Like I mentioned earlier, I got to shoot not once, but twice
at the fields with two different photographers who are both really good friends
of mine. I thought it would be cool to show you a side by side comparison; how
you can make the same location look much different by changing up your style
and technique. With this said, let me get into my first shoot with my
photographer and friend, Lac.
As always, Lac and I knew the best time to shoot would be
around golden hour, just as the sun is about to set. Luckily the day we went
had perfect weather, sunny with a bit of an overcast. At first I was a bit concerned. I knew the sunflowers would not open and look as nice if there was not enough sunlight. When we got there and started shooting, turns out that overcast was a
lifesaver. We started our trip out to the fields around 6:30pm, and without
those clouds, the sun would’ve made for a bright and sweaty mess of a photo.
Here, let me show you some of the shots we got at the fields.
What was so interesting was the way the sunflowers were facing. Call me ignorant, but I always thought that sunflowers faced in the direction of the sun. Who else thought this also? In this case, the flowers faced away, which worked in our favor as we knew we wanted the orange sun setting in the background of the picture.
If anyone is curious, here is a photo of the location that we shot at.
Keep in a mind a few tips:
1. You can park across the street at the community park and walk across to take photos.
2. The owner of this property has a wooden rectangular box located to the right side of the field. Avoid this box at all cost, it is a hive swarming with bees. I almost ran into it without knowing what it was.
3. Keep in mind the the sunflowers here are a bit taller. I am around 5'2 in height and the flowers that were growing were almost just as tall if not taller than me. If you move to the side of the field, you'll encounter younger plants, however, it is very difficult to move towards the center of the field as the stalks of the plants were so thick. Choose a different location if you are looking for a more immersive photo.
A couple of days later, I came out with my friend Evan to
shoot again at the fields. This location was drastically different from the one
I shot with Lac. It was a bit more muddy and remote as compared to the last. However,
what is good about this location is that the flowers are much younger. The day
we came to shoot, the sun was as bright as it can be. We moved towards the
center of the field and started taking a couple of photos.
After a couple of minutes, we decided that the sun was
simply too bright. It was washing out all of the colors in the photos. This is
when I decided to sit down and have the stalks cover me to reduce brightness. I
put on a pair of orange sunglasses. Look how pretty it looks as the sun
reflects off of it.
Now here is when it gets interesting. Evan had a stool in
his trunk and wanted to use it for the photos. Instead of having me sit on the
stool (we tried that, didn’t really work out that well), Evan stood on the
stool and took shots from there instead. Mind you he almost fell over trying to
take these DIY aerial shots. The stool was no match for the muddy dirt.
Personally for me, I really loved how all of the photos came out. We chose popular locations, but tried to capture the photos in a more unique way. What did you think of the two different approaches that Evan and Lac made? From changing the angle to utilizing different props, both of my friends were able to come out with dramatically different images.
Which ones did you like the most?
Let me know,
Let me know,
TN
Photographed by Lac Phan (IG: lacphan)
and Evan Schneiderman (IG: schneidy_man)
Go give them some love!
Posts
