Ooh, Shiny Sunflowers!
When I read Andrea’s challenge piece today entitled “Ooh, Shiny!” I thought “Ooh, No!” because I wasn’t sure I would be able to find anything to show for today. Then I realised that there is something that always keeps me distracted all Summers and it’s sunflowers 🌻. When I created my first Website 22 years ago, I chose a sunflower as the emblem. Then I turned the emblem into a logo. And 4 years ago I turned the Website into a full-fledged business. And sunflowers are always on my mind. Each year when we arrive in the Pyrenees and I spot sunflowers I stop the car in weird places and draw out my camera and start shooting like mad until my wife screams that she is getting terminally bored and we need to get going. This year however we have had a heatwave all June and July and when we arrived the sunflower fields didn’t look too good. So I’m dishing out those from 2 years ago (shot in the vicinity of Toulouse in the South West). There are more pictures of sunflowers which I took in July in Burgundy. They will have to be developed before you can see them. Patience is of the essence.
By the way, it’s said that sunflowers turn towards the Sun, yet this isn’t true. They turn their back on the Sun and I can tell you, from a photographical point of view, that it does make a difference, what with the increased difficulty caused by the backlighting.
Those pictures were taken early in the morning Sun and this is why the colours are so vivid and so nice.
Well, I think so, now you tell me what you think through your comments.
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Je suis photographe et aquarelliste. Je pratique la photographie depuis l'enfance et la photographie numérique depuis 1995. J'en ai fait mon activité principale en 2021. Je possède un studio photo dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris
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Here’s what I think: Your photos are gorgeous! Especially the second-from-the-last one; it’s as if you’ve captured summer in a single frame. You’ve also dispelled the myth that sunflowers turn toward the sun, and I am grateful for the information. I’m grateful to your wife also for her patience! Please tell her that your friend in Minnesota says, “Merci infiniment,” because without her forbearance these images would not be possible. Lovely shots, Yann.
Hi Heide, and sorry for the late response. I’m back in the saddle but I had so much stuff to catch up that I haven’t found time to thank you for you comment. Which I am doing now. This is very kind of you. Yes this myth about sunflowers is quite pervasive but standing in front of the damn things and trying to capture them with backlighting is quite a task I assure you. My pictures from Burgundy havent’ yet been “developed”. As I have no connection where we live in the evening it’s a bit harder though. Thanks again for stopping by.
If your world is anything like mine, the pain of returning from holiday and getting caught up is almost as acute as the joy of going on holiday. Bon courage to you on that front, Yann! I can also sympathize with the difficulty of having no internet connection in half your life — except that my situation is the opposite, because my employer has secured our network so aggressively that now even the company’s home page won’t load reliably. Sigh. Well, I won’t detain you with any more of my musings, but I will look forward to your next round of photos as you have time to “develop” them. Cheers!
Oh, I used to love the sunflowers in the Ariège at this time of year. Thanks for the memories!
Thanks Margaret. It’s a long way from the Yorkshire Dales to Laroque d’Olmes. Our house is way further South West, more than an one hour’s drive from there in the mountains. Funny seeing so many Brits in the area while 90% of French people wouldn’t even be able to know where the Ariège is as they confuse it with Ardèche.
Once, in a French B&B we met a lecturer in Agricultural Studies from Brittany. ‘Ariège? Ariège?’ he said. ‘ Où ça?’ There is no hope …..
Don’t speak evil of Brittany 😉 as a child I used to confuse the two and my mother would tell me off. The Ariège is one of the two least populated areas in France with Lozère. Maybe that accounts for it. No one knows where it is. Most people left the Ariège in the 1920s. Our village used to have 1,000 inhabitants in 1900 it’s down to 70 now. Having said that, many in Brittany have left the country too. We’re amongst that number. The whole of France is like a desert with a few grossly populated cities here and there. Something should be done about that.
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You have captured the openness of the sunflowers so well in your photos. Thanks for sharing! I have a poetry blog here on WordPress and today’s post is about sunflowers in case you have time to look? Sunny greetings, Sam 🙂
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