I’m so pleased to tell that this photograph named ‘Stream of light’ was awarded Highly Commended in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020 (WPY 56) competition. The category is Plants and Fungi.
I find little, slowly flowing forest streams fascinating places to capture creative photographs even out of the quite common object. When utilizing the water movements and reflecting sunlight as a background, photograph may reveal hidden shapes, which are not detectable to the naked eye. In the Southern Finland, perennial marsh-marigold (also known as kingcup; in Finnish rentukka) plants start to flower in May, typically in the different kind of wetlands.
This duo of marsh-marigold flowers was growing by a stream that is flowing through an old and shady Norway spruce forest where sunlight reaches the ground level only occasionally. In the late afternoon, sunbeams illuminated faintly the stream through forest canopy while a light breeze moved the water surface every once in a while. By shooting towards the reflecting sunlight from stream surface I gained after several attempts the desired wavy background with light effects for these flowers.
Cheers!