Photograbee!

Tag: flowers

  • Two more images June 2026

    Two more images June 2026

    And the official winning names are… (drum roll please)…

    Oregon Rainbow Connection (A) and Oregon Rowena Spring* (B). And Kara from @gilded_green on Insta gets a free small card of choice at any market she catches me at for helping me name the first one! (I’ll be tagging her on Insta tomorrow, Tuesday 6/16.)

    * ETA 6/17/26 – I changed my mind at the last minute on this one, from Oregon Spring TO Rowena Spring, because “Oregon Spring” felt too grandiose, and would prevent me from using it for any other image in the future that might better capture that title. So, Rowena spring, showing the beautiful wild lupin and arrow balsamroot in bloom. Apologies for any confusion!

    Photo showing a color photo notecard with a view looking northeast from Menucha Retreat center in Oregon of a rainbow beaming into a white cloud over the Columbia gorge against a blue sky.
    Oregon Rainbow Connection (A)
    Photo of a color photo notecard (labeled B) showing a lovely view from Rowena Point outside of Mosier, Oregon overlooking rolling hills covered in blue and yhellow wildlfowers. (Lupin and Arrowroot.)
    Rowena Spring (B)
    Colorful promo graphic with green middle on yellow about the Solstice Market June 20th from 12-5 pm at the Multnomah French Quarter 3518 SW Multnomah Blvd in Portland featuring Photograbee.
    Solstice Market Promo June 2026

    Everyone else gets $2 off any single small card (not in a set of 3) if you correctly tell me the winning name for Card A with the rainbow in person (without looking at the label on the back first!) at The Solstice Market coming up next Saturday June 20th at the Multnomah French Quarter 3518 SW Multnomah Blvd in Portland 12-5 pm. (Free admission, family-friendly, lots of food and crafts to be had!) And don’t miss our overflow location at Local Collective 7830 SW 35th just across the street and up one block with even more great artists and vendors! Definitely catch both spots!

    For those not following me on social media, you missed out on my plea for help naming these two images. I was struggling for unknown reasons -I’m normally pretty good at picking names. Not this time!

    I’m considering them to be part of my Scenics lineup (Line C) as I consider them to be gotten while traveling versus while studying bees and flowers in my neighborhood or garden more closely. Though yes, Oregon Spring features flowers. But they are our native wildflowers (blue Lupin and yellow arrow balsamroot aka “Oregon Sunflower”) viewed from Rowena Point out near Mosier off I-84 east of Portland in 2011.

    The rainbow appeared as if by magic at the end of a long rainy weekend of music making at the Menucha Retreat Center just as the faculty concert was starting. Everyone else headed into the concert (rightly so), but I saw the sun break out below the cloud layer just then too, so I chased the light over to this view and voila! A rainbow beaming down right over the Columbia River as I looked northeast from the campus. (Cue choir of angels.)

    Yeah, I was late to the concert and caught heck for it, but can you blame me? This is NOT photoshopped! Just lightly color-enhanced. It was this magical in person. (Menucha Retreat Center is on the old highway overlooking I-84 and the Gorge just west of Vista House at Crown Point for those familiar with the area. You can get to the old highway out of Troutdale, just east of Portland. You won’t see this from I-84, which puts you below the cliffside.)

    Okay, back to bees-ness. I’m out of hummingbirds~! And need to print some larger Oregon Rainbow Connections! See you soon, hopefully! (In cooler weather too, phew.) – Jan Mon 6/15/26

    Photo showing two color photo notecards one above the other. The top one shows a rainbow beaming down into a white cloud over the Columbia Gorge as viewed looking northweast from Menucha Retreat Center in 2010. The second shows blue and yellow native wildflowers from Rowena Point outside of Mosier, Oregon 2011.

  • Just added Mt Hood to line-up too

    I failed to include a fifth new image to you all in my last blog post about fresh images I was bringing to the Radical Harvest Market back on 4/11-4/12.

    I snuck in one of Mt Hood in full very snowy splendor too shown in this shot of the card mix I failed to share:

    Aerial shot looking down on an array of five of Jan's small colorful photo notecards featuring clockwise from top left: Mt St Helens up close, a honeybee in a golden choriopsis blossom in the sun, a colorful spray of pink and salmon cone flowers, a joyful shot from a little beneath a patch of bright orange California poppies reaching for the blue sky, and a bright white shot of a very snow-covered Mt Hood with a dark green tree line coming in from the left at the bottom against a blue sky. These are set on a couple of emerald green plastic mailers on top of a dark blue velvet blanket for contrast.

    I know, I know, I need to update my catalog on the website here too! I will. Soon, I hope. I was abducted by programming aliens for the last three months, and they just released the body at the end of March, a bit battered and bruised. (Or at least my brain was.) I’ve been recovering ever since, and scrambling to catch up here. Thanks for your patience.

    (The photo above does not do the cards justice, you really have to see them in person!)

    Keep an eye on my Upcoming Shows page, the summer craft market season is in full swing now. I’ll have at least one or more shows per month pretty soon.

    Jan 4/14/26

  • 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 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.)

    ETA 6/23/26: I just finally managed to get some video uploaded and working in the blog, so I’m adding it in below! And I plan to refresh things on eBay soon too. (I’ve neglected them in favor of craft markets, for better or worse.) Now back to the original post…

    Their origin story is so hilarious! I dragged myself to my community garden on July 16th, 2025 (it was around 97 degrees F 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.) Here’s a small snip:

    Dreamy sleepy bees

    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 twerking while clinging to 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! Here you go:

    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.)

    Update: Get them from me live at markets, else on eBay for now 4/23/26.

    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.

    Editing 6/23/26 to see if I can upload and play video yet. You should see ten seconds of the sleepy bees if so:

  • Why the limited catalog?

    Why the limited catalog?

    So I know you, Jan, and you’ve taken thousands of shots since you picked up your first DSLR (your beloved trusty old Nikon D60) in 2008. I KNOW you have many more cool images up your sleeve. Why the limited catalog here?

    Photo showing a green-hued hummingbird feeding from a deep red lucifer crocosmia flower in the sun.

    Well, first off, dear follower, you’re absolutely right, I have thousands of other images. But, barely 1% of those are worth sharing. And yes, I constantly take more, every chance I get. However, yes, that leaves at least 100 worth sharing. So why don’t I show them all here yet?

    Because, if someone buys a set of my cards, and then gets back in touch and says “Could I get another 4-pack of the one with the flowers and bees?” – uhm, well, I’d need help figuring out exactly WHICH flower, and WHICH bees, as I have so many! (Pro-tip: you can see lots of my most recent shots on my social media accounts, especially X and BlueSky. Links down below.)

    So. To make my aging life easier, I’ve established a limited catalog here to start. BUT… I am steadily expanding it as time and energy permit. (I just added a new fourth category – SUNDRY – this weekend!) But again, this way, if anyone wants more of one or another image, they can peek on my website, and say “B1 please“. (This literally just happened the other day.) Boom! Easy! Done!

    This keeps things more manageable for both of us. Enjoy! And don’t forget to leave me feedback on eBay – thank you!! xo – Jan

  • I’m a sleepy bee!

    I’m a sleepy bee!

    Okay, not always, but sometimes I feel just like these sweet sleeping longhorn bees, snoozing away tucked into this gorgeous Gaillardia blossom.

    I’m thrilled to say all of my auctions have sold on eBay so far! I’m SO happy! I just need to crank out more. Wait for me… I’m a Sleepy Bee…! And thank you for your support – all of you! – Jan August 6, 2025

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