female brown bear taking it easy (Aleutian Islands)

along coast of Lake Michigan

ruffle and stripe details on a giant Bearded Iris

appearing to be a nice artsy mosaic of tiles, this is actually a closeup shot of a Rose of Sharon flower. this particular shrub had white blooms with dark-pink patterns down in the throat. when you zoom in (way in) to where the pink and white meet, you can see cell patterns like this. (photo captures 0.05 x 0.03 inches of the flower petal so the height of this photo is the thickness of a credit card)

certainly appearing to be a pile of gemstones, this is actually a extreme closeup shot of a flower anther. within the middle of a gladiolus flower, you'll find four long and narrow stems protruding from the center of each bloom. three of these have a tiny banana-shaped pod (anther) on the end, and the remaining one (stigma) has three tiny fingers on the end. if you zoom into the anther, it appears something like a long canoe-like boat heaping full of cargo. zooming in more (and from the side), you can get a clear view of the 'cargo' of cells stacked up in the anther/boat. this photo is a tiny portion of that cargo and each 'gem' is about half the area of a human hair. (check out our "Sea Monster" shot to see the neighboring stigma up close.)

closeup texture shot of an Ultimate Pink type rose

This is the main center area of MachuPicchu. The "D" shaped structure near center is the Temple of the Sun. For some reason it was worthy of a complex curved wall, unlike all other surrounding structures.

also known as 'the Grand Canyon of the Pacific', this is certainly a wonderful place to hike and shoot some film (as long as you don't mind the annual 240+ inches of rainfall).