Lavender Photograph: Part II Prints for Sale

These are the next three lavender photographs that are now available for purchase as prints in my spring collection. I particularly love these three photographs together as a set, but they  hold their own as well. These are a collection of photographs taken in southwest Washington state during spring last year.

I often wander my ne8ghborhood with my camera, especially in the spring when there are lots of new flowers out. On this particular  trip around my neighborhood I had the intention of heading to the local Camas Lily field to take photographs of the purple and blue flowers that were in bloom there, but along the way I got side tracked by the beautiful lavender with the bees working very hard to collect pollen. I ended up spending more time with the Lavender than the Camas flowers I had intended to photograph. 

If you care to see all of the photographs in this spring series now or to go purchase one you can find the link here. To see the first in the series, the lavender at sunset, the first post in the lavender collection here.

Photography Challenge: Ephemeral

Every year since I can remember (minus my years in college) I have gone to the Wooden Shoe Tulip field in the spring.

When I was a kid this was just a trip to see the flowers, it was a field and not much else. My mom took photographs, I most likely sat there somewhat bored.

Now the farm has almost a carnival feel to it, there are enough things there that it is hard to pull the kids away to even see the tulips.

It is still a family tradition to go and see the ephemeral spring tulip blooms although the feel of it has changed drastically over the years.

If you happen to live in Oregon it is a must do family spring time event. Woodburn is about 30 minutes south of Portland and the farm is another few miles, but if you go on the weekend and it is sunny be prepared for a long line of cars waiting to park. We waited probably 20 minutes and my Mom ended up getting out of the car and walking with the kids the rest of the way.

What are your families spring time traditions?

You too can join the weekly photography challenge at post a day.

Photography Challenge: Rule of Thirds

 

Last weekend was amazingly spring like. So much so that up in Vancouver, Washington the trees have been tricked into thinking it is in fact spring. They have blossomed and are showing off their beauty. Even though I have been fighting a cold for going on forever I could not keep myself inside and took a few minutes to photograph these beautiful blossoms with my macro lens, it is impossible to tell, but these are trees situated in a movie theater parking lot.

It is a nice break from the wintery weather to have a weekend full of sun and flowers. 🙂

These photographs worked out quite well to demonstrate the weekly photography challenge rule of thirds. Enjoy!

Weekly Photography Challenge: Spring

Well, the photography challenge topic this week is spring. I have been posting to Instagram for weeks now with things I have seen around the Portland and Vancouver area that inspire the feeling of spring in me. I have found that every year I love this time of year more and more. I have not been able to stop posting pictures of flowers, I am sure most of my Facebook friends are totally sick of me! 🙂

I found this year that tree blossoms were really standing out to me. It is just a joy to watch the blossoms on trees come out.

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The tree blossoms are the very first thing I usually see that makes me think of spring. This year however the first sign of spring I noticed was the sound of croaking frogs (I couldn’t really photograph this though). It seemed like they awakened overnight.

I am looking forward to having a few minutes to check out what others are finding as spring inspiration.

🙂
If you want to join the Weekly Photo Challenge or see others additions you can at http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/spring-2/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

This week I am sharing some photos taken with my phone. I have found that seeing flowers on the verge of opening up to the spring weather had been making me feel very happy and like escaping the inside to explore the world outside.

As I have been outside a lot more, with and without my children, I have been capturing the objects of my happiness as I see them revealing what is inside those tight little buds.

So here is my contribution to the challenge inside with a bit of phonography.

This photograph was taken from inside a parking garage in the Pearl district of Portland.

This photograph shows off the buds very nicely as well as the bloom itself now opened to show the inside opened up to the sunshine.

Last, a beautiful pink bloom.

I know a lot of the USA is still covered in snow, or experiencing winter weather, but here in Portland, Oregon my photography is starting to awaken to the spring again.  🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Three (2)

Wow, I can’t believe it! I got another set of three ready to post again this week. These are photos I took almost a year ago that I have many more to edit, and have been meaning to get around to for, well almost a year, ha ha ha.

A friend and I took a hike during flower season last spring at a place called Tom McCall Preserve. I did not realize how steep this hike is when we started out. I had gone to this place with my Mom and my kids a while back, but we stayed on a very flat trail. My friend was totally unprepared to go on such a difficult incline I suspect. However this is a hike that has more than enough breathtaking views to give you a break every step if you wanted to stop that often.

Starting out you are able to look out over the Columbia Gorge and a field of flowers. As you progress up the hill you start to see Mount Adams (I think) peeking up from the North. It soon is completely visible with the gorge situated in view as well.

Along the way you see Indian Paint brush, as well as flowers in purple, yellow, white, and greens. There are butterflies and birds. Plenty to feast your eyes on.

As you make a sudden turn around the bend nearing the vista we stopped at is the definite climax of the hike, where all of a sudden Mount Hood pops up to the West. Bam, seriously I made a huge gasp when I saw it.

Of course it was windy as heck once we made the plateau looking out over Mount Hood (it is the Gorge) so because we did not prepare well for our hike we did not stay an extraordinarily long time. It was a hike well worth it.

 

Phoneology Weekly Photo Challenge: Lunch

Lunch at my house has become a bit more difficult recently. My husband and son found out they are allergic to wheat and dairy so things like sandwiches are out of the question.

Many days I have been throwing together random left overs into salads. This is a picture that I would not post here except for the photo challenge, but here it is…

It was tasty. My kids each picked their own toppings from the options we had.

A while after lunch I was lucky enough yo spend some time running on a path near my hinge and catching glimpses of spring.

Clover patch along a stream at Round Lake.

Trillium in the forest at Round Lake.

After that I was driving near by and saw my first rainbow of the spring season.

So there you have one of my favorite lunch times of the year so far.  🙂

Did you have any great signs of spring show up today?

Blossoming Tree

My Mom has been going on a daily pilgrimage to see the cherry trees that are blooming by the Capitol Building in Salem. Every day she has been posting a picture (or more) of the trees they are beautiful.

Unfortunately for me I don’t have any cherry tress blooming up here and have not had the chance to make it down to Salem, but I did have a few minutes to take in a blooming tree in my neighborhood. I think it is some kind of plum tree but I am not really sure. Below is my favorite of the photos. Hopefully I will get around to taking more at some point, but you won’t see me venturing out with both sick kids into the pouring rain and high winds. Props to my Mom for continuing her daily pilgrimage through the bad weather (it can make for great photographs).

A Wonderful Sunny Day

We had an incredible sunny day today. One day after waking up to four inches of snow. This is NOT normal weather here (the snow part). I would expect rain, unrelenting rain, or just gray skies for the entire month but snow? Where is this coming from.

I don’t know why but for some reason instead of waking up excited like I do in the winter (it is spring now, happy Spring Equinox) I have been very grumpy on these snow days. The kids are so excited and love it. Me total grump 😦

Today we finally got the sunny day break that I really needed. At least if we go back to snow tomorrow I got to take in the sun today. I was even able to sneak a few pictures even with my children playing next to me (in between taking photos of them, helping them ride bikes, dig in the garden, etc).

We have these lovely red anemone flowers just starting to bloom in our garden and I couldn’t help getting in close to them.

Here’s hoping for more sunny days ahead!

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See more flowers on the Flora and Fauna Page.

Sun and Snow

The last week was a strange one weather wise. The Portland, Oregon area is known for it’s overcast skies and rain but snow is not something that usually happens in March. We went from having one of the nicest days with a high of 63 and blue skies to snow just a few days later. Here are a couple of photographs that I took on each of those days.

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The first was taken at Steigerwald Wildlife Refuge. This is a really nice flat walk where on this day my children and I saw many people out for a stroll or birdwatching.

Some of the first signs of spring were seen there including a Pussy Willow tree of some sort and a little bee.

Less than a week later in the middle of March much to our shock we got a couple of inches of snow. This little red flower was coming up in my yard and was beautiful next to the white snow. I also saw these cute little succulents hiding next to our fountain sheltered from the snow by a tree.

What signs of spring have you been seeing lately?

Check out more flower and nature photograph at my Flora and Fauna page.