I woke up today at 6:30 and decided to go back to bed. Thirty minutes later I was standing in a field taking more photos of the same sunflower as in my last post.
I remembered the tiny voice of the flower talking yesterday: Get closer it said and use your monopod. As I waited for the right light I realized that the plant was at least a foot taller than me so handheld it was.
I struggled to hold the camera steady and get as close as I could, occasionally chimping and deleting any image that was not tack sharp or at least close. As the wind picked up I had the funny feeling that this was completely ridiculous.
I think maybe the miracle of a single flower is that it doesn’t struggle, anything that happens is perfectly fine. Life could be the same way, whatever happens or is going to happen is beyond our control so resisting it is pointless.
As I was sitting in my car zooming in on each image I heard very soft laughter coming from somewhere. It turned out to be someone feeding the goats but I have a feeling that the flowers were smiling that I got the message.
Of course I’ll be doing the exact same thing tomorrow. Maybe unusual things made from wood, shot wide open, converted to black and white and resized to exactly 1000 x 1294 (more or less).
Love the shadows across the face of it 😁
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Thanks Jez, the sun was at a great angle when it finally came out.
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Makes all the hassle worthwhile 👍
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Maybe I’m just getting burned out shooting every day since I retired. For me sometimes its worth it and sometimes its a close call. 😉
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Like you, I fell into photography after retirement. Now I never go anywhere without my camera. I am positively obsessive/compulsive about it at this point.
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The first step is admitting it, the next step is to expose to the right. 🙂 I never go anywhere without two cameras and three extra batteries, but my main issue is that I drive around too much. When it gets cooler I’m going back to the city which is 4 miles away for street photography. Probably much more frustrating but its great exercise. Thanks Russell.
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I think you’re awesome. I was a street photographer in Hollywood California for at least ten years. If you go back a few years on my blog, you will find the materials from that period of my life. Cheers!
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Thanks Russell, why don’t you post a link to your favorite and I’ll follow the tags.
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Here you go, my friend. This is a link to my absolute favorite street photograph from my Hollywood era. https://ecstaticeclectica.com/2011/12/28/untitled-53/
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I will check it out today when I can back from my appointed rounds of nothing in particular.
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🙂
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Oh, the things we do for the perfect shot. Love it! 😊
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Thanks Irene, I’m sure I’ll look back this winter and wish I took more.
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Looks like a big flower, too! Perfect morning light!
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Thanks Terri but this is the same one as in yesterdays post. When I got there the first thing I thought was damn that’s a small flower! It was probably about the size of a softball.
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And there’s Jeff Goldblum….I mean, that fly, again.
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I didn’t notice Jeff until I got home but I purposely left the little twig on to show its the same flower. Thanks for noticing Lois.
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Oh so gorgeous this is indeed 🙂
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Thanks Hammad, there’s only a small group there but new flowers pop up every week or so.
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Nice shot, Mike! 🌻
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Thanks TC!
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It was strange but I felt a smell of sunflower when I saw your photo. Then I realized that it was smell of a bouquet with mountain ash and tansy which stands on my table. I don’t know why, but it smells like sunflowers.
I tried to grow 2 kind of sunflowers on a windowsill this year. But nothing came of it. One sunflower was smaller than a small daisy, and the other was without petals. It was a bit sad. Several years ago I had another seeds and I had
a beautiful sunflower in a pot.
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Have you ever tried Dwarf Sunflowers? They didn’t do well when I transplanted them outside but I think on a sunny window they would be great.
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Mine should be dwarf sunflowers 😀 But they didn’t grow as it was expected.
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They prefer to be called Little Sunflowers. 😉 😉 😉
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Do you think it was the reason why they were so ugly? 🙂
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Absolutely, they sense condescension.
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Lighting helped to highlight it 🙂
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Thanks Chocoviv. I had to wait until the sun was over an old barn, then the next 20 minutes were very good.
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Stop listening to that thing! It wants you to get closer so it can shoot tendrils out of the centre and strangle you!
Or have I been watching the wrong movies?
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That reminds me, I think I need a root canal. I definitely need a long, slow root canal…
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