It’s been a windy day but I was determined to do some flower photography today, perfect time to test my new wind box. But my first target was the marsh marigold in a spot which is surrounded by forest and thus less susceptible to the gusts, so I left the windbox in the car (it would be too small for the tall flowers anyway). I didn’t have any ideas what to do with the flowers so I just walked around, waiting for something to catch my eye. The marsh marigold always blooms late in this somewhat shaded spot, so there were still a lot of buds around and in the end it’s the buds that inspired me.

The problem with the marsh marigold is that the leaves are almost always bug-eaten and even when you find some which are nice, you have to deal with a lot of glare. So I put on the polariser which I almost never use with flowers (it kills so much light that I can’t afford it when there’s a slightest bit of wind) and it actually worked pretty well to cut the glare. But then as I was working on different compositions, the sky became covered with clouds so I had to lose the filter in order to keep my shutter speeds at reasonable levels. I’ve posted the second picture to illustrate the grey sheen of glare, it’s a matter of opinion if it distracts or not.

It seemed like it just kept getting darker. I had a few other ideas what to shoot, but I felt my inspiration disappear along with the light. I normally prefer overcast weather for shooting flowers, but I guess the wind was too much for me, windbox or not. But the good thing about a hobby is that you can also choose not to do it, so I turned back home, no regrets!