Early summer red
- 📍 Location: Les Petites Rivières, Le Vésinet, Yvelines, France
- 📅 Date: 2021
Poppies and cornflowers had taken a strip of unmown meadow, and the sun was coming through them almost horizontally from behind the trees. Backlight is what makes a poppy worth photographing: lit from the front it is a red spot, lit from behind it becomes a translucent lantern.
I worked from knee height with a long lens wide open, so the nearest flowers stand sharp against a wash of gold and green. The soft background is not decoration: it is what lets six or seven blooms stand out from a field containing hundreds.
I let a little haze into the frame rather than shading the lens. It lifts the blacks, mutes the contrast and gives the whole picture the slightly washed warmth that early summer evenings actually have, instead of the clean saturated version we are used to seeing.
This is a small triangle of grass between a path and a row of houses. Every year someone decides not to mow it until July, and every year it becomes briefly extraordinary. I find that quietly moving, and it is the reason I keep photographing places nobody travels to.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
