Anatomy of a Composition - Safety in Numbers
nother Colorado summer is coming to a close, the two surest signs of this are returning to school for my 28th year, and the blooming of the sunflower fields near Denver International Airport. With the constant rotation of the fields, finding them each new season is like a game of hide-and-seek. This year's crop is beginning to jump, and while it’s easy enough to photograph the fields and create beautiful images from the edge of the fields, it's hard to not be tempted to walk in and get lost in the wonder of all the yellow and orange. I’m getting better at the former, these are private fields contracted by the airport, so someone is still reliant on the income generated by these crops.
We seem to be on the verge of another big Front Range storm, as each night so far, strong winds and spits of rain showed up each evening. The sunflowers are deceptively vulnerable, even with their bulky size, one wrong step, or one severe wind and a stalk can be damaged beyond a cash value. So yes, nature and man can easily wipe out all this beauty.
But any evening walking along the rows and watching the clouds change from placid to surreal, listening to the sway of the stalks and the sounds of arriving and departing jets is an amazing experience - I’m always so grateful for the opportunity.
If you would like to see some of my work in person, I was able to put up more images at Banded Oak Brewing, in downtown Denver. Banded Oak is one of Denver’s finest micro-breweries. It has won Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival and is most known for their barrel-age technique. They have renovated the brewing area to accommodate more seating, and the amble wall space offers great natural light for viewing the different pieces of art. The tap-house is open 7-days a week, and is located at: 470 North Broadway, Denver CO
Follow the Banded Oak Web-Gallery link to view the work that is on display, and even though this image is not hanging at the gallery, I would be happy to create a custom, 40x60 panorama for you.
A total of 15 images were used to create the panorama - images were shot in a single row from left to right. Final image size is close to 35MB. Edits and stitching were made both in Photoshop and Lightroom.
August, 2021 - As always, thank you for the support and for joining me on this adventure.
For more thoughts on some of these images, head over to www.wordpress.com/alma175w
ISO 100 | F/5.6 | 1/30 sec. - 85mm - Sony a7iii & Sony FE 85GM - 15 vertical images stitched together to create this sunset panorama over the infamous Denver Sunflower Fields.