{"id":5689,"date":"2014-08-18T21:23:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T04:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/?p=5689"},"modified":"2014-08-18T21:23:45","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T04:23:45","slug":"sunflower-fields-near-dia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchgrun.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/18\/sunflower-fields-near-dia\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunflower Fields Near DIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I headed out to Tower Road, where last year there was a huge field of sunflowers. No luck this year. Yesterday, late afternoon, I headed further east along I-70. Near the Watkins exit, I left the interstate. In the distance were fields of yellow that caught my attention, so I meandered through various roads to get there. As I walked along the roadside, I noticed one corn plant growing up among the sunflowers — a case of “pattern interrupted”!<\/p>\n

\"1423-0008-Corn-Among-The-Sunflowers\"<\/a>

Corn Among The Sunflowers<\/p><\/div>\n

Most of the sunflowers face the rising sun, so I had the opportunity of shooting back-lighted flowers in the afternoon sunlight.<\/p>\n

\"1423-0031-Backlit-Sunflower\"<\/a>

Backlit Sunflower<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the flowers was side-lighted against a dark background. This was perfect for a black and white, monochrome conversion.<\/p>\n

\"1423-0195-Single-Sunflower\"<\/a>

Single Sunflower<\/p><\/div>\n

Walking carefully among the plants, I setup with a wide angle lens, and angled down to make this image that shows all the flowers facing east.<\/p>\n

\"1423-0197-Field-Of-Sunflowers\"<\/a>

Field Of Sunflowers<\/p><\/div>\n

The sunflowers were planted in rows, aligned east-west in this image. Shooting into the sun was going to be tough — the lens needs to be shaded to prevent flare spots. The lens already had a lens hood, but I had to shade the front of the lens with my hand to block the sun. I just love the all those flowers, with dark orange centers surrounded by yellow petals. In the distance were storm clouds, which added to the drama of this image.<\/p>\n

\"1423-0222-Sunflowers-And-Distant-Storm-Clouds\"<\/a>

Sunflowers And Distant Storm Clouds<\/p><\/div>\n

With a long lens, I focused on the clump of sunflowers in the middle distance, so that they were peeking out behind the foreground flowers.<\/p>\n

\"1423-0245-Sunflowers-Peeking-Out\"<\/a>

Sunflowers Peeking Out<\/p><\/div>\n

I made several more images as the sun went down. After the sun disappeared below the horizon, the setting sun lighted up the clouds — pink against the blue sky. The grain elevator was also included to balance the composition in this image.<\/p>\n

\"1423-0323-Sunflowers-After-Sunset\"<\/a>

Sunflowers, After Sunset<\/p><\/div>\n

While enjoying the sunflowers during the afternoon, I heard voices in the distance. Returning to the car, I found several cars parked along the roadside. Several visitors, some with school kids, had stopped nearby to enjoy these magnificent flowers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I headed out to Tower Road, where last year there was a huge field of sunflowers. No luck this year. Yesterday, late afternoon, I headed further east along I-70. Near the Watkins exit, I left the interstate. In the distance were fields of yellow that caught my attention, so I meandered through various […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[371,896,895,898,55,894,27,897,212],"class_list":["post-5689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-general","tag-backlight","tag-dia","tag-fields","tag-i70","tag-monochrome","tag-sunflower","tag-sunset","tag-watkins","tag-yellow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t