Sunflowers- finally!

Ever since I moved off campus (a little over two years ago) and started exploring the surrounding towns, this particular field of sunflowers alongside the highway has stuck out to me. I've imagined getting lost among the tall stems and big yellow blooms on a sunny day with my camera in hand (and maybe a crate or two... they're pretty tall, and I'm pretty... well, not tall). A little over a year ago Mark and I moved into a house in Sunderland, which we rent with four girls (who all happen to be Animal Science majors- but that's another story for another day. Actually, there are a lot of stories that come out of that little fact...)

Our friend and housemate, Caitlin, boards her horse, Jake, at a barn five minutes down the highway from us. The barn is owned by the Laurenitis family, who also run a greenhouse. Their store is located right across the street from the aforementioned sunflower field! In fact, they're the ones who own that land, and who plant it every year. And, not only does Caitlin board Jake here, but she also works at the stand. Once I made this connection, I thought, yes! I have an in! I'll be able to get lost in the sunflowers with my camera! Then Caitlin suggested I take some pictures of her and Jake in the field. Long story short, plans kept falling through while sunflowers withered and eventually snow fell. This summer, since it's the last time that we'll be here when they bloom, we were determined. We also made plans to include Caitlin's friend Karina and her horse and mule. Karina is actually Karina Laurenitis, meaning she lives on the property with the sunflowers. She has a beautiful picture of herself with her horse in the field of sunflowers which I found inspiring.

We finally got around to making it happen this past weekend. The field had withered, unfortunately, but the Laurenitis' grow more sunflowers in their fields back behind the house, so we were able to use those. It wasn't a full field, but it was still beautiful.

Okay, enough back story, sheesh! Here are a few of the shots I took that afternoon. It was cloudy, so the lighting wasn't very unique, but I think it worked out pretty well.


Caitlin and Jake, while they weren't busy kicking each other


Too cute


Karina, with Henry (on the left) and Chili (on the right)


Chili liked to eat the sunflowers...




This was taken in front of the tobacco barn. Apparently the Pioneer Valley is a big producer of broad-leaf tobacco. Who knew?


The tobacco barn


The hay barn

It's hard to keep track of which lenses I used for which shots, but I know for sure that I used the 165mm for the one of Caitlin and Jake in front of the tobacco barn.



I kept the f-stop as low as it would go, which, for the 135mm, was 2.8. The other shots were taken with my 35mm at f2.



I usually pair that adapter ring setup I've mentioned before with my 35mm. It results in a nice vignette effect, which you can really see on the shot of the tobacco barn.


I need to take a better shot of this, I really don't use all of those adapter rings at once- they're unnecessary. I didn't realize this when I took this picture. It's a learning experience!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn a little more about my lenses and to photograph some completely new subjects!