cluster of Dendrobium orchids in China rain-forest

Banyan tree silhouettes and reflections in Horseshoe Lake (southern Illinois) during sunset

Toward the end of each summer, I try to go out and chase butterflies. Partially just to capture something delicate and enchanting and partly just to stay in shape by constant lugging equipment from spot to spot trying to capture close-ups as they flutter around in the wild. It's not often that one can get camera gear between a bloom and a feeding butterfly. With this unique perspective, the large and colourful insect has a more slimline stealthy appearance while it feeds on this zinnias nectar.

When I first saw these celosia flowers in China, I couldn't resist taking the time to find one with just the right form and available light to capture a couple shots.

overlapping leaves on a young Sycamore Tree

layers and layers of spire-shaped mountains in ZhangJiaJie

a super closeup of an ant's head showing a portion of it's face along with half of it's lateral eye. visually, the entire head appeared a stealthy black, but the photography lighting caused the eye to glow a dark red which made for some interesting contrast. each of the micro-lenses on the compound eye, measure 0.00074 inches in diameter (1,350 of them would make inch). another interesting effect is how the translucent hairs acted like lenses and focused our lighting into little hotspots on the scaly surface.

Southern Arizona wilderness