Natasha and Zach, in all our planning over Zoom (the new norm), presented me with a new idea that I was immediately all in on: Natasha had found a farm with rolling fields of sunflowers! I’ve shot in botanical gardens in Spring, and lavender fields in Summer, but a sunflower field was the perfect spot for an early Fall engagement session!
With weather that made the day look like a vibrant painting, Zach and Natasha explored the paths cut through the countless sunflowers, before stopping by the barn which was just beginning to prep for a pumpkin patch opening later in the week. As the sun set on the Fredericksburg farm, I even caught a few Polaroids of the newly engaged and very upbeat couple!
While marching through the endless sunflowers, I was surprised to find that none of the sunflowers were facing the sunset; this threw me off, because I remember being fascinated as a child by how the sunflowers in my parent’s garden would rotate through the day to follow the sun (and by how tall they were above me). Not only was I taller than all the sunflowers today, but these sunflowers weren’t rotating - I’ve learned since this shoot that only young sunflowers follow the sun due to a circadian rhythm that helps young flowers develop, but isn’t needed once reaching maturity. This tracks with my experience, because my childhood garden’s sunflowers were grown from seeds, and the stationary flowers at this farm are either many years or generations old, depending on the variety.
