When you are confronted with a field of sunflowers, what’s the best way to photograph them? That was my challenge this past weekend at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville, Maryland. Before I arrived, I though I would get a wide-angle view, filled with the bright yellows of the tall sunflowers. The reality was a little underwhelming, because the sunflowers had not grown very tall this year and many of them were past their prime.
So instead of going wide, I decided to move in closer and try to capture some of the details of the sunflowers. Here are a few images of single sunflowers in different stages of development. Some of the images are a little abstract and hopefully challenge readers to think beyond the normal shapes and colors that they associate with sunflowers.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Beautiful – I visited @ 8/1 and my favorite photo (amateur!!) is an image of the back of a flower. Thank you.
Thanks. I think it is really cool to explore all parts of a flower and I am not surprised that your favorite shot is of the back of a flower. Sometimes we appreciate more the beautiful and the complexity of a flower when we are not overwhelmed by the color that we see in a frontal view.
Great photos, Mike. They are such pretty plants.
One of my favourite flowers..
Very Nice Mike! And colorful! They are fun photo subjects!
Thanks, Reed. The sunflowers were a little underwhelming this year in terms of their size, so I had to look harder for a way to shoot them. They are definitely fun to shoot, with all kind of interesting details.
Beautiful shots , Mike !
utham
Thanks. The bright yellow colors of the sunflowers never fail to brighten my day.
What a lovely idea to capture the sunflower from quirky perspectives. Thanks for sharing! I have a poetry blog here on WordPress and today’s post is about sunflowers in case you have time to look? Sunny greetings, Sam 🙂