Anyway, to business. This first one is far and away my favorite from either morning. It is the interior of a chicory flower, just beginning to open, with morning sunlight shafting through it. It took me a couple of attempts to find a flower facing the right way - I could not get this shot from flowers directly facing the sun, because I would have to get directly in front of the flower, thus blocking the low-angled sunlight (this was just a few minutes after sunrise). Since it was such a warm morning, the chicory flowers began opening very quickly, much to my benefit.
This next one is from the second morning - on a previous morning, I had done a bit of scouting and noticed that there was some early lighting in a more interior part of the park where there were some aster plants. This was one of my favorites. I used my flash, albeit dialed down to its lowest intensity (although it still made a big difference). This shot was essentially backlit, and without flash the flowers were too dark, almost silhouettes, which was definitely not what I wanted.
It needs some work - the white balance is a bit too warm, I think, and the flowers could use some additional lightening. But it's a good start, I think, and the editing fixes definitely doable.
Here is a closeup from the same spot. I used a narrower aperture than I usually do for closeups - f/14. I did this to get some definition in the dew droplets on the petals while still being able to focus on the flower head. At wider apertures, the dew drops (especially the brighter ones) would have just been splotches.
Next, inspired by my thistle pictures, I decided to try other subjects against the sunrise, again still trying to keep color definition (i.e. not a true silhouette). This was the best. Although it is harder to tell at this small size, there is some definition in the flower. Editing could bring this out further. This picture was from the first morning; I tried to take another on the second, but when I got home I saw that a stem had been in the way and blocked part of the flower...rats!
This backlit chicory flower turned out pretty nicely; some contrast adjustments would certainly be in order, as would color adjustments (the flower looked a bit bluer than this). In general, though, it's okay.
Next, a Queen Anne's lace with sunlight coming from behind it. I don't like the light splotch in the bottom left; otherwise, it's not bad. An aperture of 6.3 made the flower fade out of focus into the background more gradually than a wider aperture would have, giving a better feeling of depth in this case.
Finally, an experimental picture I took with a chicory flower very close up against the sunrise. I don't think it's very compelling (which is why it's last), but I thought I'd show you anyway.
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