It’s always worth a visit to SE Portland’s Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden; this is especially true if you like rhododendrons, as they are omnipresent there.

16+ acres of lush forest and flowering plants from around the Northwest, and you will get a very different experience depending on what time of year you visit.

West of Astoria, Oregon, on the wide and well-preserved historic beaches along Fort Stevens State Park, a visitor may be surprised to find the remains of a shipwreck from 1906. The Peter Iredale, once a 300-foot-long wooden sailing ship with four tall masts, is now only the skeletal remains of its iron hull sticking out of the sand.

West of Astoria, Oregon, on the wide and well-preserved historic beaches along Fort Stevens State Park, a visitor may be surprised to find the remains of a shipwreck from 1906. The Peter Iredale, once a 300-foot-long wooden sailing ship with four tall masts, is now only the skeletal remains of its iron hull sticking out of the sand.

In northeast Portland, there is a nice viewpoint at Rocky Butte Natural Area. The park covers the remains of an extinct volcano and gives you — on clear days — a nice view of several more volcanoes, both extinct (e.g., Mount Tabor, Pilot Butte, etc.) and active (e.g., Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens).

This refuge, located just west of Ridgefield, Washington, is home to a wide variety of plants and animals.

There is not much more visually fun out there than a whole bunch of balloons firing up their burner engines and floating up into the clear blue Oregon skies!

Even though it was in the heat of summertime, we still saw many animals in this botanical garden, including a few very happy and loud frogs.

A quick visit to Westmoreland Park, a lovely community park in SE Portland, Oregon…

Summer has begun in 2024 here in Portland. So I took the day off work and headed downtown with my Leica T (L-mount) rangefinder to grab some snapshots…

Frolicking with tulips on a perfect spring morning. This is post two of two, and it features the 85mm photographs.

Frolicking with tulips on a perfect spring morning. This is post one of two, and it features the 50mm photographs.

Taken with my Canon AE-1, still hanging on from the late 1970s. A great little camera and a ton of fun to shoot with, even on a dark and rainy Portland day.

On a cool drizzly early spring morning, there were plenty of beautiful sights in the garden, from honking geese to blooming flowers of various varieties (including, yes, rhododendrons). Oh, and one huge nutria.

In Sellwood, Oregon, is a one-room insectarium, i.e. a little museum/zoo dedicated to insects and spiders.

An award-winning farm that ships irises all over world, with custom hybrid varieties that you cannot find anywhere else. If you are like me and love the smell of irises, this farm is a heavenly place to visit. Bring your nose!

If you like peonies, this is the place for you, not just to look at but to buy and take home.

Always a fun Portland destination, especially this time of year when many of the plants are in bloom.

A few months ago I took my beloved Canon AE-1 and some expired film around downtown Portland, Oregon.

We visited the fabulous tulip fields during one of the all-time coolest and wettest Aprils on record…

The main focus of the collection is Cold War, but there are pieces from throughout aviation history…

Springtime flowers are made for this wild weather, and do not even seem to notice…

My favorite season at the Leach is springtime, when the first flowers appear and everything is deep, bright green…

Let’s explore around Tacoma, Mount Rainier, Sumner, Puyallup, and University Place in Washington’s Pierce County…