Daffodils
The harbingers of spring
They’re poking their bright little heads up from the earth, ready to greet the warmer days of spring. It always seems like it isn’t quite time for them to appear, and yet here they are, dancing in the breeze, their ruffled skirts blazing brightly. Most of the following photos were shot with a fixed 85 mm lens with a f/1.8–5.6, which creates a nicely blurred background with a sharp plane of focus on the flower itself.
Bisou, my little kitty baby has always had a soft spot for flowers. He is very attentive to all of the small changes in his yard — the emergence of the bulbs, the flowering of the azaleas, Mr.Squirrel’s antics. I caught him in this tender moment of smelling the daffodil.
They turn their little faces to greet the first rays of the days sun, and since that varies depending on where they are in the little ecosystem that is my backyard, they are all opening to the sky in slightly different directions.
I shot this last photo with a fixed 500 mm lens with an f/5.6. I rather liked the result — how the front of the flower is slightly “fuzzed,” but the stamen and the back petals are in full focus. It looks a little “Monet-ish” to me.
All photos were shot with a Nikon Z7II (mirrorless full-frame) and a Nikon D500.
Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies). Erika is also an editor for Mindfully Speaking.
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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.
