More Sunflowers at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area

What can I say – other than I recently spent another fantastic morning at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville, Maryland. Regular reader of this blog know that McKee-Beshers WMA is where photographers and other sunflower lovers can be found in Montgomery County Maryland in mid-July. Each year, the county plants at least one field full of sunflowers. They plant them as part of their wildlife management plan – and while we love the sunflowers in July – let’s just say the sunflower lovers go into complete denial about what will be happening out there later in the year.

As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago – this year’s sunflowers were much shorter than ones growing in the same field a few years ago. The shorter flowers provided me with some great photo opportunities I haven’t had in the past – and I didn’t need to bring the stepladder with me that I’d been planning on bringing.

On this visit, I spent most of my time photographing in the open shade at the far end of the sunflower field. I was there on a Sunday morning with several other members of the DC Area Flower Safari Meetup Group and there were lots (and lots) of other photographers out that morning. So we heading out further than I usually do. Since we were photographing in open shade we didn’t have to deal with the intense yellows in the sunflowers that often make photographing them in the bright sunlight a challenge. It was also a bit cooler than in the direct sun – so we were able to photograph for close to two full hours that morning.

Most of the photos I took were detail shots of individual sunflowers. I’ve been out to McKee Beshers often enough that I’ve taken lots of photos of the whole field.

For just a few moments this one sunflower with lit brilliantly by the sun. The photos I took a few second before and a few seconds after this one are nice photos of a sunflower. To me – this one captures the wonders of the field on a bright day – golden light on a bright cheery flower!

In this next photo I was fascinated by the patterns and textures in the center of the sunflower. I love the way the unformed seeds are so tightly packed and compressed in the center. It’s hard to believe that in not too long of a time the center of this flower will be full of sunflower seeds that the birds can’t wait to eat!

As always, there were lots of bees in the sunflower fields. Since we were there at 7 AM, many of the bees were still sleeping on or at least not moving from the sunflowers they were perched on. This bee stayed in the same spot long enough for several of us to photograph it before it flew off.

This year, the rows of sunflowers were planted perpendicular to the way they’ve been planted in previous years. With the sunflowers arranged this way – I spent more time looking (and photographing) the backs of some of the plants than I have in the past. I really like the way the hairy texture of the green leaves contrasts with the smooth yellow petals.

For the first time, I photographed sunflowers that were just starting to bloom. I really liked the way the petals were to unfold.

I hope you enjoy this year’s photos. If you’re in the DC area – I hope you’ll join me at one of the DC Area Flower Safari Meetup events. Our next one is at Kenilworth Gardens on July 30 – and I’m sure we’ll head back to the sunflower fields at McKee Beshers WMA next July.