May Flowers

A thunderous storm blew through Portland yesterday, watering pastels around the neighborhood.

Pink Spring

Pink blossoms on the trees - signs of spring. Now if we can just get the weather to stay in the 60's, maybe we can have one full week without someone in our family being sick.

Mossy Leaf

Green stuff growin' all around. Click for larger view.

Hello, Life

Buds are poppin'. Green stuff is growin'. Life is back in season. (Click for larger view.)

To Cheer February

A yellow pick-me-up.

And a quick note of thanks to all of you who subscribe to this blog -- especially to those who comment. You keep me going. Thanks.

Crisp Veins

Sharp lines and texture of a leaf. Click for a larger view.

Snow More Ice

Tired of snow and ice pics? It's melting away here finally. Here's a touch of spring, though it's months away.

Frozen Twiggy Thing

"What is it?" she said. "It's a frozen twiggy thing," I replied. "You just named my picture."

Everything here in Portland is still a snowy, slushy, foot-deep mess. Warm temps this weekend will get the world moving again, we hope.

Bumple Grass

Fragile blades of grass reinforced now with bumples of ice. Got another 4 or so inches of snow on top of the ice on top of snow. Tomorrow? Maybe another layer of ice...

Crystal Crusted

Rhododendron leaves crusted with ice like jewels. About 1/4" of ice layered over plants, telephone wires, windshields, etc.

Frozen Butterfly

Maple leaf frozen in the snow like a fallen butterfly. I'm just crazy enough to go for a photo walk in the blustery "arctic blast" that Portland got this weekend. An inch or two of snow and this town shuts down.

Crisp

Mossy Bark

Greens and browns, greens and browns.

Curled

Tired of leaf pictures yet?

The Falling Leaves

There's still some leaves left on the trees here, but they're fading fast.

Tree Party

Found this macro shot back in my archives. Reminded me of my four-year old son's favorite joke lately:

What did the tree say when the other tree asked him, "Will you come to my tree party?"

"Yes, I wood."

("Get it?" my son says. "Would / wood?")

Wet Decay

Maple leaves on their way out, leaving their nutrients behind for the next round of life in the spring.

Fall Color

More fall colors caught in late afternoon sunlight.

Sale! Sale! Sale!

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT!

Just a quick heads up that I've slashed prices at my Shutterfly store my Photrade store in time for the holiday shopping. You can get almost any Crossmark Photo on playing cards, magnets, puzzles, notecards, mugs--even a nice keepsake box or desktop organizer. [Update: Canvas prints, frames, shirts, coasters, softballs and aprons too.]

If you have a favorite Crossmark Photo and don't see it in the store, let me know. I'll be happy to add it.

Here's a few of my faves from the flower category:

Fernage

We've officially moved into the rainy season here in Portland, Oregon. Pulling from my photo archives to remember the sunny days. Hope I have enough to last until the sun pops out again. =)

Bark

Look. It's a tree.

Happy Leaves

A mottled mass of happy yellow leaves. A welcome sight as I walk along and try to make sense of life.

Bronzed Leaf

Autumn -- when nature bronzes itself as if to preserve the memory of spring and summer.

Tree Abstraction

Tree shadow on the wall.

Orange Pod

Colorful orange pod thingys in a stranger's yard.

"What are they?" I ask as a conversation starter.

"Weeds," he responds.

And that's the end of that story.

October Rose

I was surprised to see roses in such perfect bloom as late as October (almost November already).

Flower with a Golden Wreath

Something happy to start your week off with. Looks kinda like a tiny tennis ball with a wreath of leaves.

Anyone know what kind of flower this is?

Pumpkin

A tribute to all things pumpkin. Somehow, in the midst of herding two mischievous toddlers and two young boys, my wife and I were able to find half a second to enjoy our trip to a local farm. Brought back some smallish pumpkins as trophies of our venture.

Fence Leaf

A brave leaf sticking out of the fence.

Sidewalk Oak

That time of year when ya wanna rake some leaves into a huge pile and jump in 'em.

Maple Veins

Crisp lines of a red maple lit by an autumn sunset.

Fire Flower

Petals like tongues of flame.

Pumpkin Flower

We have an abundance of pumpkin flowers in our mini-garden, but no pumpkins. =(

Heart of an Iris

Except for calla lilies, irises are probably my favorite flower. Yours?

Queen Anne

A bit of Queen Anne's Lace in the morning sun.

Pretty in Pink

The most beautiful things are the most frangible and fleeting. From the Rose Test Garden in Portland's Washington Park.

(I just learned the word "frangible". Had to use it.)

Lone Dandy

A standout in the crowd. This field of dandelions featured the tallest specimens I think I've ever seen.

Blue Springy

Curls and swirls make this happy blue flower look like a jack-in-the-box popping up to say "hello!".

Raspberry in the Sun

Juicy red raspberry soaking up the sun. Been gorging ourselves on loads of fresh raspberries and blueberries that we picked ourselves last night on Sauvie Island in Portland. Yum!

Pollen Thingy

So I'm sitting here asking my wife, "What are these pollen thingys called?"

"They're either 'pistils' or 'stamens'," she says.

"Thanks for narrowing it down."

I think we failed plant-ology. The sad thing is, my six-year-old son could spout it right now if he were standing here.

Florets

Little fuzzy guys waiting for their turn to bloom.

Vivid and Minty

Vivid orange and minty green--a palette for floral sentiment. (Beats me what that means. Sounded good, though.)

MORE SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT:
Congratulate me. I've sold my first photos on photrade.com and even got one photo featured in a web article (gotta scroll)! Not striking it rich yet, but it's fun trying.

Go to http://www.photrade.com/ and search for "crossmark" to check out the 50 photos available there. Prints are available all the way up to 24 X 36 (in case you wanted to wallpaper your bathroom with it). Mugs, mousepads, decks of cards, clothing--practically every tchotchke you can think of.

Somethin' Flower

As usual, the exact name of the flower eludes me.

Rose Skin

Roses have bloomed in nearly every front yard in Portland--The Rose City. This one seemed especially full of life, with coloring, veins and translucency like human skin.

Makin' Honey

Luck in my favor. I was snapping a shot of this flower just this evening when the buzzy guy popped right in the middle of it.

Faerie Bed

Magical white flower in delicate bloom. Classical Chinese Garden, Portland.

(Anyone know what kind of flower this is? Looks sort of like an iris to me. Do they come in white?)

White Rhododendron

Soft-lit flowers of a rhododendron on the campus of Reed College here in Portland. Until we moved to Oregon, I had no idea there were so many varieties of rhodos. In fact, I don't think I had ever seen one in bloom.

If you really want to impress your friends, you can casually mention that "rhododendron" comes from the Greek for "rose tree". (I learned it on dictionary.com while figuring out how to spell "row-doh-den-druhn".)

Bonsai (I Think)

Sculpted tree from the Chinese Classical Garden near downtown Portland. Or is "bonsai" only Japanese?

Tiny White

Little while flowers dot fields of grass at a local playground.

Shaded Palm

A small palm plant sits in silhouette at the Chinese Classical Garden in downtown Portland.

Lavender

Seems appropriate to post a delicate flower picture for Mother's Day. (Anyone know what kind of flower this is? Beats me.)

Our house sure is lucky to have an incredible woman like my wife. Mother of three, teacher of two, cook for all five, kisser of cheeks, healer of wounds, cleaner of messes, washer of clothes, all-around-keeps-the-house-running-glue-that-holds-our-family-together woman.

Yep. Pretty lucky.

Just Dandy

A dandelion prepared to launch seeds and spread a sea of yellow into nearby yards.

Doesn't it take you back to childhood? What kid can resist picking these guys and blowing the seeds to the wind?

Vibrance

I still can't get over how strikingly colorful this flower was--didn't enhance it at all.

Delicate Yellow

Had the pleasure of visiting fields of fragile tulips at the Wooden Shoe Bulb Company's tulip festival this weekend--nearly 80 degrees out, sunny, and clear blue skies. Perfect day for shooting.

Only after we were leaving did I find out that a Canon camera dealer on site was lending some awesome cameras and lenses out for FREE. Sneaky way to get my wanter wanting. Someday I'm gonna splurge big to upgrade to better lenses. I think it's gonna have to wait until some mid-life crisis or retirement.

Pine Cone

Oregon has many more evergreen trees than rural Ohio, a fact not lost on my three-year old son. No trip to the park is complete until he has as many pine cones and sticks as his hands can hold--presents for mommy.

Spring Bud

Someone asked me today how we were surviving our first Portland winter. "When was it winter?" I thought. The plants were budding in February!

Lonely Leaf

A solitary leaf in late afternoon.

Touch of Gold

Tiny yellow flowers by a neighbor's mailbox. I'm sure they thought I was bonkers kneeling down in their yard with my nose to the ground.

Sunshine Reminder

Sunshine in flower form. A vivid reminder that summer will be back eventually. Really, it will.

Morning Dew

Dewdrops glisten in morning light.

Dreamin' of a Green Christmas

Red leaf peeks through green. It's December in Portland with verdant leaves still on the trees.

The Holly and the Ivy

Would you believe I've never seen real holly? Not until I noticed how many of our neighbors have it growing right in their front yard.

White Fuzzy

White fuzzies dress a garden plant with an artificial frost.

Leaf LIght

A flock of leaves flitter around a street light like amber moths.

Evergreen Droplet

A water droplet balloons on the tip of an evergreen needle before falling to its demise. The rainy season seems to have drizzled its way into Portland. It's always a soft rain, with gentle trickles of water bubbling their music as I walk to the bus in the morning.

Black Eyed Susan

What an odd name for a such a nice flower. Who gave Susan a black eye, anyway?

Browning Maple

A lonely maple leaf rests on the sidewalk wet with a morning mist.

Fall is Falling

The photoblog is back after several weeks off as we moved clear across the country from Ohio to Oregon. We're settled in and I'm finding time to shoot again thanks to the encouragement of some photoblog fans.

This Japanese Maple lives in the front yard of a neighbor down the block, shot on one of our first days here before all our earthly possessions arrived by truck. The leaves formed a vivid gradient from yellow-green, to bright orange, to crimson, splashing a warm rainbow of color welcoming us to the neighborhood.

Brown and Green

Crisp brown leaves remind me that all too soon summer will be gone, taking green along with it.

Water Web

A spider web captures water droplets suspended above a dried leaf just outside our front door.

Sunflower

Discovered a yellow blaze of sunflowers by the road the other day.

Plant Symmetry

August rain is restoring green to our little plot of suburbia. (If you can call where we live a suburb. There's not exactly an "urb" anywhere near us.)

Hidden Beauty

Weird how lush vegetation thrives in such a barren landscape as a back alley where no one but the trash guy gets to enjoy it.

Ivy

A few of the buildings downtown are covered in a green tapestry of ivy during the summer.

Thistle While You Work

Pokey plants along the roadside.

Wheat Harvest

Endless blue skies and amber waves of grain--just another reason why it's great to live in northwest Ohio.

Bzzzzzzzzz

There's yet another exotic flower in our back yard that I don't know the name of. Fragrant white flowers hang upside down clustered over a tall stalk. The bees sure love it.

Dew Drop

Dew on a leaf in our back yard. Someday when we have our own house and I have nothing else to do, I think I'll take up gardening and putter about in the yard. There's a lot gardening teaches about life: patience in waiting for change, the need to nurture people for them to grow, the frailty and temporary-ness of things, how we're all connected and need each other.

Flower Collage

Found a great photo op in Fort Wayne, Indiana yesterday at Lakeside Park and Rose Garden. As much as I enjoy taking photos, even I get tired of looking at flower pictures pretty quickly--so I thought I'd get it over with and put them all in a collage. Enjoy!

May Flowers

Peonies are in bloom in our backyard as of today thanks to whoever lived here before us. Makes me think about legacy--leaving beauty behind for others to enjoy long after you've left.

Iris

One of the great things about the house we live in now is that someone before us obviously loved flowers. Irises started blooming this week.