To some people, ancient myths are dusty relics from the past. To visual artist Nicole Dextras, however, they are living, breathing entities. In part of an ongoing photo series, she reinterprets various Greek myths in her newest work, often placing them in modern settings.

Dextras has always had a fascination with ancient legends and symbols. "I chose Greek mythology because it is so rich in stories," she says of her latest work. "I like to tell stories instead of being vague and obtuse, as so much contemporary photography tends to be."Shooting in various locations around her native Vancouver, British Columbia, Dextras uses models - usually friends, artists, actors and dancers — to represent gods, goddesses and other mythical characters in consciously theatrical setups.

A selection of images from PIEA's 2004 International Student-Teacher Photo Competition.

The top student photographs from around the world were lauded recently in the Photo Imaging Education Association's (PIEA) 2004 International Student-Teacher Photo Exhibition and Competition.

In January, the judges for the PIEA competition chose 120 images from more than 4,200 entries sent in by 105 schools from the United States and six other countries. The chosen photos were exhibited at the...

It's hard enough to be a nature photographer — slogging through jungles and enduring the burning desert sun to set up just the right shot of a rare creature. But just imagine doing it all on a half-hour air supply. That's what underwater wildlife photographers like Geoffrey Semorile must do to produce these crisp, brightly colored images of the other three-quarters of the world hidden beneath the sea.

"All underwater creatures know three things about underwater photographers - when you are out of film, when you are in focus and when you are out of air," Semorile says. "They then strike that pose you have been waiting your whole tank of air for, right after you have shot your last frame of film or refocused your lens ten times."

Tour the natural world with lawyer-turned-photographer Sean Fitzgerald.

It's a long way to go from cramming for bar exams to chasing wild game on a South Texas ranch. For environmental photographer Sean Fitzgerald, that journey took just six years, opening a new world of artistic expression he couldn't find in legal journals. Fitzgerald described how he chose his unlikely career path in a recent phone interview while hiking through a pasture on the Fennessey Ranch, near Corpus Christi, Texas. "I practiced law at a Dallas law firm for several years, but it just sucked the life right out of me," he says, with cows audibly mooing in the distance. "I wanted something to trigger the right side of my brain. I was interested in creating something tangible..."

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...