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Sunflowers at Night

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

settings

Aperture f/11 ISO 100 Shutter 1/5 Focal Length 18/1

upload_date

Jun, 2017

Views

4047

Likes

+581

Awards

People's Choice in Long Exposure Experiments Photo Contest

Contest Finalist in Long Exposure Experiments Photo Contest

Peer Award

+762

Absolute Masterpiece

+53

Outstanding Creativity

+22

Superb Composition

+21

Top Choice

+16

Magnificent Capture

Genius

Superior Skill

All Star

Virtuoso

Emotions

Impressed

Happy

Top Ranks

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This is something magical.

This is fantastic

PRO+

Well done!

Stunning photo!

Beautiful shot with the Milky Way and sunflowers.

Ultimate

This is a breathtaking shot!

Just beautiful :)

PRO

I love the split between the subject matters - The heavens, which is typically ruled by the night, and earth which is generally a subject owned by the sun. Magically conceived and executed!

Beautiful capture!

nice work! Some nice colors and good contrast, keep shooting!

See all

Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

This is a morning shot of the St Martin Lutheran Church in New Braunfels TX. The spring wildflowers are blooming the the front of the church was cover

Water Drop Drop Collision with red food coloring and a little dish soap. Shot with a Canon 7D Mark II, Canon 100mm f-2.8L Macro lens.

240 30 second exposures stacked in Photoshop. Taken of the Landmark Lofts in new Braunfels, Texas

$Refraction$

Behind The Lens

Location

This image was taken just Northeast of San Antonio in the beautiful state of Texas.

Time

It was about 30 minutes after sunset when this was taken. There was still a slight amount of ambient light that helped with the foreground exposure.

Lighting

It was a fairly dark evening when this was taken but there were two light sources that helped with the exposure of the sunflowers. First, there was a sliver of a crescent moon just behind and above the camera that reflected a wonderful bluish light on the green leaves. The second was the passing headlights from cars zooming by. The field was just about 10 feet off of a somewhat busy farm road, and the traffic helped illuminate and bring out the yellow of the petals on the sunflowers.

Equipment

For this shot, I was using a Canon 5D Mark IV with a Canon 16-35mm f/4 L IS, on a Manfrotto 190 Go tripod and Manfrotto XPro Ballhead, Kirk L Bracket, and a Canon shutter release.

Inspiration

There are a lot of things that inspire me and the shots I take, many of them on ViewBug. This shot came to me after seeing one of my favorite photographers image of a foreground focused on wildflowers with golden light from a setting sun passing over the foot of a mountain. His name is Nick Page and if you don't know who he is you should check him out. Great stuff. I remember wanting to capture a photo similar to his but, well, we don't have any mountains in the Texas Hill Country. The first thing I could think of that would be that grand and dominating was the Milky Way.

Editing

Post-processing, yes I do. In my opinion, it is almost a necessity to have some post-processing in today's digital world. I normally try to keep it very minimal, just adjusting shadows, highlights, contrast, and boosting vibrancy of colors a bit in Adobe Lightroom. For Milky Way, it takes a bit more than that, and this shot was a bit farther. This image is actually 2 shots stacked in Adobe Photoshop. First I took a shot focused on and exposed for the sunflowers in the foreground, and then another focused to infinity for the milky way. They were stacked in Photoshop and then masked to merge the two images focal points.

In my camera bag

These days I have a Canon 5D Mark IV and the majority of the time I have a Canon 16-35mm f/4 L IS, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, a Benro Series 4 Mach3 Carbon Fiber Tripod with a Benro G2 Low-Profile Triple Action Ball Head, a Really Right Stuff TFA-01 Ultra Pocket Pod with a Manfrotto xPro Ball Head, LeeFilter 100mm system with a Circular Polarizer, 2 stop ND, Little Stopper ND, Big Stopper ND, Super Stopper ND, 1 & 2 stop Graduaded ND filters, Canon Cabel Release, Miops Camera Trigger, 5 Canon batteries, BlackDiamond head tourch, and the normal lens and micro fiber cloths.... All this stuffed in my favorite camera backpack, the Lowepro Whistler BP 350.

Feedback

Advice... I don't see myself as the guy to give advice. If I had to think up something it would be to plan and get out there. I spent many years learning and dreaming about photography but never took the time to put myself in the places and environments that would produce the images I wanted. You have to be willing to wake up at 4:00 in the morning to drive for a few hours just for the chance that the stars, clouds, sun, wind, weather all come together. And if they don't, realize you were out there enjoying the moment and the great outdoors. Sometimes the process and experience of not getting the shot is as rewarding as getting that one image you want so badly.

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Sunflowers at Night

Behind The Lens

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