Each summer, about an hour’s drive from my home, blooms a magnificent Sunflower meadow. It’s planted by a local farmer for charity and you can go along, make a donation, and pick some flowers to take home. It’s a stunning sight to behold and I go armed with my camera each year to take some pictures………then have no clue what to do with them!

Last year, I decided to dress up and place myself in the field – there are various props like a piano (!), a bathtub (!!) and a swing. But the field is busy with people, the strong sunlight is harsh and the sunflowers just looked like little dots of nothingness. It wasn’t a successful photograph, plus I felt a right eejit prancing about in a massive ballgown, complete with hoop, ginger wig and my walking boots 😆. I’m not altogether sure my expensive camera, which was all alone on a tripod, was safe either from the hoards of marauding children running around.

This year I thought more carefully about the type of image I wanted to produce before I went. I wanted the flowers to take centre stage and not get lost in the shot but it also needed a strong focal point. I decided I was going to try compositing a portrait taken in my spare bedroom with the sunflowers, so took photos of the field with that in mind. I then had my gorgeous next door neighbour come and pose for me at home, combining the two shots in Photoshop.

It was OK, but nothing special. The specular highlights from the bright sunshine on the flowers was a big problem and made the image look very stark. There was also something lacking in terms of mood, so I spent some time trying various artistic techniques to try and get the picture to look how it had in my mind. Eventually I came up with a slight oil painting effect, which seemed to suit both the flowers and my model (although I wish I’d gotten her to stand up straighter when I took the shot – hindsight is a wonderful thing!).

Sometimes nature is so magnificent that’s it’s almost impossible to capture on film. When you’re present in the field you’re overwhelmed by the beauty of the sunflowers and also have the experience of the legions of bees and butterflies drawn to the pollen and the little birds which come to peck the seeds. Trying to capture the essence of the field continues to challenge me, but it also keeps me going back each year and if nothing else my donation helps keep the local air ambulance flying 🙂.