Leighton Photography & Imaging

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  • The Oregon Coast is renowned for its natural beauty, sea stacks, and gorgeous sunsets. I caught this rock formation in the late afternoon "golden light" and focused on the interplay between light and shadow.
    Oregon Sea Stacks in Golden Light
  • The last light fades over Rosario Strait and her scatttered islands. Photographed from an exposed cliff on Fidalgo Island, in Anacortes, Washington.
    Anacortes Landscape-3
  • Golden late afternoon light and a beautiifully vibrant colorful sky over Rosario Strait as the sun sets behind Washington's  Decateur and Lopez Islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This view shows Blakely Island to the left and Cypress Island to the right. Photographed from Fidalgo Island in Anacortes.
    Anacortes Landscape-8
  • A perfect combination of low tide, the last rays of sunlight, and a spectacular  location made for a very satisfying photograph with rippled sand and ultra-vivid colors as I waited out the sunset on Washington's Ruby Beach in the Olympic National Park on the Pacific Ocean.
    Ruby Beach at Last Light
  • Abstractions in nature: jerking the camera with a long shutterspeed.
    Tresses of Pure Light.jpg
  • Dusk settles and sea mist rises among the cliffs and seastacks at Tolovana Beach on the Oregon Coast.
    Light and Shadows
  • This first lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest at the mouth of the Columbia River was recommended to be built in 1848, and be located at Cape Disappointment, Washington in what was then the Oregon Territory. It was finally constructed, then officially lit on October 15, 1856 where it served for over 150 years. In 2008, the automated red and white flashing light was finally deactivated. An observation deck has been built since then for the US Coast Guard to monitor traffic and bar conditions.
    Cape Disappointment Lighthouse
  • This first lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest at the mouth of the Columbia River was recommended to be built in 1848, and be located at Cape Disappointment, Washington in what was then the Oregon Territory. It was finally constructed, then officially lit on October 15, 1856 where it served for over 150 years. In 2008, the automated red and white flashing light was finally deactivated. An observation deck has been built since then for the US Coast Guard to monitor traffic and bar conditions.
    Cape Disappointment Lighthouse
  • Tillamook Rock Lighthouse on Northern Oregon's Pacific Coastline.
    Tillamook Rock Lighthouse
  • The last light fades over Rosario Strait and her scatttered islands. Photographed from an exposed cliff on Fidalgo Island, in Anacortes, Washington.
    Anacortes Landscape-2
  • The last light fades over Rosario Strait and her scatttered islands. Photographed from an exposed cliff on Fidalgo Island, in Anacortes, Washington.
    Anacortes Landscape-1
  • A truly breathtaking sunset with a wildly-colored sky was my reward for waiting out the sunset on this otherwise, hazy/foggy evening on the Oregon Coast near the Pistol River. Just as the light was fading and nearly gone, the fog cleared up just enough for me to wade out into the surf with a heavy tripod to get this shot.
    Oregon Sea Stacks in Fading Sunset
  • Still wet from a recent rain, this common shelf mushroom grows on the side of a western hemlock tree in the damp foothills of Washington's Cascade Mountains, beautifully side-lit by the late afternoon/early evening golden light. Although inedible, it is a very important part of forest health, as it breaks down and feeds on old or dead trees, making these nutrients available after its own demise for future generations of trees and other forest plants.
    Red-Belted Polypore
  • Sunset is almost always a dramatic show of light and shadow, as witnessed here in Cowiche Canyon, just west of Yakima, WA. Strong beams of sunlight beautifully backlit these desert wildflowers (Carey's balsamroot).
    Sunset in the Sagebrush Desert
  • Acarospora socialis - pale yellow<br />
Candelariella aurella - bright yellow<br />
Xanthoria elegans - orange<br />
Caloplaca albovariegata - black/dark green<br />
Xanthoparmelia maricopensis - light gray/greenish<br />
Dimelaena oreina - pale green with black "blotches" (very tiny)
    Mojave Desert Lichen Community
  • Acarospora socialis - pale yellow<br />
Candelariella aurella - bright yellow<br />
Xanthoria elegans - orange<br />
Caloplaca albovariegata - black/dark green<br />
Xanthoparmelia maricopensis - light gray/greenish<br />
Dimelaena oreina - pale green with black "blotches" (very tiny)
    Mojave Desert Lichen Community
  • An amazing late afternoon on Ruby Beach on Washington's Olympic Peninsula during the golden hour, when the light is warm and radiant while the evening cools and colors can appear both warm and cool at the same time.
    Ruby Beach
  • A photograph from within a cave in Southern Nevada while hunting unsuccessfully for vinegaroons while climbing the cliffs in the area. I just arrived in time for perfect light!
    Inside the Cave...
  • It was a rare morning where the temperature dipped a few degrees below freezing, and the frost on the ground looked a lot like snow in my car’s headlights. It was so worth it, as I was rewarded with the most stunning sunrise I’ve seen in a long time! Winter often offers interesting colors and hues with the first hints of light, but this was something special….. just pure beauty in all its glory!
    Dawn Over the Salt Marsh
  • Last light as the sun dips in into the Gulf of Mexico on Cape San Blas.
    Sunset on the Gulf of Mexico
  • Black & White image of driftwood and tree stumps on a rural beach on Cape San Blas, Florida.
    Timeless Florida Coast
  • Driftwood and tree stumps on a rural beach on Cape San Blas, Florida.
    Timeless Florida Coast
  • After waiting and then almost giving up due to the fog, the sun burned through enough of it for me to get this shot.
    Foggy Dawn and the Burning Sun
  • This beautiful sunset was photographed in North Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. The tree stumps in the water are old pine trees after hurricanes and erosion have turned the forest into coastline.
    Cape San Blas Sunset
  • Sea oats blowing in the wind of a chilly Atlantic breeze on Bald Head Island on one of North Carolina's most beautiful beaches.
    Sea Oats & Sunrise
  • A spectacular sunrise on the Atlantic coast on Bald Head Island, North Carolina.
    Sunrise on Bald Head Island
  • A Mexican fan palm growing in an unusual place: right at the edge of a pond in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. Native to Baja California and parts of the Sonoran Desert, this very attractive palm has made it around the world in landscaped land and gardens where it can avoid frost. This extremely tough palm is drought and heat resistant and can tolerate the windiest of desert habitats.
    Mexican Fan Palm (Washingtonia robusta)
  • Honey mushrooms (Armillaria sp.) in a wet forested area near Coal Creek in Bellevue, Washington. As with many mushrooms, exact species are hard to distinguish and the taxonomy keeps changing, but luckily all of these honey mushrooms are edible and quite a commonly-collected type prized by forest foragers. It is advised that these be thoroughly cooked as these mushrooms are said to have variable levels of toxicity when eaten raw.
    Honey Mushroom
  • Honey mushrooms (Armillaria sp.) in a wet forested area near Coal Creek in Bellevue, Washington. As with many mushrooms, exact species are hard to distinguish and the taxonomy keeps changing, but luckily all of these honey mushrooms are edible and quite a commonly-collected type prized by forest foragers. It is advised that these be thoroughly cooked as these mushrooms are said to have variable levels of toxicity when eaten raw.
    Honey Mushroom
  • Layers of a valley, dunes, a sandstorm, mountains and clouds in White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
    White Sands 2015-2.jpg
  • Layers of a valley, dunes, a sandstorm, mountains and clouds in White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
    White Sands 2015-3.jpg
  • A wild sun halo on a chilly winter day on the Gulf of Mexico, just south of Tallahassee, Florida.
    Sun Halo over the Gulf of Mexico
  • Honey mushrooms (Armillaria sp.) in a wet forested area near Coal Creek in Bellevue, Washington. As with many mushrooms, exact species are hard to distinguish and the taxonomy keeps changing, but luckily all of these honey mushrooms are edible and quite a commonly-collected type prized by forest foragers. It is advised that these be thoroughly cooked as these mushrooms are said to have variable levels of toxicity when eaten raw.
    Honey Mushroom
  • Honey mushrooms (Armillaria sp.) in a wet forested area near Coal Creek in Bellevue, Washington. As with many mushrooms, exact species are hard to distinguish and the taxonomy keeps changing, but luckily all of these honey mushrooms are edible and quite a commonly-collected type prized by forest foragers. It is advised that these be thoroughly cooked as these mushrooms are said to have variable levels of toxicity when eaten raw.
    Honey Mushroom
  • Sometimes called the red-tinged lepiota, this attractive little mushroom is one of the first of the fall mushrooms found in the wet forests of the Pacific Northwest. This pair was found growing partially under a log near Coal Creek in Bellevue, Washington.
    Leucoagaricus rubrotinctoides
  • Old Port Boca Grande Lighthouse - Now a museum, this Gasparilla Island Lighthouse on Florida's West Coast is said to be haunted by not one, but two ghosts!
    Old Port Boca Grande Lighthouse
  • Not too long ago I was traveling across Oregon Coast on a nature photography trip with an old friend and one of the places he wanted to check out was Thor's Well, located about midway down the state's incredible coastline at a place called Cape Perpetua. <br />
<br />
Formed out of natural volcanic rock (basalt), this wild geologic anomaly was probably formed by a cave beaten into the cliff that eventually collapsed forming this unusual seeming deep hole in the ground but is actually open underwater to the surf. This causes water to explode violently upward through the "well", followed by the foamy water to duck back down into the depths of the earth.<br />
<br />
It was utterly fascinating, even if I did get hit and completely soaked by one of the infamous rogue waves of the Pacific Ocean.
    Thor's Well
  • The MV Tacoma ferrying passengers and car back and forth between Seattle and Bainbridge Island.
    The Ferry, “MV Tacoma”
  • This insanely colorful sunrise creates the perfect backlight to Mount Rundle in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada on a bitterly cold winter morning. The only thing that makes this better is the whole scene reflected in the open water of a natural hot spring that keeps this part of the Vermillion Lakes from freezing.
    Mount Rundle and Vermillion Lakes
  • Easily one of the most beautiful of all of the hardwoods on the Pacific Coast, the Pacific madrone is a member of the heath family and closely related to rhododendrons, and is the most northerly broadleaf evergreen trees on the continent. Early Spanish settlers in California recognized it as similar to the Mediterreanean madrone (or madroño) and later English settlers referred to it as the strawberry tree, as the sweet (and slightly toxic) berries are used to make a "strawberry-tasting" liquor called crême d'arbouse. The most striking feature of this tree is the wonderful bark that looks painted, with hues of red, orange, brown and black. Nothing else in the Pacific Northwest looks anything like it.
    Pacific Madrone Bark
  • Easily one of the most beautiful of all of the hardwoods on the Pacific Coast, the Pacific madrone is a member of the heath family and closely related to rhododendrons, and is the most northerly broadleaf evergreen trees on the continent. Early Spanish settlers in California recognized it as similar to the Mediterreanean madrone (or madroño) and later English settlers referred to it as the strawberry tree, as the sweet (and slightly toxic) berries are used to make a "strawberry-tasting" liquor called crême d'arbouse. The most striking feature of this tree is the wonderful bark that looks painted, with hues of red, orange, brown and black. Nothing else in the Pacific Northwest looks anything like it.
    Pacific Madrone Flowers
  • Easily one of the most beautiful of all of the hardwoods on the Pacific Coast, the Pacific madrone is a member of the heath family and closely related to rhododendrons, and is the most northerly broadleaf evergreen trees on the continent. Early Spanish settlers in California recognized it as similar to the Mediterreanean madrone (or madroño) and later English settlers referred to it as the strawberry tree, as the sweet (and slightly toxic) berries are used to make a "strawberry-tasting" liquor called crême d'arbouse. The most striking feature of this tree is the wonderful bark that looks painted, with hues of red, orange, brown and black. Nothing else in the Pacific Northwest looks anything like it.
    Pacific Madrone Flowers
  • My favorite palm! The paurotis palm is a wonderfully beautiful palm that I have a personal connection to. As I was starting to build my photography business back when I was still living back home in Southwest Florida, I worked in a plant nursery and planted many hundreds of palm trees all over the Fort Myers/Naples area. My favorite was this slender, attractive Caribbean palm found in the wild from the Florida Everglades and the Bahamas, south to Mexico, Central America and as far south as Colombia. The only species in its genus, Acoelorrhaphe wrightii - grows to about 15' to 25' tall in wet habitats and can grow into very rich and shaded thickets form wildlife havens for many species throughout the tropics. These wild paurotis palms were found in Everglades National Park in their natural habitat.
    Paurotis Palm
  • Haystack Rock on Oregon's Cannon Beach is one of the world's biggest sea stacks  and is a must-see on one of the most amazing coastlines in the world, just at the perfect moment of low tide, sunset and as a storm was coming in at full speed!
    Cannon Beach
  • Haystack Rock on Oregon's Cannon Beach is one of the world's biggest sea stacks  and is a must-see on one of the most amazing coastlines in the world, just at the perfect moment of low tide, sunset and as a storm was coming in at full speed!
    Cannon Beach
  • Haystack Rock on Oregon's Cannon Beach is one of the world's biggest sea stacks  and is a must-see on one of the most amazing coastlines in the world, just at the perfect moment of low tide, sunset and as a storm was coming in at full speed!
    Cannon Beach
  • Haystack Rock on Oregon's Cannon Beach is one of the world's biggest sea stacks  and is a must-see on one of the most amazing coastlines in the world, just at the perfect moment of low tide, sunset and as a storm was coming in at full speed!
    Cannon Beach
  • Haystack Rock on Oregon's Cannon Beach is one of the world's biggest sea stacks  and is a must-see on one of the most amazing coastlines in the world, just at the perfect moment of low tide, sunset and as a storm was coming in at full speed!
    Cannon Beach
  • An insanely vibrant and colorful sky over Rosario Strait as the sun sets behind Washington's  Decateur and Lopez Islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This view shows Blakely Island to the left and Cypress Island to the right. Photographed from Fidalgo Island in Anacortes.
    Anacortes Landscape-15.jpg
  • One of the many intensely beautiful coastal locations of the Pacific Northwest, the waters around the San Juan and Orcas Islands look like nowhere else in North America.  This view overlooks Rosario Strait from Washington's Fidalgo Island.
    Anacortes Landscape-13.jpg
  • An insanely vibrant and colorful sky over Rosario Strait as the sun sets behind Washington's  Decateur and Lopez Islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This view shows Blakely Island to the left and Cypress Island to the right. Photographed from Fidalgo Island in Anacortes.
    Anacortes Landscape-7
  • An insanely vibrant and colorful sky Rosario Strait as the sun sets behind Washington's  Decateur and Lopez Islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. About 35 miles due west in this direction is Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
    Anacortes Landscape-6
  • An insanely vibrant and colorful sky Rosario Strait as the sun sets behind Washington's  Decateur and Lopez Islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. About 35 miles due west in this direction is Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
    Anacortes Landscape-5
  • A coastal douglas fir forest trail winds its way up the hill near the cliffs of Fidalgo Island on Washington's Puget Sound.
    Anacortes Landscape-9.jpg
  • Cerro Castellan - also known as Castolon Peak or Castellan Peak, is a conical volcanic mountain in West Texas that rises 1000 feet above the desert floor (3,293 feet above sea level) in Big Bend National Park. Cerro Castellan itself is part of an ancient series of summits once known as the Corazones Peaks that has since succumbed to millennia of erosion by wind, precipitation, searing heat and bitterly cold winters. <br />
Geologically, this ancient mountain range remnant is a high stack of volcanic rocks, including ash, lava, and tuffaceous rocks. It is capped by a dense lava flow underlain by various tuffs and basalts. A somewhat northwest fault cuts the eastern face of Cerro Castellan. Although little vegetation grows on the sheer cliffs and steep, pointed profile of its peak, the lower slopes of Cerro Castellan support a sparse growth of Chihuahuan Desert scrub, including most prominently such characteristic species as creosote bush and ocotillo.
    Cerro Castellan
  • Surprising in the Easter-egg lilac/blue/purple color of this mushroom alone, these stood out in sharp contrast to the forest greens and rich browns on the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington's Cascades Mountains on a cold and wet November morning alongside the Greenwater River. Upon closer inspection, the sudden intense odor of rotting fruit, wet dog, and those orange circus peanut candies came to mind. The underside of these mushroom was cinnamon brown, and so was the spore print I made from one of them.
    Gassy Webcap Mushroom (Cortinarius t..nus)
  • This commonly-encountered, weird cup-shaped mushroom is a type of cup-fungus. Like whenever looking at mushrooms - what you are actually seeing is the above-ground fruiting bodies of the year-round fibrous strands that are actually the real mushroom. These were found growing near the summit of Little Mount Si in North Bend, Washington, and are edible, but may have little to no taste.
    Orange-Peel Fungus
  • These fascinating bird's nest fungi found along a coastal trail in Oregon's Tillamook County on a winter hike are one of the many natural curiosities found in the Pacific Northwest. While it may not look like it, these are actually a mushrooms rather than lichens. These have already fruited and cast off their spores during a rainstorm, dropping their DNA on the forest floor for the next generation to spread and prosper.
    Bird's Nest Fungi
  • One of the world's most common mushrooms, the turkey tail mushroom is also one of the most beautiful. Typically found on rotting stumps, branches and decaying wood, these polypore mushrooms can be found in quite an amazing array of colors and hues. It has a long history of use by people, such as making blue and green dyes for clothing, being used to make a tasty tea and for a variety of medicinal uses. Recent clinical research shows that it may be useful for a variety of cancer treatments. This vibrant green colony was found growing alongside Mercer Slough in Bellevue, Washington.
    Turkey Tail
  • One of the world's most common mushrooms, the turkey tail mushroom is also one of the most beautiful. Typically found on rotting stumps, branches and decaying wood, these polypore mushrooms can be found in quite an amazing array of colors and hues. It has a long history of use by people, such as making blue and green dyes for clothing, being used to make a tasty tea and for a variety of medicinal uses. Recent clinical research shows that it may be useful for a variety of cancer treatments. This vibrant green colony was found growing alongside Mercer Slough in Bellevue, Washington.
    Turkey Tail
  • One of the world's most common mushrooms, the turkey tail mushroom is also one of the most beautiful. Typically found on rotting stumps, branches and decaying wood, these polypore mushrooms can be found in quite an amazing array of colors and hues. It has a long history of use by people, such as making blue and green dyes for clothing, being used to make a tasty tea and for a variety of medicinal uses. Recent clinical research shows that it may be useful for a variety of cancer treatments. This vibrant green colony was found growing alongside Mercer Slough in Bellevue, Washington.
    Turkey Tail
  • One of the world's most common mushrooms, the turkey tail mushroom is also one of the most beautiful. Typically found on rotting stumps, branches and decaying wood, these polypore mushrooms can be found in quite an amazing array of colors and hues. It has a long history of use by people, such as making blue and green dyes for clothing, being used to make a tasty tea and for a variety of medicinal uses. Recent clinical research shows that it may be useful for a variety of cancer treatments. This vibrant green colony was found growing alongside Mercer Slough in Bellevue, Washington.
    Turkey Tail
  • This very attractive, sometimes very orange, other-times very golden, slimy, spiky yet claimed-to-be-edible mushroom starts off as a small "spiky" ball growing on either deciduous or coniferous trees, then quickly matures into this form very common mushroom that is often found Western North America, Northern Europe. Japan and New Zealand. This one was found in great profusion during the October rains growing on the trunks of the hardwoods in Bellevue, Washington's Mercer Slough.
    Golden Scalycap-10.jpg
  • This very attractive, sometimes very orange, other-times very golden, slimy, spiky yet claimed-to-be-edible mushroom starts off as a small "spiky" ball growing on either deciduous or coniferous trees, then quickly matures into this form very common mushroom that is often found Western North America, Northern Europe. Japan and New Zealand. This one was found in great profusion during the October rains growing on the trunks of the hardwoods in Bellevue, Washington's Mercer Slough.
    Golden Scalycap-3.jpg
  • This very attractive, sometimes very orange, other-times very golden, slimy, spiky yet claimed-to-be-edible mushroom starts off as a small "spiky" ball growing on either deciduous or coniferous trees, then quickly matures into this form very common mushroom that is often found Western North America, Northern Europe. Japan and New Zealand. This one was found in great profusion during the October rains growing on the trunks of the hardwoods in Bellevue, Washington's Mercer Slough.
    Golden Scalycap-1.jpg
  • Sea stacks tower above the sitka spruce that line the Pacific coastline of Washington's Rialto Beach and Olympic National Park.
    Sea Stacks and Coastline at Rialto B..gton
  • Double Arch is found in Arches National Park in Eastern Utah and is part of the amazing red alien sandstone landscape that is called the Moab Desert. This area has the largest number of natural stone arches than anywhere else in the world, but what makes this rock formation so unique is that they were both eroded from the very same piece of stone. Most arches are formed from water erosion flowing either within or from the sides of the rock over the millennia, but these two arches were formed from water eroding from the top of the stone, downwards. For this reason they are called pothole arches. Because this photograph was made at the beginning of a sudden storm, you can see the rainwater running down the rock from the top of the arch, and this is the very process that carved these arches to begin with, and that will also eventually one day cause this magnificent national treasure to collapse.
    Double Arch, Moab Desert, Utah
  • This incredible wild and harsh desert near the Mexican town of Sonoyta is deep in the Ajo Mountain range in Southern Pima County, Arizona. Saguaro cacti, gila monsters, rattlesnakes, scorpions, tarantulas, a searing sun are staples of this dangerous part of the Sonoran Desert, and there is a long, deep history among the remnants of the Tohono O'odham Nation who thrived here for centuries, and the ancestral Puebloans who created a vibrant culture here before them.
    Diablo Mountains, Arizona
  • Standing at 7,325 ft, Casa Grande (Spanish for "Big House") is the fourth highest peak in Texas' Chisos Mountains and is found in the heart of Big Bend National Park.
    Casa Grande in the High Chisos Mountains
  • Clouds over an enormous New Mexican sunny day over White Sands!
    White Sands Desert and Dunes, New Mexico
  • The sun went behind a cloud for a moment in White Sands....
    Sky and Sand - White Sands, New Mexico
  • Layers of dunes, a sandstorm, mountains and clouds in White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
    White Sands Desert, New Mexico
  • The sand verbena (sometimes also called the purple or pink sand verbena) is a very hardy, heat-resistant desert survivor in the American Southwest. Not many plants survive in the gypsum sands desert of White Sands National Monument in Southern New Mexico with its shifting dunes, but this one does just fine.
    Sand Verbena
  • The infamous and rare, bleached earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata ruthveni) - a lizard with an evolutionary adaptation to living on the white gypsum sand dunes on White Sands (the largest gypsum sand dune desert in the world). This beautiful member of the Phrynosomatid lizard family has evolved white scales to enable it to blend in with the white gypsum sands. I wouldn't have seen it if it hadn't moved.
    Bleached Earless Lizard
  • A bombardier beetle (a type of darkling beetle) stands out in extreme contrast against the sand dunes of White Sands National Monument in Southern New Mexico, a wild landscape of gypsum sands piled into massive sand dunes.
    Bombardier Beetle
  • The infamous and rare, bleached earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata ruthveni) - a lizard with an evolutionary adaptation to living on the white gypsum sand dunes on White Sands (the largest gypsum sand dune desert in the world) found resting in the shade of an enormous dune late in the morning of a bright and sunny spring day.
    Bleached Earless Lizard
  • Spray Creek (photographed here close to its source) flows through a series of wooded patches and alpine meadows before gathering strength and more volume as it flows down Mount Rainier's northwestern face. Shortly below this point, it becomes a raging, turbulent rush over a 300-foot waterfall as it flows down the mountain where it eventually joins the larger North Mowich River. Much further on, it will empty in to the Puyallup River which then will empty in to the Puget Sound.
    Spray Creek
  • The black huckleberry is considered by many to be the prize of the mountain berries. These juicy, sweet member of the blueberry family are found from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean (with a few isolated locations eastward) and have been enjoyed by wildlife and humans for millennia. This official state fruit of Idaho is a particularly important food source for grizzly and black bears, and traditionally the Native Americans have been eating them in dozens of different ways: fresh, dried, smoked, crushed up in soups or mixed with salmon roe - to name a few. These huckleberries were photographed (then eaten) just below the tree line at the edge of a subalpine meadow in the North Cascades National Park, near the Canadian border in Washington State.
    Black Huckleberry
  • New vine maples leaves in the late afternoon sunlight at the top of the Cascade Mountains in Washington's Snoqualmie Pass.
    Vine Maple Leaves
  • A wary gray jay keeps an eye on me as I pass along the top of Hurricane Ridge on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.
    Gray Jay
  • An incredible fiery sunset on a rare sunny winter evening on Oregon's Tillamook Head - just north of Cannon Beach.
    Sunset on Sea Lion Rock, Oregon
  • St. Marks Lighthouse on Florida's North Gulf Coast.
    St. Marks Lighthouse
  • St. Marks Lighthouse on Florida's North Gulf Coast.
    St. Marks Lighthouse
  • Early morning and the sun is burning through the fog over the salt marshes of the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in North Florida.
    Stillness and the Salt Marsh
  • The famous North and South Window arches at 4am on an incredible moonlit night deep in the Moab Desert in Arches National Park in Eastern Utah.
    North and South Window Arches at Night
  • One of the 2000+ arches found in the Moab Desert in Arches National Park, lit by an extraordinary moon on a hot summer night.
    Moab Desert at Night
  • The famous Delicate Arch stands 65 feet (20 meters) above its sandstone base in the surrounding canyons and ravines in Arches National Park in eastern Utah's Moab Desert.
    Delicate Arch
  • The famous Delicate Arch stands 65 feet (20 meters) above its sandstone base in the surrounding canyons and ravines in Arches National Park in eastern Utah's Moab Desert.
    Delicate Arch
  • The famous Delicate Arch stands 65 feet (20 meters) above its sandstone base in the surrounding canyons and ravines in Arches National Park in eastern Utah's Moab Desert.
    Delicate Arch
  • The famous Delicate Arch stands 65 feet (20 meters) above its sandstone base in the surrounding canyons and ravines in Arches National Park in eastern Utah's Moab Desert.
    Delicate Arch
  • Very early on a chilly fall morning, just before sunrise on the Olympic Peninsula's Rialto Beach on Washington's Pacific Coast. Stands of dead sitka spruce trees line the shore (standing and fallen or washed ashore) on one of North America's most spectacular remote beaches.
    Rialto Beach at Dawn
  • Sometimes there are patterns that emerge in nature that you can't help but notice. I saw this wavy, wet pattern of sand and salt water at Crescent Beach just outside of Crescent City, California.
    Surf, Sand and Water
  • This beautiful teal-green bullseye lichen was found growing in the Oak Creek Wildlife Recreation Area just west of Yakima, Washington. If you look closely, you can see the small fleshy fruiting bodies in the center of each lichen that will eventually release its spores to propagate the next generation. This region of the Pacific Northwest is very dry and rocky, and most of the basalt surfaces are covered in multiple types of lichen.
    Bullseye Lichen
  • Ancient basalt columns are a typical sight in Central Washington. They are formed by cooling lava, forming cracks that create these columns by contracting. The faster the lava cools, the thinner the columns. These thick columns cooled gradually over some time. The presence of the lichens that now cover the stony face is an indicator of very good air quality and a lack of pollution.
    Lichen-Covered Basalt Cliff in Cowic..nyon
  • This rock was once molten lava forced from deep within the earth as it covered most of Central Washington, up to three miles deep in some places. Many thousands of years of erosion, weathering and exposure to the elements has left us with massive crumbling rock formations like this basalt rock wall.
    Rocky Basalt Bluffs of Cowiche Canyon
  • Rolling arid hills and miles upon miles of aromatic sagebrush, crumbled basalt rocks and heat in this desert-like landscape in Central Washington near Vantage, WA.
    Sagebrush Country
  • One of the best things about the Pacific Northwest on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains is the big, open sky and hundreds of miles of sagebrush in all directions.
    Sagebrush Country and the Big Sky
  • A view of the Mojave Desert in Southern California, looking westward towards the Hexie Mountains with a tall cactus-like ocotillo in full bloom in the foreground.
    Mojave Desert with Ocotillo
  • Close-up detail of a cabbage palm frond (also known as a sabal palm) in rural Eastern Lee County in Southwest Florida.
    Cabbage Palm Close-up
  • Close-up detail of a coconut palm frond on Florida's Sanibel Island.
    Coconut Palm
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