Sunflowers under a Stormy New England Sky
Like many mid summer New England days, the forecast called for thunderstorms. Undeterred I grabbed my camera and hit the road for Buttonwood Farm, home of some of the largest fields of sunflowers in all of New England. These late day storms can often bring dramatic skies, and can take fine art landscape photography to another level. A giant sunflower field would be the perfect landscape to put underneath a big, dramatic sky.
Buttonwood Farm plants well over 10 acres of sunflowers each summer. No matter how many times I go down there, I always find something new and different in the photographs that I take, and this year was no exception. From sweeping, expansive landscape photography to isolating an individual sunflower for macro photography, I feel like I can get lost in the beauty around me and spend hours at a time photographing these fields of sunflowers.
The evening started out like any other summer night, but shortly after arriving the skies started to darken, and before I could get much photography in I needed to take shelter in the car. Within minutes the skies opened up and the rain came down in buckets, and after about 45 minutes of heavy rain we started to debate heading home. At the moment that we decided to throw in the towel a hint of sunshine came through the clouds. Just as quickly as the storm had arrived it departed.
Sunflowers Under a Stormy Sky
As the rain subsided, I ran from the car and set up my camera at the very edge of the field. I chose a wide angle lens so that I could capture the wide expanse of the field of sunflowers and the drama in the sky above me. After only a few quick photographs and the sun, clouds and drama all disappeared. I loved the colors, and the clouds in the skies, but for me the best part of this shot is the sunflowers themselves – the way they are tipped down, as if they were hiding their faces from the raging storm above.
I hope that you have enjoyed my sunflower photography, and invite you to view more of my landscape photography in my Fine Art Print Gallery!