At first glance, it's hard to tell what you're seeing in Adrienne Adam's images. Is it an aerial view of mountain lakes in a green field, or is it merely a leaf with holes in it? Is it a group of eroded sandstone boulders, or the leaves of a desert succulent plant?

Through Adam's experienced eye, the same recurring themes of the natural world seem to crop up in all subjects — be they mountain ranges or flower petals. "Today, I find that what really makes my heart sing...

Judy Horn uses digital technology to blur the line between photograph and painting.

Some have called it "photo painting." Others have suggested "painting with photographs" or even "artography." For Tacoma, Wash., photographer Judy Horn, it's a good living.

For two decades, Horn has been making digital magic with her photos, turning them into virtual paintings with the help of computer editing and graphics programs. Along with these stylized landscapes, she has developed a healthy business creating customized portraits and restoring old and damaged photos with digital tools.

With a background in oil and watercolor painting, Horn says she finds the transition from photograph...

Charles Krebs gets up close and personal with the small things in life.

What the heck is that?

This is a common reaction when nature photographer Charles Krebs shows off one of his recent macro-lens creations. "I like to spark amazement in people," he says. "There are all these common things in front of you every day that have such great detail, and most people never see them."

In some cases, he captures these tiny dramas in the field. For instance, the iridescent beetle, at lower left, was taken in Olympic National Park, Wash., as the bug crawled along a log. Others, such as...

One glance at the recent studio work of Marianne McCoy tells you she is in touch with the language of dreams - sometimes literally.

"The night before the shoot, I had a dream about that image," McCoy said of the nude study titled "Twisting". "I just saw a figure slowly twisting back and forth. I didn't really know why I saw it, but I wanted to capture it."

Such dream realization is a relatively common occurrence with McCoy since she began shooting studio portraits two years ago. By using long exposures, soft focus and a lot of natural light, McCoy, a self-proclaimed "old soul," tries to create an old-fashioned, dreamy look...

"Let's take these flowers and look at them," says Seattle photographer Randy Dana. "By putting them into this context, I think I force peopleto take a new and different look at them. I'm also trying to stimulate people's imaginations and show them something they haven't thought about before, and make them curious."

His entire portfolio consists of images of flowers and found objects, carefully composed. They are all photographed in natural light...

As a factory worker for most of his life, George Ciardi has always had an affinity for the "accidental artistry" of the places where he worked. "It's all this functionality that ends up being beautiful in odd ways," he says. Ciardi took a job as a courier two and a half years ago, but stuck in a car all day, he soon felt "visually frustrated" and missed the rhythm of factory life. That all changed when he began seeing the old buildings he delivered packages to in a different light.

"My job takes me to all these great locations," Ciardi says. "So I started writing down the places that might be promiq sing and going back at night with my camera."

The spooky colors in Ciardi's images are provided by the buildings' own outdoor lighting. The yellowish hues come from sodium vapor lights, while mercury vapor...

David Julian brings digital images to life with use of traditional darkroom techniques.

"I'm not like a dark side person, " says photographer David Julian, "but I am intrigued with the slightly surreal edges of life. Which leads me to a slightly different look on things.'

Though he says he "thoroughly enjoys shooting at dirty factories," corporate photographer Patrick Bennett is finding new worlds to conquer in advertising. Much in demand, he uses blurring, color and odd angles to illustrate the energy of his subjects.

The scene of terror above was shot for ad agency DDB Worldwide's 50th anniversary. "They said we had to show as many DDB Seattle employees as possible and we had to show the Space Needle. But they didn't say we couldn't have Godzilla break the top off.

"We had about 80 takes where I was yelling through a megaphone and screaming at the employees to run from the imaginary monster. If there was anyone not running and screaming...