Among the six professional photographers recently inducted into Microsoft's new Icons of Imaging program, three were from the western United States: Bambi Cantrell, a portrait photographer based in Pleasant Hills, Calif.; nature and landscape photographer John Shaw, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo.; and wildlife and nature photographer Art Wolfe, who has a studio in Seattle.

The other photographers honored by Microsoft were Reed Hoffmann of Kansas City, Denis Reggie of Atlanta and Matthew Jordan Smith of New York (see microsoft.com).