although usually a moisture-loving plant, i found this one in Arizona. i think its roots must have tapped a nice hidden water supply.

a super closeup photograph of a swimsuit (Ocean Pacific, if you're curious). all the nylon/spandex fibers are white and only the portions toward the outer surface are dyed with a pattern of colours. the spaghetti-like strands seen here, are the ultra-tiny fibers that make up a single thread. these 'micro-threads' measure only 0.0004 inches in diameter (thinner than kitchen plastic wrap), and quite a few are bundled together to create an actual thread used to knit the fabric.

home grown soda bottles? well, not quite. laying across the bottom of the photo is the edge of a daisy's stem, and the 'bottle' is a single hair/fuzz (1/60 of an inch in height) protruding from that stem. daisy plants have bristly stems (in between soft and prickly) so the fuzz has a larger diameter making it more stiff, and as we recently discovered... it's also hollow and uniquely shaped. to add a little colour, we placed a small piece of yellow tractor-feed paper as a background, so that the out-of-focus hole created a nice glow on the horizon.

Multiple storms and patches of sunlight just off-shore of Guam.

tall Saguaro cactus towering over others in southern Arizona

evening sun peeking through the sides of a Banyan tree forest immersed in a picturesque swampland

Whenever I'm in the mood to photograph butterflies, I try to seek out large clusters of small deep-throated flowers. They seem designed just for the mouths of butterflies and during the right season, it can make for some great photos. Typically, I setup near these flowers with all my readings made in advance and hope for something like this beautiful Clipper butterfly of the Philippines to land in front of me.