I won a juicy contest at MacGamer.com with this image. The contest was to create the best fan art for the game Neverwinter Nights, and the prize was the newly-released expansion packs for the game. I've never done fantasy fan art before, but I learned quick enough to win. I created most of the image in Cinema 4D, the shadowy figure with Poser, and I composited and finished in Photoshop.

Copper and store fountain at the Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina.

I have a rule that I never throw out a photo, no matter how bad. I also collect "texture" shots of places I visit. This mosaic is a result of those rules working together: the background is sliced and diced photos of the interior wall of the Santa Barbara mission's chapel, and overlaid on that is scenes and other textures from the mission, about half of which were hopelessly blurry because of low light.

Butterfly photographed at the Butterfly Pavillion in Broomfield, Colorado.

It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Davis' central park. I'd expect opportunities for interesting photographs to abound, but nobody's here, and you can only take so many photos of trees. I'm straining, looking for something, and my eyes open to a shot I would have otherwise totally missed.