Cherry Blossoms 2019A T-Shirt

On August 30, 1909, the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., informed the U.S. Department of State that the city of Tokyo intended to donate 2000 cherry trees to the United States to be planted along the Potomac. These trees arrived in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 1910. However, the inspection team from the Department of Agriculture (led by Flora Wambaugh Patterson) found that the trees were infested with insects and nematodes, concluding that the trees had to be destroyed to protect local growers. President Taft gave the order to burn the trees on January 28.[4][6] Secretary of State Philander C. Knox wrote a letter expressing the regret of all involved to the Japanese Ambassador. Takamine responded to the news with another donation for more trees, 3020 in all, of a lineage taken from a famous group of trees along the Arakawa River in Tokyo and grafted onto stock from Itami, Hyogo Prefecture. On February 14, 1912, 3020 cherry trees of twelve cultivars were shipped on board the Awa...

My focus has always been on the natural world and its beauty whether it be a dragonfly, flower, frog, or tree bark. When viewing our world, I look at how people and architectural structures fit into it now and in the past. Do they coexist with their natural surroundings or look out of place? To that end, what compels me to take photos is, not only our natural world, but the history we created within it, thus combining my two loves of nature and history. It is my intention that my photographs of landscapes and architecture, as well as close ups of nature and historical artifacts, give us a sense of the world around us. As a photographer and naturalist, I continually search for the obscure, as well as the obvious, as I believe without...