Sunflower is my favourite picture from my sunflowers series. I’ve given enlargements of this photograph as a special gift on a number of occasions. By special, I mean that I’ve given prints to people who have really made a difference in my life - my gesture of thanks for acts of kindness and grace. I see Sunflower as a powerful statement of hope. Sunflowers are big and, when in bloom, their bright yellow petals are absolutely beautiful. This is a photograph of a single sunflower, but in the background there are many others. When I give prints away as gifts I also recognize that all of us enjoy acts of kindness from many good people in our lives.

If you’ve viewed a few of my photographs, you will have noticed that I like to keep things simple and that I tend to emphasize a dominant feature of my subjects. In this case, no surprise, I wanted to add some punch to the sunflower’s rich powerful yellow. Even though it was a bright summer day, I used a flash for Sunflower. I borrowed a top-end exposure meter from the Minolta company rep and used it to properly expose the flash and underexpose the background. The effect deepened the blue sky while making the sunflower explode with colour.

As a closing note, I’d like to keep Ukraine in our thoughts and prayers. I started my Sunflowers series with a photograph I called Sunflowers for Ukraine. It features three sunflowers standing together - a reminder that we need to stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian friends as they endure the senseless violence of war. Today I saw some tragic photographs of the violence and destruction in Mariupol. As you view Sunflowers II, keep the people of Mariupol in your thoughts and prayers.

Nikon FE2 w. Nikkor 35 f/1.4; Vivitar 285 Flash; Exposure Calculated by Minolta Autometer IVF