Thank you to all who joined us on September 9th, 2021 at the Swan Island Dahlia Fields!

In the fields we played around with lens balls, hand-held LED lights, reflectors and extension tubes. We brought along a few macro lenses for our attendees to play with as well.

(Above) These photos were taken with the Sony 90mm f/2.8 G OSS lens.

Shutter speeds quickly dropped below 1/100th of a second, but the golden light was well-worth the inconvenience. Our attendees opted to use monopods and tripods to capture crisp shots of the dahlias. As we scheduled the walk later in the day, the light was fading quickly, but we were the only ones on site with free rein of the entire field.

The Swan Island Dahlia Farm has been in business for over 93 years. They are the largest and leading dahlia grower in the United States. Their farm was originally located in Portland, Oregon, with some buildings on Swan Island, which is where the farm’s name was derived from. In the mid-40s, the Swan Island Dahlia Farm was moved to Canby, Oregon.

Lens balls are a popular subject for flower fields. Manual focusing your lens will provide the sharpest shots.

Our attendees were shooting with everything from Canon Rebel T6s to Nikon Z7s, and even Sony A6100s.

Want to attend an in-person workshop with us? Or learn how to improve your photography skills? Visit our Eventbrite page here. There are free webinars, workshops and classes you can attend in-person!