Sunflower Day

Today was Sunflower Day ... I, and 8 friends, went shooting (with our cameras) at McKee-Beshers WMA's sunflower fields. We got there to find a parking lot full of cars and lots of photographers (there was a workshop this morning) - the more the merrier!!!

We had a variety of shooters - some from my local group of photo friends and some from my growing group of friends from farther a a field. We had shooters from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York.

I was concentrating on macro until I lent my macro lens to one of my friends, then I used the 70-200 lens. I learning to use this lens so keeping it on my camera was a good exercise. I like to shoot with my 18-200 lens and it is easy composing a shot with that focal range. It is harder (and at times frustrating) to frame for the 70-200 range.

We were there early enough to catch dew on the flowers and leaves. Can you see the reflection of the sunflowers in this drop?

Yes, I shot a lot of the dew.

The yellow of the sunflowers really makes me happy.

It isn't all sunflowers at McKee-Beshers. While going deeper into the field, I happened up a blue morning glory climbing up one of the sunflowers. I didn't like my shot of the blue flower but I loved the shot of this unopened purple/pink flower. Serendipity!!!

After the sunflowers we headed over to White's Ferry for breakfast and some more shooting. I haven't processed any of my shots from White's Ferry yet.

After finishing up there, we took the ferry over the Potomac River and stopped at a unique antique shop in Lucketts, VA, On a Whim. Donna, the owner, was very kind and let us shoot around the shop and even took our picture to feature on her blog. I took my weekly self-portrait there - as well as some other shots. If you're ever in Lucketts, stop by the pink polka dot silo and check out the shop.

We really enjoyed meeting Donna and look forward to seeing the shot that she took of all of us and our cameras.

My self portrait for my Flickr fiftytwo project. Unfortunately my hair didn't appreciate being slept on wet the night before (we had to get up at 4:30 am to catch the sunflowers at dawn) or the rising heat of the day!!!

I love the polka dots!!!

Watch for more images coming soon to this blog.