Welcome to Photograbee!

Author: Jan Groh

  • The sleeping bees are coming to eBay and more! 11/1/25

    The sleeping bees are coming to eBay and more! 11/1/25

    I’m still awaiting confirmation that this Friday’s Halloween Thrifty Night Market is a go – the organizer has been incommunicado and is not yet advertising as of today, Wednesday 10/29. But… regardless, The Friday night Halloween Thrifty Night Market is now ON too! (She just responded finally right after I first posted this! She had to wait for the venue confirmation.)

    So, local Portland beeps (bee-loving peeps) can snag these new cards from me IN PERSON THIS FRIDAY, Halloween, 5-9 pm at 623 SE Washington Street in Portland, Oregon.

    A dark goth and punk style flyer from thriftynightmarket_ on Insta sharing the Alt Night Market on Halloween with Y2k, Goth and punk themed vintage items and more Friday 10/31/25 from 5-9 pm at 623 SE Washington Street in Portland, Oregon. (Flyer is a little hard to read.)

    The entrance is down the steep ramp at the end of the grey building, (to the east), by the monthly paid parking lot. (Parking for us is on street only sorry, so plan a little time to hunt for a spot as we vendors are going to be using the closest spots to set up.) It’s right off of SE Stark, and Grand. Close to the streetcar, if that helps at all.

    Daytime photo from kitty corner across the interestcion of SE 6th and Washington showing the non-descript grey building where the nightmarket will be. A large thumbs up emoji, and arrows point to the entrance highlighted in yellow toward the back (east end) of the building on SE Washington. Text labels show the street names, and N, E, S, W directionals. So it's clear where to go.
    Find us here

    AND I’m going to start listing the Sleeping Bees duo of cards I just shared in my last post on eBay starting November 1st too! (I was just working out shipping details.)

    Their origin story is so hilarious! I dragged myself to my community garden last July 16th (it was around 95F that day – too hot for me and the garden) to water my poor thirsty plot, and slid over to the Gaillardia (red and yellow blanket flower) patch as per usual. But I only had my phone camera on me, as it was so hot. (I live in the same range as butter: when it melts, I melt.)

    Anyway, that’s when I encountered the FIRST image below, where no less than six longhorn bees were snoozing sweetly away in a perfect circle around the center of a single Gaillardia flower blossom, swaying peacefully in the breeze. Totally unbothered. Bums up. Shown here:

    Photo of a notecard made with a photo of six longhorn bees sleeping neatly and sweetly away around the center of a red and yellow Gaillardia flower.
    Sleeping sweetly July 16th

    I snapped several shots and took a little video to prove this was NOT Photoshop nor AI! (I rarely use either, honestly.) I’ve shown the video at multiple markets to great effect.

    So I swore I’d return the next day with my Nikon Z50 to see if I got as lucky again. Well, the laugh was on me! Because there was not one single bee sleeping sweetly away in any fresh fully open Gaillardia blossoms like the day before – oh no. That would be too easy, Jan. You had your chance yesterday!

    No – they were all clustered up on the tattered petals of a bedraggled spent (mature) Gaillardia blossom, also swaying gently in the breeze, looking like a biker gang after a bender! Lol! Ahh… I laughed so hard! That’ll teach me – ALWAYS have your camera on you, silly! But, if you don’t, the best camera (as always) is whatever you have on hand at the time the image presents itself. (Yay for quick reflexes.) Here’s that image I’m calling “The After Party”:

    Photo of a large notecard with a photo of a gang of longhorn bees dangling from the tattered petals of a bedraggled Gaillardia flower. Looking like they were on a bender.
    The After Party 7/17.

    Ahhh… people love both images separately for different reasons I’m finding. As well as the pair together, for the contrast. (I have all three sizes available now.)

    I’ll try to get them out to Crystal Heart Boutique ASAP too- 269 E Main street in Hillsboro, Oregon. I’ll do this by next Tuesday Nov 4th latest, maybe sooner. (That’s the next First Tuesday Art Walk in Hillsboro by the way. Just one block off the MAX Blue Line 3rd street station. Super easy!)

    Anyway, they are here! And soon they can be there – with you – too!

    PS I’m lining up multiple holiday markets, but not all are confirmed yet. Some may get confirmed at the last minute so stay tuned on my socials (see links below) for late-breaking updates. (I try to keep this up to date, but don’t always succeed.) Cheers.

    Jan and the Sleepy Bees October 29th, 2025.

  • Catch the Sleeping Bees at Spot Market 10/12/25!

    I always bring a pack of my small photo notecards with me when I’m exploring potential markets and stores. And almost every time I go out. It’s so hard to convey their incredible colors otherwise.

    I did just that, when I headed out to find the new to me “Spot Market PDX” in the Lloyd Center Mall in NE Portland, Oregon yesterday, Saturday the 11th. Silly me, I didn’t read the notice closely, and ended up stumbling on an entirely different but equally wonderful small artisan market – the Spectrum Market, for the LGBTQIA community. It was also wonderful, so many great artists with loads of cute and useful things, and whimsy. I highly recommend it! But, being straight, they weren’t so interested in me.

    It also took me over 30 minutes to realize this wasn’t the SPot Market! Which uses a lot of ladybugs and spots for their marketing. Indeed, the vendors and market manager confirmed it was upstairs as they began packing up at 5 pm.

    So I headed upstairs, and lucky me, I caught the last hour of the Spot Market after I found it all the way at the east end of the mall, near the old Marshall’s store (near NE 15th) on the left. And I bumbled in again. And met some more wonderful vendors and artisans. Who all raved about my cards. And even bought one!

    But I kept sharing my sleeping bees photos from last July, with the sweet shot and the “After Party” shot cued up in my photos (after I found it again – I take a LOT of photos all the time)! And then they announced there were two vendor openings the next day (Sunday Oct 12th). And the lovely watercolor artist I was with nudged me to inquire. I did, and they said “come tomorrow!” Boom! that simple! (Well, I did show some of my cards.)

    I was so inspired by this wonderful development, and the interest in my duo of sleeping bee images, that I stayed up way too late tonight (last night), and went ahead and developed the images and produced the first cards featuring them shown here:

    Photo of a notecard made with a photo of six longhorn bees sleeping neatly and sweetly away around the center of a red and yellow Gaillardia flower.
    Sleeping sweetly July 16th
    Photo of a large notecard with a photo of a gang of longhorn bees dangling from the tattered petals of a bedraggled Gaillardia flower. Looking like they were on a bender.
    The After Party 7/17.
    Photo showing a pair of small colorful photo notecards, one in portrait view the other landscape featuring the sleeping bees from the other two shots.

    I haven’t even been able to update my online catalog just yet, things are happening so fast! I’m not unhappy – just trying to keep up! I feel a bit like the bees in the “After Party” shot in the middle above, which is the shot I got the next day after I went back with my Nikon to try catching them sleeping sweetly again.

    No dice! Lol. They gave me the finger, and were ALL clustered on that poor bedraggled Gaillardia shown. Not a one was in the still fresh flowers that were still available. Oh no. Nope. They looked like a biker gang on a bender, giving me the bee finger! That’ll teach me to forget my camera! Ha ha!

    As I told someone again, the best camera to have is the one you have on you when the opportunity (shot) presents itself. Don’t underestimate your phone cameras folks! You can see the results are nothing to sneeze at!

    Speaking of which, the images above aren’t the best because I had already packed up my spot light that helps brighten them up. I’ll try to produce some new, better ones soon, hopefully. I’ll also try to get some up on eBay right away too.

    Oh yeah, you can also get Multnomah Falls from me IN PERSON! Else just at Crystal Heart Boutique in Hillsboro for now. Cheerio.

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