avatarAnne Bonfert

Summary

A photographer shares their experience of venturing into a sunflower field to experiment with shooting at a wide-open aperture, inspired by another photographer's article.

Abstract

The article recounts a personal journey of a photographer, Anne Bonfert, who decides to explore a sunflower field with the intent of shooting at a wide-open aperture, despite the field being past its prime and the weather being windy. Drawing inspiration from GE McKerrihan's article on the benefits of shooting with a fully open lens, Anne embarks on this project to challenge her usual photography habits. The essay details her process of learning to shoot in manual mode, the technical adjustments she makes, and the challenges of capturing moving blossoms in gale force winds. Amidst the mostly dead sunflower field, she finds moments of beauty, such as a single plant with seeds and a yellow blossom standing out against the backdrop of a late rain that revived parts of the field. Anne reflects on the satisfaction of overcoming photographic challenges and expresses gratitude for the inspiration that led her to this enriching experience.

Opinions

  • Anne Bonfert initially feels hesitant about shooting fully manual but is inspired by GE McKerrihan's article to experiment with a wide-open aperture.
  • She acknowledges the difference in depth of field and background blur when shooting at F1.4, which she finds intriguing and worth exploring.
  • Despite the harsh conditions of the sunflower field and the weather, Anne appreciates the beauty of the scene and the opportunity for a good story.
  • The author values the creative growth and learning that comes from stepping out of one's comfort zone in photography.
  • Anne expresses a love for challenges and rough weather, finding them inspiring for her photography.
  • She is thankful for the motivation and inspiration provided by GE McKerrihan, which led to a productive and enjoyable photography session.
  • The essay concludes with a positive outlook on photography, emphasizing the joy of capturing images with both a wide-open lens and a wide-open heart.

PHOTO ESSAY.

When the Sunflowers Are Shining Late in the Season

Trying to capture moving blossoms in the wind

Credit: Anne Bonfert

The field isn’t yellow anymore. It’s far from the golden shining patch. Long gone. Yet, I intended on visiting the sunflower field today on my photography walk. I didn’t know what to expect and had no plans on what to shoot.

Except for shooting with a wide-open lens.

Yes, this is another project GE McKerrihan inspired me to do. With his latest article, he pushed me to something I’ve been hesitant about doing for years I’d say. I feel embarrassed about it but it’s the truth.

I don’t shoot fully manual. I use the program feature and only adjust the ISO when necessary. The only time I photograph in the fully manual setting is when I capture the night sky.

And now? Well, after reading “Why I Prefer My Lens Wide OpenGE McKerrihan got me thinking about this setting. Why don’t I? What difference do I get by shooting with a fully open aperture?

Well, of course, the background will be all blurry, I know that. But will I see the difference?

My most expensive camera lens is a Sigma 20mm with the largest aperture of F1.4. I bought it when I got fascinated by the African sky at night. Lately, I also tend to prefer this one over my Canon 50-200mm lens when capturing flowers, butterflies, or other objects.

It’s surely a different challenge getting close enough to the object you’re trying to capture and not overloading the image with this wide-angle lens. But I love the results.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

It was very windy outside and I had the day off. After reading Medium stories for hours and writing an article or two I needed to get some fresh air, put on my windbreaker, and grabbed my camera. No second lens. Just this one.

And I had one mission.

To shoot with a wide-open lens.

The sunflower field was long beyond its glorious time as you can see above and I don’t know what I thought I would find in there but I love sunflowers and headed for it.

Due to the long drought, we had this summer, most sunflower plants didn’t even produce any seeds. The single plant below is one of the better-looking ones. There’s something to harvest. Some seeds at least.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

And while I was overlooking this mainly dead flower field, a yellow shining blossom jumped into my eye.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

The rains did arrive, fairly late but they came. In fact, it’s raining right now. It’s why I’m so productive right now. I’m lying on the bed curled up in a warm blanket with a glass of red wine next to me while listening to the falling rain onto the trailer roof.

That’s an inspiration to me.

The sound of the rain.

But let's not get side-tracked. I was talking about the rain coming too late. Most of the crops have finished their growth period. Most, but not all.

There are few in between but I found some smaller sunflower plants with a few blossoms left and right of the main flower.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

The challenge was just well, to capture them in Gale force winds out there.

Keeping my camera steady in hand was the first challenge. And then waiting for the gust to blow over and click the shutter button just before the next gust blew through the second one.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

I love challenges and rough weather. They make up for a good story.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

But back to my quest. Shooting with F1.4.

I started by shooting an object in automatic and inspected the chosen settings. Then I switched to fully manual, set the aperture to F 1.4 and adjusted the shutter speed. I left the ISO on all my photographs at 100. It worked well for me.

I had one photograph being overexposed and two underexposed. That was it. Apparently, I did learn some things over the years after all. This game of shooting with a wide-open lens appeared easier than expected.

I still took one or two images with a normal aperture. Just to see the difference. Or to capture the full depth of the corn field.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

Oh yeah, and then all of a sudden the sun appeared. Between two dark clouds, she found a gap of about 15 minutes to shine down on me. Of course, immediately I had to change the shutter speed to be able to continue shooting with a high aperture.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

I started to enjoy this project.

And the sun.

And the fallen sunflower field.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

I walked toward the end of the sunflower field where it meets the harvested corn field. I don’t know if they got anything out of the field but they harvested it about a week ago.

And now as I was walking on the edge of it I saw some sunflower plants that must have been cut by a harvester too. But that wasn’t enough to kill the spirit of these positively tuned flowers.

With the new rain falling, they simply grew new blossoms.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

I love this spirit.

Credit: Anne Bonfert

I took over 100 images on this photography walk and I am ever thankful for GE McKerrihan for motivating me to pick up my camera and for inspiring me to play with the settings.

Thank you!

And now the words out of his mouth

…to wide-open lenses and wide-open hearts.

More about my photography stories:

Join my email list here if you would like to read more photo essays or sign up for the Medium membership to receive unlimited access to my and other writer’s stories out here (I will receive a commission fee in return).

Photography
Sunflower
Inspiration
Creativity
Nature
Recommended from ReadMedium