Rain, rain, rain…..Gray skies and wet streets have been the theme of much of this spring, and sure enough, during group shots before the wedding, there was intermittent rain, at one point heavy enough to drive us indoors. Everyone stood around inside the Corvallis Country Club, looking out the windows. A light rain continued to fall as we drove to the church.

And then, as though by the power of….well, the power of whatever grace and charm flowed between Jennifer and Pete, the clouds slowly parted to reveal limpid blue skies. The grass field across the street from the church displayed a thousand shades of green.

Jennifer and Pete held their ceremony in the Fairview Mennonite Church in Albany. The reception was at the Corvallis Country Club, where we braved flying golf balls and veering swallows and ventured out in a couple golf carts to take more photos at sunset.

Here are a few highlights. If you want to see a sweet little slide show of more highlights, click here. And if you want to see even more and maybe even purchase some photos, I’ve posted a gallery of almost all the shots taken during the day, here.

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and nothing makes it as jolly as a wedding reception in a warm house with a fire crackling in the hearth and the Christmas tree lit. So it was at the Mansion at the Bayou in McMinnville, OR, where Annette and Dan held their reception, after a ceremony at their church in Sheridan. It was cold and damp outside, as is typical this time of year in the Pacific Northwest, but inside, all was warm and glowing and festive, thanks in part to Irmi Brown, the hostess at the Mansion, who knows how to put on a reception. And there was much dancing, too — thanks to Erich Allen of Rose City DJs.

Click here for a really cool slide show of the wedding day, from start to finish. (High speed internet required.) While you’re there, try clicking the red “full screen” icon in the upper right corner, for the IMAX experience. (Well, sort of….)

Click here for a gallery of nearly all the shots from the wedding day and the reception, where you can view your heart away. (And purchase prints, too — if you want.)

An acre-large herb garden, a bonfire surrounded by hay bales for chairs, plates of food decorated with flower petals shaped like dragonflies and butterflies, all within the setting of the green forested hills of the Oregon Coast Range — there’s nothing quite like a wedding at The Thyme Garden. Heidi and Stephen said their vows on a dais of rustic wood, surrounded by friends and family. The pastor, Gretchen Woods of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Corvallis, literally sang a blessing upon them.

Click here for a really cool slide show of the wedding day, from start to finish. (High speed internet required.)

Click here for a gallery of nearly all the shots from the wedding day, where you can view your heart away. (Or purchase prints, too — if you want.)

Finally, I invite you to add a comment to the blog post. And for each comment added, I’ll donate one canned item to the local food bank to go toward hunger relief.

Pam and Bryan had their reception on Saturday, mostly for family. On Sunday they held a reception for a larger group of friends at Portland’s Wonder Ballroom. The warm tone was set by barbecue and homemade pies in lieu of cake, rollicking kids, happy friends…

Click here for a really cool slide show of the wedding day, from start to finish. (High speed internet required.)

Click here for a gallery of nearly all the shots from the wedding day and the reception, where you can view your heart away. (Or purchase prints, too — if you want.)

I invite you to add a comment to the blog post. And for each comment added, I’ll donate one canned item to the local food bank to go toward hunger relief.

Tracy and Justin got married in The Old Church . Built in 1883, it’s a strikingly beautiful wooden Gothic building in downtown Portland. And Tracy and Justin’s wedding, mixing elegance and warmth, did it justice. From there they went a couple blocks away to Crystal Ballroom at the Tiffany Center for their reception.

Click here for a really cool slide show of the wedding day, from start to finish. (High speed internet required.) While you’re there, try clicking the red “full screen” icon in the upper right corner, for the IMAX experience. (Well, sort of….)

Click here for a gallery of nearly all the shots from the wedding day and the reception, where you can view your heart away. (And purchase prints, too — if you want.)

Right after the wedding, we made a quick stop at the Park Blocks, to get some truly autumnal shots — yellow leaves on the ground, amber street lights, handsome newlyweds….

In the foyer of the Tiffany Center, we did this classy shot with the Venetian tableau painted on the arched ceiling above them.

Annette and Dan and I did this session for their engagement photos on the worst rainy day of the season to date — and it was simply beautiful. Outside the dark and dramatic clouds lowered above the bright green fields, while inside the fireplace crackled. Irmi at The Mansion at the Bayou, where Annette and Dan will host their reception on December 19th, was kind enough not only to let us use the mansion for these shots, but she also lit the fire, placed candles, brought bolsters and pillows for the “lying on the floor” shots, and generally made sure we had everything we needed.

And then there was Phoebe! Poor little Phoebe, who trembled like a leaf in the presence of strangers, who couldn’t look a stranger in the face, much less one pointing a camera at her. I had Annette and Dan lie on the floor and slide Phoebe toward me, and shot after shot what I got was a dog looking wide-eyed and terrified and dashing back to the safety of Dan’s arms first chance she got. Until, finally, with this shot, we got what we needed: she paused just long enough to yawn. But to my lights, the yawn looks like a clear and joyful endorsement of the coming marriage of Annette and Dan.

South of Boise, some 14,000 years ago, the floodwaters of ancient Lake Bonneville roared through here, tearing this gorge out of basalt. We were here — my sister Barb, brother-in-law Steve, and friend Greg — in late Novemember, looking as colorful as a Benetton ad.

Zion! Such a blue infinity of sky! And shadows of mountains creeping up the face of other mountains, and covering the trees with a more saturated green.

Max Beckman said, “Height, width, and depth are the three phenomena which I must transfer into one plane to form the abstract surface of the picture, and thus to protect myself from the infinity of space.”

A cold day for early August in the Cascades! Cloudy, windy, threatening rain all day. But dramatic, yes! Broken Top, the dead volcano, seemed almost to be coming back to life, with clouds rising out of its shattered core.

One can’t paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt. — Georgia O’Keeffe