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

the lovely Andrea West orchid (Hawaii rainforest)

I planned my passage through southern Arizona when the giant saguaros would be in bloom. I always enjoy shooting flowers, but these blooms posed a new problem for me - they were all twenty to thirty feet above ground. As I hiked around exposing film on all sorts of life, I not only came across a good steep hill, but it had a large healthy cactus growing right next to it. Thanking mother nature for making this possible, I set up on the side of the hill and maxed out my largest zoom lens to capture these blooms.

a grouping of vibrant hot-pink oriental day-lilies

Standing next to the high-elevation 'Science City' atop Mount Haleakala, all i can see are these clouds and the small patch of land i'm standing on.

Looks like these two are watching each others' back preparing for a mission.

if you can't find any fruit stands in the Chernobyl district, you can create your own wacky-looking berries by dipping them into a vat of radioactive waste (or high fructose corn syrup will probably work the same). okay, this is actually the center area of a Grecian Windflower that happens to resemble raspberry-like shapes and colours. each protrusion measures 0.007 inches in diameter (equivalent to a single bristle on a toothbrush) and is surrounded by tiny clear hairs giving the appearance of ice crystals.