It’s spring in Texas and you know what that means – bluebonnets!
I am a shamelessly proud Texan and bluebonnets are my favorite flowers. I remember looking at Texas Highways magazine this time of year with all of the photographs of wildflowers. It’s one of the things that sparked my visual interests.
Needless to say, for photographers, photos of bluebonnets in the spring have become a bit cliche (hence the title of this post). Everyone is in search of something different, something that has never been shot before. But since I don’t have the time or money to travel around the state in search of the best possible wildflower situation, I did the best I could with what I have near by.
I went out around 7 p.m. and found a nice grouping of flowers on the side of a low-traffic highway. I brought every lens I own to try to get something at least a little different. The top photo was shot with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens, the second shot was the same lens with an SB800 flash, the third shot was taken with a set of old manual focus macro tubes with a 50mm f1.8 lens on the end and the photo directly above this paragraph was taken with an 80-200mm f2.8. I brought a couple other lenses with me, but those three lenses serve me the best in this case.
Sunset almost always brings the best lighting results. The blues and purples in wildflowers seem to pop a little more against the warm sunset tones. Also, once the sun dips below the horizon, there are a few minutes of very even lighting, which works great for closer shots.
Bluebonnets are my favorite, but I took some time to capture a few other flowers while I was out. Here are a couple of them:
Not a lot of the yellow and red flowers have bloomed where I am yet, but I look forward to that. I hope you enjoyed my shots, as cliche as they might be, and I hope you have the chance to get out and capture your own wildflower images. Or at least enjoy the view on your way to work.
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