This is Corinna's flower-power portrait session, photographed by Acromatico in a large sunflower field on the outskirts of Milan, Italy. Despite overcast skies that kept the sunflowers from fully blooming, the team committed to its plan to shoot the field rain or shine, and loved the dramatic skies that resulted.
We headed out with Corinna to a huge sunflower field in the outskirts of Milan with one mission: shoot rain or shine. It started raining on the way, and by the time we got close there was zero rain and zero sun. That is the trouble with sunflowers — when the sun is out they are happy and bloomed, and when it hides they look sad and depressed. We decided to make the best of it and accomplished what we set out to do.
Even though the sun stayed away, we absolutely loved the skies that day. The mosquitoes chewed us alive once again, but we survived, and it was worth every bite and all the sticky heat. These are some of our favorites from this hippie, flower-power session with Corinna.
“Definitely was worth all the mosquito bites and sticky heat.”
Good to know
Milan is the capital of the Lombardy region in northern Italy. Beyond the city center, the surrounding countryside of the Po Valley — one of Italy's most productive agricultural plains — gives way to open farmland where sunflower fields bloom in the summer months. These fields sit a short drive from the city, making them an accessible setting for portrait sessions while still feeling far removed from Milan's urban core.
Sunflowers are at their most photogenic when they are fully open, which happens on bright, sunny days — the blooms track and face the sun. On overcast days the heads tend to droop, so timing a shoot around clear weather and the peak summer bloom (typically high summer) gives the strongest results. That said, dramatic cloud cover can make for striking skies, as it did here. Summer in the Po Valley also brings heat, humidity, and mosquitoes, so it is worth dressing for the conditions.
