With an inspired eye, darkroom finesse and a compelling reverence for the earth, two noted photographers skillfully create landscapes of non-reality. Both Michael Kenna and Bruce Barnbaum forge powerful visions of a black-and-white realm that our eyes never see in nature's color-saturated world. Yet, their artistry evokes depth and wonder, not illusion. Barnbaum's bold mountain scenes and Southwest canyons give viewers the sense of standing amid these magnificent landscapes, while Kenna's painterly fine-art images embrace time in a seemingly infinite moment.

Michael Kenna has photographed subjects as diverse as Waldorf School kindergarten toys, the giant heads of Easter Island and the sites of the Nazi death camps. Currently, he feels drawn to the open, snowy expanses...

Find out how this digital photography pioneer claw his way to the top of the greeting card industry with his inventive, whimsical and furry animal creations.

His chickens don't just cross the road, they blast along it as speed-demon motorcycle mamas, leaving a trail of feathers behind their black leather. A demure white rabbit shoots skyward on a red pogo stick. A cat can water-ski, ride a bicycle and, yes, even wield a chainsaw or a whip (the latter as a dominatrix in tall black boots and a merry-widow corset).

Sound kinky and silly, and impossible to shoot? Welcome to the animal antics world of John Lund (johnlund.com), a studio photographer and digital imaging pioneer whose zany creations have spawned an empire of highly successful greeting cards, books, calendars, posters and gift merchandise such as mugs, figurines, frames, magnets, jigsaw puzzles and stationery...

He's climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He's been placed under house arrest in Somalia. He's crossed the Sahara Desert, circumnavigated the world and retraced the ancient Silk Road from Istanbul to China, all by motorcycle.

He became the first motorcyclist to ride from South America to North America through Panama's Darien Gap, a notorious 80-mile stretch of almost impenetrable trails throughbug-filled jungle and swamp. After three weeks in the Gap, he arrived in Panama City with broken bones and infected legs.

He has hung out the window of a helicopter over rough Norwegian seas, photographing rescues of crews on sinking ships. "We flew for four to five hours with one guy who broke his back and they couldn't give him medication — it was agonizing," remembers Helge Pedersen, a Seattle photojournalist and traveling...