"Morning Glory"

"Morning Glory"
© David A. Ziser

How often are you presented with a picture postcard landscape like you see above? It was an amazing sight.  We were returning home from a family function over the weekend and I was racing down State Route 49, a nice smooth straight-a-way road near Dayton OH.

LaDawn called out, “Did you see that?” I wasn’t seeing anything but the road and asked, “See what”?  “The beautiful field of sunflowers we just passed”, she said. A quick glace to my right and I could just see the field out of my peripheral vision – WOW!

I slowed the car down, made a quick turn around and headed back to the sunflower field.  It was one of the most amazing sights I had ever seen!  The closest field we had ever seen of near equal beauty was in Southern France a few years before.  This vista easily rivaled it’s European counterpart.

I pulled into a long country drive, parked the car, grabbed the camera, and spent the next 20 minutes shooting away.  It was not easy to get the vantage point I wanted.  I decided to switch to “Live View” on my Canon 7D and shot away with the camera held high over my head. With the lens on its widest setting and the high camera perspective, I captured several images I love.

Add to that the sun’s early evening position on the horizon and you had the amazing backlighting on each of the sunflowers’ blossoms creating this extremely vibrant image.

Camera specs:  Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 18mm, F9.0 @ 1/250 second, IDO 400.  Enjoy!  -David