hiking through Waimea canyon on Kauai

looking quite similar to an xmas tree with ornaments and tinsel, this is actually a photograph of a hostile invasion possibly taking place in your own backyard. if you see a plant with a white or light-gray powdery substance on the top-side of its leaves, it is probably an invasion of the 'White Powdery Mildew Fungi'. many different types of these spores spread with the wind, rain, birds, and even the feet of insects, and when the right type of spore lands on a suitable plant, it quickly takes hold by rooting into the plant. it then steals nutrition from the plant to grow an outbreak of thread-like structures over the surface (seen as white rice-like chains in this photo) which eventually block the plant's photosynthesis process and kills it. when the mildew fungus is sufficiently mature, it develops new sets of spores (inside the brown raisin-like containers) to travel in the wind and repeat the cycle. each of the brown spore-sacks measure about 0.0014 inches in diameter which is the thickness of kitchen aluminum foil.

sun setting above the clouds near hawaii

this is a shot of the massive amounts of water going over Niagara Falls (Canadian side).

This is a Great Horned Owl at about 3½ weeks of age. Quite a darling little puff-ball of feathers sitting there wondering what the guy with the camera is up to. The mom isn't due back for a couple hours so I have a chance to capture this cute creature for everyone to enjoy.

early morning at the top of Bryce Canyon

almost passing for an aerial photo over some trees, ocean, and a smoldering volcano, this world was actually discovered on the belly of a small fly - more specifically a tiny Blue-green Long-legged fly (Condylostylus). the micro-hairs along the contours of it's abdomen now look like a forest of trees covering the hills of a tropical island. the way the light reflects of the fly's metallic-like surface, gave us the ocean and rainforest colour palette. and the volcano is actually a hair pore with the hair shaft going out of focus toward the camera, giving the appearance of rising column of smoke. the width of this shot covers 0.0126 inches which is the thickness of a playing card.

This scene has summer fun and relaxation written all over it. It was late June and a perfect day for the season. Climbing down the steep embankment, I was actually standing in several inches of water to get a good view of the mountain peak framed nicely between the nearby trees. I waited for the ripples I created to disappear, and adjusted the tripod rather low to capture the stones just below the water's surface. The way the water refracted from being able to see the bottom of the lake, which slowly faded into the reflections from the far shore, was a nice bonus.