I was quite excited when I saw the subject for this week of the @Qurator Photo Contest because sunflowers are one of my favourite flowers.

I remember that, as a kid, I often tried to grow these in our backyard. It was always exciting whether mine or the one of my sister became the biggest.

Later on when I began travelling I started to associate sunflowers with holidays. Especially during the summer trips to France, the sunflower fields were always there. But also in Italy they have quite a bunch of them. I still get enthusiastic when we drive past a giant yellow field of these beautiful flowers.

This is my entry for the Qurator Photo Quest:



When I was looking through my photo archive I was surprised I didn't have more pictures of these fields. I have come across hundreds of fields in the years, but I assume I've seen most of them while driving in a car.
I did remember shooting the photo below. That was during a bicycle ride I made in the Vosges in France. I was caught in a thunderstorm during one of my rides and I was soaked. When I almost was back at the campsite the sun tried to break through the clouds and I passed this field of sunflowers which stood there straight up on the side of the road.
It's so funny that they always are facing the same direction.

But also up close they are very nice. With the following photo I tried to create the negative space effect by isolating a single sunflower against a sky full of clouds.
It would have been better with a clear blue sky, but you have to deal with the conditions.