this is a Maple tree photographed at night and illuminated only by an industrial-strength helium-cadmium laser (441-nanometer blue). extra care was taken to perform this unusual lighting technique in a secluded country setting due the laser beam having an effective distance of 35-miles. I'd like to note that no plants or animals (or photography assistants) were harmed in the making of this photo; although, we might have sterilized a few mosquitoes.

very close-up shot of a young tree bud

resident of Indiana wetlands

south-eastern Utah

one of many Lotus ponds throughout China.

although pesky, once you start to explore the common housefly, all sorts of amazing discoveries can be made. this is a super-closeup shot of the shiny metallic area on a blue bottle fly (blue housefly) capturing an area about the thickness of a playing card. the surface contains deep dimple-like cavities (similar to a golf ball) with an ultra tiny hair (about 1/8000 of an inch) in each one. the blue metallic colouring is mirror-like and reflects our lighting around like a highly polished automobile.

since we did not get the chance to place one of our camera's onto NASA's deep space probe, we went with the next best thing... we photographed a piece of tile from Home Depot. yes, this is looking at only 0.4% of a 3/4-inch piece of glass tile that to the naked eye, looks clear dark brown (like coca-cola) with gold glitter streaking through. zooming in, revealed the gold specs to be sharply formed pyramids that reflected light very well. as the glitter streaked through the depths of the tile, it resembled an asteroid field with more colour and beauty than if we went with the NASA probe (mission accomplished).

JiuZhaiGou Valley