a grouping of vibrant hot-pink oriental day-lilies

JiuZhaiGou Valley

It looked like this giant balanced rock was a hand pointing straight up into the sky. I could have wrote something real philosophical, especially since this was located in the "Garden of the Gods" but as I was standing near its base, I just hoped it wasn't time for this magnificent piece to settle.

This is called "get the shot and run for cover". I'm wading waist-deep to get the desired camera angles and when i saw this swell raising more and more, i knew i would be grabbing the camera and heading for more shallow water before i get clobbered.

close-up shot of a young tree bud

giant variegated Agave plant in Arizona desert

dense bamboo forest in southern Maui

this would be the coolest set of marbles around, if only they were really marbles. this is actually an extreme closeup photo of a compound eye on the Green-blue Long-legged fly (Condylostylus). these flies are much smaller than the common/plump housefly, and they serve good purpose around your garden's plants. this one had red eyes that originally appeared like rows of warm-red jelly beans with an overall dull luster. but once we pinpointed the studio's lighting into the eye's lenses, it rapidly increased the aging/deterioration process and the inner-eye elements started displaying this beautiful crackled pattern. each of these lenses measure 0.0008 inches in diameter (about the thickness of kitchen plastic wrap), and a closer look will show that some have a tiny three-hair 'grappling-hook' coming out between them.