"Calla Lilies bloom in this idyllic valley south of Carmel. California has some gorgeous places, and this one makes the short list.

On this evening, I had to beat bay area traffic to get down here for sunset. Without a moment to spare, I hiked into the valley to find a composition I liked. With so many flowers blooming, it was difficult not two disturb clusters of plants all around me. When the sun appeared in the frame, it backlit some of the flowers and I cheered out loud." - MikeSF

"One of my favorite winter activities is an all-day solo backcountry XC ski tour. I pack up some food, water, extra clothing, safety gear, and of course my camera and just head into the wilderness. On this occasion I was in the West Elk Wilderness skiing to Swampy Pass via Ohio Pass. This zone has a lot of potential photographic interest: geology with rugged peaks, big game and other wildlife, and some unique flora. My initial plan was to get an alternate view of a geological formation called The Castles than we typically see.

Getting into location requires traversing right through one of the largest known organisms on Earth, an enormous aspen grove (which is a single organism). After a couple of hours of skiing and shooting, the afternoon winter sun was starting to get lower in the sky giving this slightly elevated zone some direct side light. As I traversed the flank of a nearby mountain the undulating terrain created a remarkable pattern of shadows across the snow. This is not that unusual here but in this case, the shape of the terrain was changing the direction of shadows in a very appealing way. Almost like a crosshatch pattern. It was kind of overwhelming at first and I had to slow down and study it for a few minutes. I shot a few different compositions and in the end, this was my favorite. Without much color to begin with it seemed like a natural for a black and white edit." - mattb123