BACKLIT THISTLES

The vacant fields in our greater neighborhood are blessed with a large population of thistles.  Yup, thistles, as in weeds.  These things are huge, some seven or eight feet tall.  The other day I noted that a number of the thistles were being backlit by the morning sun and got the following.

In this shot I wanted to isolate the line of thistles from the background, so I set my aperture at f/4.  As a result, not all the thistles were in good focus, but I thought that overall the shot worked.  I also liked the mixture of new and old thistles.

Later in the day I noted that the afternoon sun was again backlighting a different set of thistles in another field.  This time I focused on individual plants, as in the following shots.

What I found that I liked were the bilateral horizontal "leaves," as shown in the following shots.

These perhaps could have been a bit crisper if I had used a tripod, but I was just too lazy and took these handheld.

John