parent, was a much larger green maple and then some oak trees. With a short tripod, I laid on the ground and shot up toward these colourful leaves. The back-lighting from the sun created very strong colour and interesting patterns of light and shadow.

edge of a corn crop in Indiana

huge canopy over Japanese garden creating a perfect balance of shade and sun for comfort.

I was traveling through a high mountain pass at about 14,000 feet and came across an area that was beginning to melt in preparation of spring. I started sizing up the scene and wandered about for the perfect perspective. The masses of melting snow had a beautiful ripple pattern and a large melted area ahead with mini-glaciers made a great foreground. In my usual excitement in preparing for a shot, I commonly overlook safety, and this was no exception. As I squatted down with my camera and pod ready to capture this lovely winter scene, I kept noticing a continuous sinking feeling which required camera adjustments to re-frame the picture properly. The melting snow was settling from my presence and I began to wonder if that melted area ahead was really part of a frozen lake. I looked around and noticed that I was in the middle of a large flat area surrounded by a distant wall of trees all around - I was standing in the center of a large lake. Just as I was debating on whether I would fall through the melting snow, I figured I was already set up for a good photo, so I might as well shoot some film. Thankfully, I made it back onto solid land without incident.

these are either a batch of eggs that will eventually develop into full-grown candy-canes, or this is a super closeup shot of a red gladiolus flower petal and these juicy 'eggs' are the plant cells that make up the flower's beauty and shine. each cell measures about 0.0015 inches across which is the thickness of aluminum foil in your kitchen (the thin/economic type; not the heavy duty) and what appears to be a bubble inside each cell is the cell nucleus (averaging around 1/1200 of an inch).

This dusty miller plant would look right at home as an underwater sea plant on a coral reef, but is actually a nice terrain-based plant with velvety-soft leaves.

the seed cones of a Douglas Fir tree

This is an up-shot of some colourful scale-shaped rock layers on the side of large cliff. To capture this amazing natural art, i had to setup as low as possible to get enough room between the camera lens and rock layers. There was just enough room for me to lay on the muddy ground and get my head in place to see the focus screen and prepare for the long-exposure.