Nature’s Bouquets

I set out for this morning’s walk just before sunrise.

I haven’t walked at this time of day for several weeks, and this morning reminded me of why I love it so much.

The subtle glow on everything the sun kisses as it makes its appearance, adds to the absolute peace.

I had lots of stops and starts today, because there were so many things that begged to be photographed. Even with that, I managed to achieve a decent average pace. I increased my distance to compensate for the stops.

As I was approaching one of the bridges on my trail, I passed these wild sunflowers peeking through a sprig of docks. I almost carried on but something made me go back for the photo.

Because I had set my focus on the sunflowers, the sky in the original photo was very blown out. With phone cameras, if you set your focus on the sky, it will result in natural sky colours. When you set your focus on something closer, it often results in the sky being blown out.

I liked how the low clouds gave the appearance of mountains in the distance, and how the goldenrods, dandelions, and sow thistles added to the bouquet.

Photo Note: I took the original into Snapseed and first used the portrait preset to deepen the tone of the sunflowers to bring them closer to what I saw in person. Then, I used the selective tool to darken the sky. The sky in my feature photo is a bit darker than what it actually was, but decreasing the brightness seemed to enhance the sun’s glow on the docks.

“Let’s not wait until the light fades into irreparable loss, but let’s stay in the loop and pursue the momentous flow of daily little wonders, since life kindly tenders us gorgeous bouquets of sparkling colors, telling signs and rousing episodes”

Erik Pevernagie