Sunflowers

[Juanito200]

A friend in another town told me about a couple of huge sunflower fields near her house. (Thanks Cathy!)
It finally stopped raining this weekend, so I took the drive to her town. I spent about 2hrs taking pictures there. I tried to get distinctive compositions, but the field was too muddy to trudge into... Let me know what you think. C&C always welcome John

[Juanito200]

And here are a couple more.

[David Kilpatrick]

Nice, they usually face away from the sun in France, just to be different - perverse French sunflowers... we don't have any at all in Scotland except the occasional weedy one which grows from birdseed and rots before the flower has opened, when the rains set in in July...

Ultra wide shots work well with sunflowers. So do polarisers for the sky. And macro, often you can get bees or other insects on a really big sunflower heart background.

David

[bakubo]

Every one of those is very nice! You said a town near you, so near McKinney?

[Greg Beetham]

Very nice work John, I like them all.
Greg

[david antony]

Very nice series John. All very good.

[Dr. Harout]

great shots John.

[Birma]

Great series John - the blue skies and yellow flowers look great. My favourites are #3 and #5. In #3 I really like the lone flower standing out with the mass of other flowers oof in the background, and then in #5 the "rising sun" sunflower. I agree with DK and the comment on insect life within the flowers - ours were like little townships for creepy crawlies, but perhaps the farmed flowers are sprayed to keep out intruders?

[Juanito200]

Thanks for the kind words guys.
DK- That's a shame about those perverse French sunflowers... Some of the ones in this field were drooping down, which was surprising considering the rain we have had lately.
Birma- There were plenty of bees and such. I have a few closeups with insects, I'll process and post.
Henry- These sunflowers are in a small town called Whitewright, about 25 miles or so northeast of McKinney.
Here is a nice bee shot. Not exactly a macro, but a close shot with the 100-300 apo. John

[Birma]

Nice Bee close-up John

[aster]

John, you have outdone yourself and elegantly too, with these dedicated photos of the sunflowers.

All are very nice and inspirational while the bee closeup is a mastering with composition and DoF. : ))

Worth the drive al the way to an other town.

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[Juanito200]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. (Especially Aster- you brightened my day!)
One of my most productive days shooting. I still have some more to process.
A big thanks to Kevin- When we were shooting in Dallas, and he was trying to fill flash a backlit statue of a horse and rider- drove home the idea to use flash in broad daylight. It really helped bring out the bright colors in some of the shots. John

[sury]

I almost missed the thread. I fully echo all the sentiments expressed.
That was a thoroughly enjoyable series, each and everyone of the set.

With best regards,
Sury