In the studio with Alice

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

 

NEW! Collage papers collaboration with Artistic Artifacts

I collaborated with Artistic Artifacts, a fabric, Bernina sewing machines, and mixed media store in Alexandria, VA, on this new product—Worth 1000 Words—a collection of collage papers created with my photographs and printed on vintage 1910 Encyclopedia pages. There are four themes to date: Trees, Koi Fish, Flowers, and Birds. Several more themes are in production. My next series will be Urban Life, with images of buildings, powerlines and other urban/city content.

Sold per pack of five designs, approximately 8.5 in. x 11.5 in. These one of a kind collage papers feature original photographs by Cindy Dyer printed on pages from a volume of Encyclopedia Britannica printed in 1910! Each sheet carries the character and history of the original book page, layered with contemporary imagery to create a richly textured surface ready to inspire your next creative project: use for collage, mixed media, art journaling, book arts and handmade cards. Or simply frame one or more for a beautiful gallery wall in your home! While full of authentic aging and patina, these pages are a high quality, well-preserved paper in excellent condition—no tears or crumbling! (Photo for illustration only; your pages will differ slightly as each encyclopedia page is unique.)

Check out all four packs here.

Larkspur

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Blooming in my garden: Bearded iris ‘Poem of Ecstasy’

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In bloom in my front garden: the lovely Bearded iris ‘Poem of Ecstasy’ (how’s that for a flower name?!) adorned with raindrops

Blooming in my garden: Bearded iris

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Craft Room: Necklace for Barbara

Just finished this necklace for a friend—I’ve been spending time organizing in the craft room off and on over the past few months, and finally got to work creating something last night! (Apologies for the so-so photography!)

FREE Photography in the Garden magazine

Spring (supposedly!) starts tomorrow, March 20, so it’s time to share my free Photography in the Garden magazine with my avid garden and photography friends!

1. Visit my botanical-only website at www.cindydyer.com.

2. Click on “FREEBIES,” located at the top, upper right to receive my free 28-page Photography in the Garden magazine. All you need to provide is your email address to get the link to download the magazine. (Special thanks to the almost 70 friends and family who have already signed up—I really have been working on the first newsletter, which is much delayed, so please accept my apology.)

My very talented niece, Lauren, designed and produced this beautiful website for me. She is available for hire as a virtual assistant and to design a great website for your business as well. Visit https://laurendrawdy.com/ to learn more!

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Tiger lily

I was just ordering prints to fulfill another order of Sacred Lotus blooms for the gift shop at Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C. I was also looking for Tiger lily photos so I could order some prints for a new friend who loves that flower, and I came across a shot I never posted from Meadowlark Botanical Gardens several years ago. This is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on a Tiger lily bloom. (Drooling over that cornflower blue sky as a backdrop!) I’m already pining for garden season again! © Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.  

Skipper butterfly on Pink-spiked Celosia

Another image from my archives: Skipper butterfly on Pink-spiked Celosia (one of 45 species in the Amaranth family)

My best guess is this is a Grass skipper butterfly (Atalopedes campestris).

Wild fact: There are roughly 3500 types of Skippers!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Chinese Ground Orchid

I was looking for some specific images for a project, and came across several images that I hadn’t showcased on the blog yet. Here is a Chinese Ground Orchid or Hardy Orchid (Bletilla striata). With all the snow we’ve had in Northern Virginia, this gal is ready for SPRING!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Andrew & Paula

© 2025 Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved. 

Congratulations to Andrew and Paula! I photographed their wedding on November 22 at 2941 Restaurant, a gorgeous event venue in Falls Church, VA. Andrew interned with me back in 2014-15, when he was just 16 years old. He went on to study graphic design and now works as an exhibit designer for the Smithsonian. He’s also an accomplished photographer, specializing in nature and landscapes. Hard to believe he’s all grown up and married now. Time flies!

In the studio with Russ

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Barbara

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio with Anna

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Latest portrait session: Alexandra

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Sharing a few shots from my latest portrait session—senior portraits of Alexandra, daughter of my friend (and studio partner) Anna…more to come!

My botanical photography website

Just wanted to share (again) the beautiful botanical photography website that my very talented niece, Lauren, designed for me last fall. Click on the link below:

https://cindydyer.com

(There are a LOT of photos, so scroll through while the tabs load at the top and thank you for your patience! Don’t forget to check out “MORE EYE CANDY” under the PORTFOLIO tab—that page has lots of lovely horizontal shots!)

Click on “FREEBIES” to receive my free 28-page Photography in the Garden magazine. (Special thanks to the 68 friends and family who have already signed up—the first issue is in the works, so stay tuned!) Click on the link above to go to the website.

Also, Lauren is available for hire as a virtual assistant and to design a website for your business as well. Visit https://laurendrawdy.com/ to learn more!

Garden Muse Exhibit runs until August 30!

My solo photography exhibit, Garden Muse: A Botanical Portfolio, runs until August 30 at Children’s National Hospital, 111 Michigan Avenue, NW, in Washington, D.C.

The Gallery is located on the first floor in the main building near the Costco Wholesale Atrium, and is open Monday-Friday, 10 am – 5 pm. A photo ID is required at the front desk.

My very talented quilter/fiber artist friend Kathy Edwards and I went on Thursday morning so she could see the exhibit, and then had a nice lunch afterwards. She’s standing in front of four new “Drama Queens” Bearded iris images that were shot in my front garden earlier this season (with the black velvet background) and one of my favorite Japanese Water iris (Iris ensata ‘Pin Stripe’) images.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

FREE! Download my Photography in the Garden magazine

If you haven’t already signed up for my freebie all-things-gardening-photography-creativity newsletter (which I’m working on now!), go visit my lovely botanical-photos-only website, designed by my uber-talented niece, Lauren Drawdy, and click on “FREEBIES” at the top. Once you sign up, you can download my 28-page (and growing) Photography in the Garden magazine. Thanks to all who have signed up so far. (Stay tuned soon for your first issue.) Click on the link highlighted in green below.

https://cindydyer.com/

(And if you’re in need of a terrific virtual tech assistant or a gorgeous website, reach out to Lauren at www.laurendrawdy.com.)

Hire this woman for top-notch virtual assistance and website design!

Singing my niece Lauren Drawdy’s praises—I highly recommend her for virtual assistant services, web design and other techie needs! She designed my lovely botanical-photography-only website last fall, www.cindydyer.com, and I can’t recommend her highly enough for this task. She’s in the process of creating a portrait-photography-only site for me now, then will work on my online handcrafted goods store. I’m planning on scheduling a VIP day with her soon to help me with some marketing for upcoming projects!

https://laurendrawdy.com/vip-days/

She’s uber talented, very professional, competitively priced and so easy to work with—loads of resources, great ideas and ample enthusiasm! In addition to her website design services, check out her VIP Days offerings.

I’m opening up my calendar in June for some VIP Days!
Tell your friends. Tell your dog. Tell your neighbor.

A VIP Day is a set day that you get me all to yourself. (Not like that, weirdo.)

You just get my undivided attention to help get your tech-y tasks completed so you can take a big ol’ sharpie and cross them off that list that’s been sitting there for months. Wouldn’t that feel fantastic?! Visit https://laurendrawdy.com/vip-days/

Promo postcard design for upcoming solo exhibit at Children’s National Hospital

Here’s the two-sided postcard I designed for Children’s National to promote the upcoming exhibit. These will be available during the exhibit and have all my contact information and a fun little bio on them.

Botanical Photography Exhibit at Children’s National Hospital

My botanical photography exhibit runs from May 27 – August 30 at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. If you’re in the DC area, I hope you can come see it. This is my second exhibit at Children National Hospital—my first was in 2015.

I’ll be sharing photos of the installation (happening next weekend), the ribbon-cutting ceremony (to celebrate the gallery being sponsored by Atlantic Coast Mortgage) at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 30, and some shots of my work on display in the gallery. (I’ll do a short video tour as well!)

Nifty Fifty: A Retrospective of Magazine Cover Portraits

A retrospective of Hearing Loss magazine (now Hearing Life magazine) covers that I’ve photographed and designed since 2006—50 to date! I’ve designed more covers than these for the magazine, published by the Hearing Loss Association of America, but these are the ones that utilize my portrait photography. I also do the design and production of the magazine, which has morphed from Hearing Loss to Hearing Life, and from bimonthly to a quarterly publication. So many nice memories with these subjects through the years, and it never gets old seeing my work in print. I’m excited every single time!

Learn more about HLAA here: https://www.hearingloss.org/

Bearded iris ‘Poem of Ecstasy’

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Bearded iris blooming in my garden

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Portraits of Bearded irises in my garden

I’ve been creating these images of Bearded iris grown in my garden for about five years. The images are shot directly in the garden with ambient lighting and a black background held behind each stalk. Here’s a collage of my favorites!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Upcoming solo botanical exhibit at Children’s National Hospital

Getting ready for my second solo botanical photography exhibit at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC! The show will run May 20-August 30, 2024. More details to come!

My first show there was way back in 2015. I have ample inventory to showcase, but I ordered several new gallery wrap canvases this afternoon, and just finished putting together this 4×6 postcard that will be available for anyone interested in learning more about my work.

I’ll provide more information and some behind-the-scenes sneak peeks as the event draws near!

Debbie Dyer Talbert, Celebration of Life

To view the memory book I created for my sister Debbie, click on this link:

https://laurendrawdy.com/debtalbert/

Deboo

My older sister Debbie passed away unexpectedly yesterday very early in the morning. She turned 70 exactly a month before and her family and friends threw her a nice party. The photo I’ve attached is one she emailed me a few weeks later, with the caption, “This is what 70 looks like…geez Jesus Christo, I’m freakin’ old as the hills, lol.” I texted back, “And you look adorable.” She was always sending me selfies when Samantha gave her a new haircut style or a new hair color, or when she bought something cute to wear. This is the last selfie she sent me. I look through the slew of texts between us and I start crying again. We shared a very special relationship and I have and will always treasure it.

A few nurse friends suspect it could possibly have been a pulmonary embolism followed by cardiac arrest, which I’ve read has a 95% mortality rate. They were unable to revive her. Maybe I’ll never know the chain of events. I just know that there’s a huge void where this one bright, shiny, happy and very loved woman once lived.

My heart is breaking and I’m in a complete fog. She was a dear friend as well as the best big sister a girl could have. She and I talked almost daily for many, many years and never a day went by without texting something funny, an observation, photos of our cats, typos on menus and tv screens…after our mom passed, she called me and said, “I used to call Mom every day when I got out of work (she was a copy room lady and substitute scheduler at Churchill High School in San Antonio), so now that she is gone, you’re it!” She did that for years until she retired a couple years ago, and then we could talk anytime we wanted!

I shared everything in my life with her, both the good and the bad, and she was such a good listener–always patient, never judgmental. We always said we loved each other when we hung up.

When our mother was battling ovarian cancer for 11 years, I visited a month each year to spend more time with her. After she passed in 2010, I continued to visit my dad, who passed in 2019. I continued the journey to visit Debbie and her family and my sister Kelley and her family. Debbie and Bill would host me for a month or more while I worked and played down there.

I had just returned from visiting right before the world shut down in 2020 and hadn’t seen her in four years. I drove down to Texas for two weeks this past August and am so grateful that I did. They built an above-ground pool with a beautiful deck and she was so happy that all her friends and family gathered often to enjoy it. They had done so many wonderful improvements to their home and I know Debbie was very proud of the results. Home was always my Mom—and then when she passed, home was Debbie.

She adored her granddaughter, Chandler Rae, who turns three in June. I’m most saddest for Chandler not being able to spend more time with her Mema (which was our mother’s name for Debbie and Kelley’s kids). I’m sad because Debbie won’t get to share all of Chandler’s milestones. I’m just so very sad and my grief is so, so heavy.

I’m sad because my niece Lauren and nephew Landen have lost their mother too soon and so unexpectedly. I’m so sad for Bill, who retired in 2020, and was so enjoying retirement with Debbie, and making plans to travel. My heart aches for all of them, and it aches for me, too—this loss feels so much greater than the loss of my parents, whom I loved dearly. Maybe it’s because they had more time on earth? Maybe it’s because their passing wasn’t unexpected?

I thank all her dear friends for making her so happy–she was so loved by them. Years ago, I asked my mom to play a word association game with me—I’d say a person’s name and she would say one word that she associated with them. When it came to Debbie, she said, “Friend. Debbie has so many friends who love her. She is a good friend to so many people.” Mom was right—her friends adored her and I’m sad for their loss as well. Life won’t be the same for any of us without her presence. And thank you to my friends and family who are my support system during this awful time.

It’s all too raw right now to be poetic and profound. I’ll write something later that I hope will be poetic and profound and loving—something befitting this wonderful woman I called my sister. I love you and will miss you so much, Deboo.

Michael Powell is published again!

My dear friend Michael just had one of his gorgeous dragonfly-in-flight photos published on the cover of Take Flight 2023, a poetry journal published by Flight of the Dragonfly Press, a UK-based poetry group. Learn more about them at www.flightofthedragonfly.com.

Learn more on Michael’s blog about how he photographed this beautiful Migrant Hawker dragonfly in 2018 at the Botanical Gardens in Brussels while on a business trip.

https://michaelqpowell.com

New botanical-only-website is live!

www.cindydyer.com

My new botanical-photography-only site is live and ready to view! There are LOTS of photos (grab your popcorn and soda and enjoy the lengthy show). Scroll down and click on anything that prompts you to click. A gazillion thanks to my uber-talented niece, Lauren Drawdy, for the spectacular job she did on this site! I am so, so, SO excited about the results.

There’s another great photo gallery under PORTFOLIO called MORE EYE CANDY that has all horizontal botanical photos. Be sure to click on FREEBIES and enter your email address so you can download my newly-expanded Photography in the Garden magazine and also receive a monthly creativity newsletter, which I’ll be starting in December! I won’t share your email with anyone; you’re just sharing with me to get your freebies and hear from me on occasion.

If you need a website for a competitive price with someone who is a delight to work with, great with ideas and feedback, and has a whole lotta patience with creative people like her aunt, reach out to her! (I told her she’s mine for the time being, lol). You can click on her name at the bottom of the home screen to get in touch with her. (She’s going to work on a site for herself, with prompting from me!)

This one is for her husband Chris’ realty business in Texas: www.getrealtytx.com

And this site for a remodeling company she works with in San Antonio: www.lehrco-tx.com