Poppies!
A motorcyclist friend of mine ‘tipped me off’ this weekend about a field of poppies close to where I live. Last night therefore, with the clouds breaking up nicely, I timed a visit to the field to coincide with the sun lowering in the sky and wasn’t disappointed by the results. 
The field is next to a fairly busy road and unfortunately has no other road or footpath running alongside or through it, I was therefore constrained by being only on one side of it and having to shoot the poppies either into or straight out of the sun. As the sun was low however this had the advantage of backlighting the flower heads, giving a really bright and high contrast effect, or lighting them face on, ensuring nice saturated colours.
As I had to climb through a hedge to get into the field (I remained firmly in the field margin in order not to disturb the flowers) which had no public access I have refrained from giving the field’s location.
My problem was that whilst the field looked stunning, a field of poppies on their own provide very little visual reference, I needed another subject matter, a lone tree or even an adjacent building to give interest to the composition. Unfortunately, in the depths of rural Lincolnshire, such perfectly placed subject matter is few and far between, the distant church I had spotted earlier was in line with the setting sun so was a useless silhouette.
I therefore set about using the poppies and the odd stray yellow and white flower as my main subject matter and dispensing with my more usual ‘wide vista’ approach. The lighting here made all the difference as I was able to use the backlighting to full effect, produce a ‘rim’ light effect around the stalks and seed pods. By keeping low to the flowers and using a relatively shallow depth of field I was able to give a hint of the blanket of red flowers in the distance without overpowering my chosen subjects.
Eventually the sun weakened and sank low in the sky, the unique lighting being lost for the night, I carefully climbed out of the field and checked my equipment to make sure I hadn’t dropped anything in the undergrowth!
Reviewing the results back home I was delighted to have been able to adapt my approach given the circumstances whilst still capturing a series of images that maintain the feeling and effect of a thick and broad carpet of bright red flowers against deep green foliage.
I hope you enjoy the pictures, Adam.
