One of our Summer To-Do List items was to take photos in a sunflower field. Our area is littered with sunflower fields and it is a sight to behold for a few weeks every June. The fields look like glittering, swaying miles of gold as far as the eye can see. The fields are grown for sunflower oil so the flowers bloom and look amazing for about 2 -3 weeks before they die and brown. They are left to brown in the sun for another few weeks before being harvested and pressed for oil.

I scoped out the perfect spot not far from the military base and we headed out with a few friends last Sunday.

The spot I picked was actually the driveway to someone’s Cortijo, or Spanish farmstead. We hoped they wouldn’t notice we were “trespassing” since their driveway is so long but halfway through our photo shoot we saw two cars approaching and started getting nervous. We weren’t hurting their sunflowers and had parked along the side of their road but were still a little wary nonetheless. One car stopped and rolled down their window and I attempted, in my mediocre conversational Spanish, to explain what we were doing, all dressed up on their property. The man driving understood my broken Spanish and was so nice. He even asked if we wanted him to get out to take a group photo of all of us.

The sky was perfect, the heat had subsided and we took dozens of photos of each family. Tripp and his buddy, Tyler had a great time running along the road and throwing rocks.

We got some great shots of our friends Tim and Steph and their son.

We also got some great ones of our friends Rich and Meagan. Aren’t they adorable?

A few of my favorite shots, I can’t wait to get them printed and framed for the house.

I’m so glad we took the photos last weekend because on my drive to base today I noticed the sunflowers are starting to wilt and droop. Nothing like perfect timing.