The Sunflower Patch

One of our neighbors has some land on which they planted a patch of sunflowers. Is there a more magical place than a field of sunflowers? For over a week I made a daily trip to the patch. Each day I got to witness the dance among the plants as they turned and swayed to catch the moving sunlight. Winged photobombers were very abundant. I am truly amazed by the amount of pollinators that came and made use of the sunflowers. And in a good way, I almost felt overwhelmed as a photographer. It’s like waking up on Christmas morning and having to decide which present to open first! There was just so much good stuff to focus on. Do I take portraits of individual flowers? Do I capture the whole field as a full landscape composition? Monarch and Swallowtail butterflies are always favorite subjects of mine and they were constantly fluttering by. And so each day, as time allowed, I tried to take as many varied and different shots as I could.

This image has been added to the PRINTS gallery.

A lot of good images came out of this project. Unfortunately I was generally unhappy with the images of the whole patch. The woods and an old wooden structure behind the patch were just too distracting. I just could not find a way to incorporate either into a composition that was pleasing to me. I ultimately came to choose this image. This may be the weakest image in the 2024 collection from a critical viewpoint, but I don’t care. It brings on a zen like feeling of calmness for me when I look at this image. And if an image evokes an emotion when I view it, I know that I ultimately succeeded as a photographer.