northern Montana

a fun place to roam around with a camera within a remote corner of the Utah wilderness

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

Along the desert surface, a lengthy crack can be seen. More exploring reveals an entire other world of underground beauty. I have the camera pointed up at about 45° toward these whirls of sandstone carved out by centuries of flash flood waters from rain many miles away.

just as you are wondering how we captured such a fantastic shot of a distant mountain at the same time as a network of caverns below it, the truth behind this photo is even more fantastic. this is really a closeup shot of a rose thorn broken off it's stem. the lower 2/3 of the photo is the inside part of the thorn where it used to be attached. the 'landscape' at top is the outer surface of the thorn that happened to have a bump shaped like a mountain (measuring 0.014 inches wide which is about the thickness of a playing card). to hold it steady during photography, we have the sharp point stuck into a piece of blue plastic which created our sky and blue reflections on the distant 'mountains'. the underground 'diamonds' are white crystal-looking cells that reflected our lighting like little mirrors.

a couple of tiny frogs taking a nap on a tree branch

Another beautiful and large butterfly in Malaysia. It's wings are simply huge when they flap by. They're relatively common as long as you don't mind being perched motionless in the middle of a flower bed and waiting for one to land in front of the lens. They are more properly called a Ricepaper butterfly, but most locals know it as a Tree Nymph.

curious young brown bear in late spring (Aleutian Islands)