Prairie wildflowers present photography opportunities

One of the biggest joys of spring and summer on the Prairies is the profusion of wildflowers. They make the ideal subject for photography because they are usually close at hand, and the riot of colour is irresistible. The best part is that we can experiment with different photographic techniques and create our own artistic spin. Cloudy or overcast days are just what we need in some cases. A wildflower meadow in full sunlight may be fine if we’re looking at a grand scene that includes the meadow, hills, and sky. However, direct sunlight is often too harsh to capture enough close-up details, especially delicate plants with white or light-coloured petals. Clouds act as giant diffusers, smoothing out the highlights and deep shadows to reveal more detail. On a sunny day, photographing in either early morning or evening helps avoid the harshest light. Another trick for close-up photos is to stand between the sun and the flower so your shadow shades the area that you’re photographing. Or use an umbrella to create a wider shade area. Showing the setting where the flowers grow adds interest to the photo and gives it a sense of place. But sometimes the background is messy or overly complicated and may be distracting. In that case, try to eliminate or at least simplify the background. One way to do this is to get low to the ground so that most of the background is sky. The most common way to simplify the background is to use a wide aperture on your lens (a small f-stop number such as f/2.8 or f/4), which results in a shallow depth of field. The flower will be sharp but the background will be thrown out of focus, making the flower stand out. This effect becomes even more pronounced with a telephoto lens.