early morning at the top of Bryce Canyon

dense bamboo forest in southern Maui

hiking through Waimea canyon on Kauai

Sierra Nevada Mountains in late spring as the snow begins to melt at this elevation

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.

a straight-down shot at a wonderful assortment of summer flowers growing together

you'd probably believe me if i said this was a tentacle from some deep-sea creature, but it is actually a closeup shot of a common flower stigma (the tiny little stem sticking out of the center and captures pollen from the stamen). the stigma of a red gladiolus is only 0.025 inches in diameter (thickness of 2 playing cards) and this photo captures the very tip that protrudes farthest outside the bloom. (check out our "Balanced Gems" shot to see the neighboring anther part of the same flower).