The photographer, J. Paul Crossland discovered his love of photography at the age of seventeen while serving in World War II. After months of bringing home enlistment papers for his parents to sign, he was finally successful as his mother signed and in 1944 off he went to Paris, Prague, and to Wiesbaden, Germany as a cryptographer in the United States Air Force. After leaving the dessert mountains of Arizona, he was enthralled with the architectural structures and terrain in Europe during World War II. The older pictures you see on this website were taken during that time. He kept his camera by his side and didn't ever wander far from some type of photographic equipment for the next sixty years.Over the years he collected a variety of cameras, primarily Nikon, Olympus, and Canon. He was endlessly focusing on new subjects and learning new photo techniques through books and classes. During his journalism career with the Associated Press and other newspaper media, he was always looking through his lens with a fresh perspective of the many interesting subjects he encountered. His favorite was a close-up photo of a 100 year-old Indian and he wrote the caption "The face of a thousand stories" that headlined a story he wrote concerning a local Indian tribe in Oklahoma.
As the years went by, he continued his passion of looking through the lens for family photos, photos of friends, landscapes, but always went back to his rose garden that he grew for his loving wife. He went to gardens everywhere from across the street, to across the country. This love of photography was contagious and being the youngest daughter who watched and observed his picture taking, I caught the "photography bug" as well.
That family tradition of the love of photography and flowers continues today and I would like to share his view of Mother Nature's beauty in the floral images he has captured. There are a few new images from me, Lisa, here and there, but mostly the images were taken by my Father, Paul. Dont' miss the new custom photo jewelry line and a pearl and semi-precious gemstone jewelry line I have recently created. After being involved with the jewelry industry for years I thought it would be the perfect blend of my favorite things, photography and jewelry. But my girl, the Supermodel Terrier "Daisy" pictured on the website is my most favorite thing (besides my wonderful husband of course!) Enjoy!
